Zimbabwe on Edge
The historic elections of March 29th have given the people of Zimbabwe hope that after 28 years of ruinous rule by Robert Mugabe, a new government that attends to citizens' needs will emerge.
Zimbabwe is on edge. It is on edge because more than a week after a largely peaceful election, presidential results have not yet been released. Ironically, the longer the results are withheld, the clearer it is that not only are unscrupulous things happening behind the scenes, but that the results contain an embarrassing and unexpected outcome. So the nation waits and with each passing hour we teeter on the brink of utter chaos.
Zimbabweans are on edge because maybe, just maybe, the crisis of sorts that has riddled the nation could very well be over. The hunger, poverty, displacement, and disenfranchisement could all end. And that hope, that glimmer of an end, is all the more reason to be on edge because the status quo is beyond untenable.
How did we get here? President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF miscalculated and they miscalculated badly.
First, they misjudged when they assumed that the legislative concessions they granted in the Mbeki mediated pre-election talks would not come back to haunt them. Prior to the elections, Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, agreed to curtail the despotic extremes of three pieces of legislation: the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and the Electoral Act (EA).
AIPPA was amended to make it easier for foreign journalists and Zimbabweans working for foreign entities to operate. The change to POSA — that political parties only had to notify the police as opposed to request their sanction before the held rallies — proved to be pivotal in the MDC’s ability to broadcast their message.
The EA changed in two important ways that proved to be ZANU-PF’s unraveling. First, the act created an autonomous electoral commission — the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Not only was ZEC created, but many brave Zimbabweans who served the commission disposed of their mission impartially and stood up to ZANU-PF in keeping with their constitutional mandate, something for which they are now being persecuted. Further, changes to the EA compelled that results from each polling station be posted publicly as soon as they had been counted.
Second, ZANU-PF grossly underestimated the opposition’s ability to get organized and offer stiff competition. The MDC mobilized a campaign that featured candidates in most of the contested council, parliamentary, and senate seats nationwide and, of course, Tsvangirai — the bane of Mugabe’s despotism. They were also able to deploy a massive amount of polling officers to over 9,000 polling stations, They not only observed the process, but vitally recorded and archived the results before relaying them back to party’s central command. This made cheating very difficult and is the reason the MDC beat ZEC to the ball when it came time to announce results.
But third and most importantly, ZANU-PF underestimated the people’s discontent with the party. They expected the Zimbabwean people to carry their load one too many times. They relied on their decade-old denigration of the opposition as stooges of the west just a little too much. And all of a sudden, the very people whose subjugation ZANU had come to expect turned their backs on the party, leaving them exposed. ZANU has no one else to blame for this but themselves. The MDC has persistently increased their electoral winnings each time they have contested an election. ZANU’s strategists should have paid this widely apparent trend more attention, but they didn’t.
So here we are.
Now, the elections held on the 29th of March will long be remembered as the most definitive signal yet that the nation is ready for an end to Mugabe’s 28 year reign over the southern-African country. By their vote, Zimbabweans directly applied themselves to a politics of change. Zimbabweans want a change in leadership and an end to the poverty and scarcity that have ravaged their lives over the last decade. This much has been chronicled in the mainstream news, on blogs, and in other citizen-based outlets.
Yet Zimbabweans did more.
While journalists, bloggers, and activists chronicled the dilemma of a nation that voted for the politics of change, the more significant undercurrent — that of Zimbabweans voting for a change in Zimbabwean politics — seems to have been lost in the furor. There is a difference between a politics of change and a change of politics. In the former, dissatisfied voters elect candidates they hope will transform prevailing circumstances. These voters look to new politicians and hope politics will change their situation. The meteoric rise of Barack Obama, the once unheralded rookie senator from Illinois in the USA, is a case in point of this phenomenon.
A change of politics on the other hand, is a wholesome transformation of the political machinery itself. The very rules and expectations of the game are fundamentally changed in this scenario. Politics is revised to match the situation in a new way. Zimbabweans did both; they not only voted for a change in the prevailing politics by electing the MDC to power, they most importantly passed a referendum to change the country’s politics.
The message was sent loud and clear that no longer are Zimbabweans going to blindly follow the politics of personality cults. Unlike what the pundits had pontificated, Zimbabweans displayed their political autonomy by electing officials they thought best served citizen interests. This is not a mundane occurrence. It is, in fact, the core of the change in politics that happened in Zimbabwe. People showed that they are no longer going to tolerate politicians that only show up in their constituencies during the election season while confining themselves to the hallways of power in Harare the rest of the time. They picked people whose rhetoric matched their reality and with that ushered in the dawn of a new Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean politicians and purveyors of western democracy be warned: in this great nation your most innovative ideas will come to naught if they do not address the mundane reality confronting Zimbabweans. Ask ZANU-PF. They are still reeling in shock. While you’re at it, warn the MDC that they are in the twilight now and will meet the same fate if they fall asleep on the job.
Zimpundit is a passionate Zimbabwean oft distraught at the predicament Zimbabwe is in. Zimpundit’s writings on Zimbabwean politics have appeared at zimpundit.blogspot.com, enoughzimbabwe.org, and www.globalvoicesonline.org.
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7 Comments
1. scotchcart:People around the world are emailing and calling their representatives to convey to President Mwanawase and SADC their goodwill and support for a speedy resolution that is satisfactory to all Zimbabweans and her neighbours.
The full text from Sokwanele follows:
You might want to pass on the message from Sokwanele which I have pasted below. Remind people to be polite, brief and respectful. We don’t want to waste our efforts just to be binned. The email addresses and telephone numbers are below.
I would also suggest email Aus’s Foreign Affairs to ask them to pass on messages to their ambassadors/HC accredited to SADC and Zambia.
TAKE ACTION
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has called an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss the Zimbabwean presidential poll delay. This is the first move by Zimbabwe’s regional neighbours to intervene since the elections on 29th March 2008. President Mwanawasa is the current Chairman of the 14-nation South African Development Community. This is what he said yesterday:
I wish to take this opportunity to commend the people of Zimbabwe for the calm and peaceful manner in which the elections were conducted.
Similarly, I appeal to them to maintain the same spirit of calmness which they exhibited during the elections as they await the results of the presidential elections.
However, given developments immediately following the elections, I have decided, as Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to call an extraordinary summit on Saturday 12th April, 2008 to discuss ways and means of assisting the people of Zimbabwe with the current impasse as well as adopt a co-ordinated approach to the situation in that country.
Both President Morgan Tsvangirai and opposition leader Robert Mugabe will be attending the emergency meeting.
Support our democratically elected leader and take action.
What YOU can do
You can voice your feelings and SHOUT OUT for FREEDOM. Communicate with key SADC people attending the meeting.
Tell them that Zimbabweans have the right to live in a democratic, free and peaceful country. Tell them your personal experiences and why you want change. Make them understand what it is like to be in Zimbabwe today. Tell them we voted for change, we got change, and we want change now. Speak the TRUTH.
HOW you can do it
Email, fax or phone using the details provided below. Keep your messages real and honest but also short and to the point. Remember: thousands of us will be doing this so they will have a lot to read. Let’s make sure they can read and hear it all!
Be polite at all times. People don’t pay attention to angry messages (look at us: Mugabe has been angry with the people for many years now and we just ignored him and voted him out anyway). Anger does not work.
1. Call or fax or email the Zambian State House with a message for President Levy Mwanawasa:
* Tel: +260 1 266147 or 262094
* Fax: +260 1 266092
* Send an email to Mr John Musukuma, Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations: johnmu@nkwazi.gov.zm
* Use the contact form on the Zambian State House website here to send an email:
http://www.statehouse.gov.zm/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3
* Bonus email: we’re not sure if this is a direct contact for President Mwanawasa, but just in case it is, copy all the emails you send to: differmu@nkwazi.gov.zm
2. Call or fax a message to President Thabo Mbeki - President of South Africa
* Tel: +27 (0)12 300 5200 and +27 (0)21 464 2100
* Fax: +27 (0)12 323 8246 and +27 (0)21 462 2838
* Send an email to Mr Mukoni Ratshitanga Thabo Mbeki’s Presidential Spokesperson: mukoni@po.gov.za
3. Call or email Lieutenant Colonel Tanki Mothae - Director of Politics, Defence and Security Affairs at SADC
* Tel: +267 361 1001 or +267 397 2848
* E-mail: tmothae@sadc.int
4. Copy all your emails to this general SADC email address:
* Email: registry@sadc.int
5. If you want to attach images to your emails, you can download copies of the photographs at the top of this mailing from the Sokwanele flickr account here:
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/sokwanele/
6. Forward this email to everyone you know and ask them to take action too.
7. Be positive, stay strong, and never forget that we have won.
Apr 10, 2008 - 11:42 pm 2. Zimbabwe » Zimbabwe on Edge:[...] Zimpundit wrote an interesting post today on Zimbabwe on EdgeHere’s a quick excerptZimbabwe is a nation desperate for change. The historic elections of March 29th have given the people hope that after 28 years of ruinous rule by Robert Mugabe, a new Zimbabwe will emerge with a government that attends to the needs of … [...]
Apr 11, 2008 - 1:36 am 3. MaE:i think it’s ironic this article mentions Barack Obama. because lest we forget history, it’s the politics of the left - Jimmy Carter specifically - that led Zimbabwe down this disastrous path. the politics of change often results in a change for the worst.
i hope for Zimbabwe’s sake, they do elect a “puppet of the west,” because the west has advanced in the last 28 years, and Zimbabwe has not. the west has a rule of law and follows it, the gov’t of Zimbabwe does not.
and it hasn’t escaped me that Jimmy Cater hasn’t mentioned anything about this election process.
Apr 11, 2008 - 6:27 am 4. Global Voices Online » Zimbabwe: Politics of change or change of politics?:[...] blogs for Pajama Media discussing the political situation in Zimbabwe: “While journalists, bloggers, and activists chronicled the dilemma of a nation that voted [...]
Apr 23, 2008 - 9:53 am 5. Global Voices amin´ny teny malagasy » Zimbaboe : Pôlitikan’ny fiovana sy Fiovan’ny pôlitika ?:[...] no manapariaka ao amin'ny blaogin'ny Pajama Media izay fijeriny ny toe-draharaha pôlitika any Zimbaboe : While journalists, bloggers, and activists chronicled the dilemma of a nation that [...]
Apr 24, 2008 - 2:55 am 6. Allan:I am an American Citizen that married a woman from Zimbabwe and we lived in the U.S.A. until 1992 when we decided to return to her country of origin, Zimbabwe.
Jan 2, 2009 - 12:35 am 7. L. Jone:After only 6 months we returned to America because of Mugabe’s tyranical rule! And that was 16 years ago, so I can’t even imagine how bad it is now.
Zimbabwe, the BreadBasket of Africa can’t even feed itself now! By killing the white farmers and running all the whites out of Zimbabwe they were left with no one with the basic skills needed for even minor repairs on the water system, electrical grid and telephone service.
Mugabe is a tyrant and truly believes that he owns Zimbabwe! It is such ashame to watch the regular people starve and for this country to go so far down so fast.
I fear south Africa is heading in the same direction. But, whats even scarier to me is I see the U.S.A. headed the same direction as well!
How many must die before the people of the world with the power to help us all decide to act? I fear never because like Mugabe, they will never miss a meal or even care about anyone, but themselves!
GOD BLESS US ALL,
Allan
It really must be hard for someone to live there. I have grown up and been raised in Washinton State, and I know that I am so blessed. I can’t imagine living somewhere where I can’t get food, or can’t speak out. Not that I do that much anyway, but I’m doing it now so… anyway, America is so blessed. Such a land of opportunity. I saw a video of people with machetees, hurting their fellow Zimbabwaen’s. No one in America would do that, and if they did, they would go to jail and stay there for a long time. The man they were hurting was minding his own business, driving along, when he was surounded. There was a cut on his head. All of us watching collectivly gasped. I never could have imagined a scene in my worst nightmare, but I don’t have to because it’s real.
Jan 20, 2009 - 5:24 pmEveryone out there who has a voice, please, speak up. Martin Luther King Jr. said something to the effect of, “A person’s life ends when they do not speak up about things that matter.” If that is true, and I am most certainly sure it is, than almost everyone on this earth is dead. What has the world come to?