CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Mike Mwale, Zimbabwe, December 1998
THEME = POLITICS
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was
once regarded
as a freedom fighter and the voice of the oppressed people of the
Third World -
an image he tried to live up to as the chairman of the
Non-Aligned Movement
There used to be a well-trodden path leading to Mugabe's residence. Well-trodden because of the endless traffic of the world's prominent political and business personalities who sought his advice or favour, or merely to make his acquaintance.
His subjects once feared and respected him; ascribing to him the divine qualities of omniscience and omnipotence. His rallies were always filled to capacity and his speeches received rapturous cheers.
Mugabe knew what the people wanted and wasted no time in raising their expectations through promises. The people saw him as their saviour and were content with leaving their destiny in his hands, believing he would lead them to the promised land.
Even the workers once saw him as their comrade-in-arms in their struggle to create a classless society based on the communist principle: "From each according to his ability - to each according to his needs". Mugabe used to attend their May Day celebrations which he brightened up with his fiery communist rhetoric and diatribe against "stingy and heartless capitalists" - to the wild applause of the workers. But the comradeship fell apart when they realised that his words and deeds were contradictory.
He did his best to look and behave like a communist. He wore a Comrade Mao-style suit. He made education free at primary school level. He made health services free. He controlled prices, keeping them very low. He set salary levels. He gave workers more say at work-places and established laws which made it difficult for employers to fire their workers.
Mugabe also introduced socialist-style five-year national economic plans and socialist-style slogans. He attached a slogan to each year. There was the "Year of the People's Power", the "Year for the Consolidation of Peoples Power," the "Year for National Transformation", and so on.
Even party structures were not spared the communist brush, and so there was the Politburo and the Central Committee.
But he changed all that, except for the party structures, when everything backfired. He could not pay the teachers. Hospitals were without drugs. Goods were becoming scarce in the shops. Employers were closing down their businesses because of both viability problems and labour indiscipline and hostility. His government was getting broke because of low revenue and high expenditure, and an economy which was more consumptive and less productive.
He had no choice but to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help. The IMF told him to introduce the unpopular ESAP (Economic Structural Adjustment Programme) in order to turn the economy around.
Mugabe knows how to exploit fear. Those who choose to hate him, face the rage of his secret police, whose operations and budget allocations and expenditures cannot be revealed or discussed even in parliament. It is this fear of him that has made it virtually impossible for a formidable opposition to exist in the country.
Whenever a promising new party is formed, rumour that a certain member of the new party is an informer of the secret police, the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), sends the other members running for their lives and leaving the party to die a premature death.
No one wants to risk his job, his company or his life and the future of his children, by being seen to be associating with an opposition party. For those who are not happy with ZANU -PF but at the same time do not want to be seen to be working against it, the safest personality to assume is that of "an independent". Hence there are independent Members of Parliament, independent municipal councillors and independent rural councillors.
Mugabe controls his country's parliament, deciding who should be a parliamentarian and who should not, and reduces it to rubber stamp status. He also appoints those in charge of his country's electoral commission. Even for the electorate, the grassroots, it is dangerous to be seen to entertain opinions similar to those of an opposition party. One can lose one's property. One has to have a ZANU-PF party card and attend party meetings every Sunday thereby, making it impossible for one to go to church. Even if they come to take your daughter to an imagined meeting at night, you have to let her go. It is dangerous to say no. Evil things are being committed in the name of the party, and the criminals cannot be taken to court.
Those who are found to be members of an opposition party, have to taste the bitter medicine dispensed by the CIO, as one veteran politician, Godfrey Mumbamarwo, puts it. "The measures ranged from primitive methods such as torture, to more covert and sophisticated ones such as financial impoverishment. This can be done by secretly putting you out of business.
The CIO's task was initially made easier by the existence of the state of emergency which the government inherited from the Ian Smith government in 1980. It took intense pressure by human rights movements, most notably the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe for the government to abolish it ten years later. The state of emergency legalized extra-judicial arrest and the detention of any persons perceived to be a threat to state security.
The wealthy, most of whom are whites, have made efforts to cultivate the image that they are supporters of the ZANU-PF government. They have contributed generously towards the cost of constructing of the posh eleven-storey ZANU (PF) headquarters in Harare. They have wined and dined with the ZANU-PF top brass at several dinner dances. They launched the Republican Trophy, a horse-racing tournament aimed at raising money for the President's Fund.
It is a common practice among the whites, to take as partners in their businesses, people related to cabinet ministers so that their companies can get special favours and treatment from the government.
Instances of people trying to win business favours by claiming to be related to Mugabe are also common. In one case, the "relation" even produced a photo of his wedding which Mugabe attended. He got the deal but it turned out to be a raw deal for the victims.
Even the introvert Indian community has not wanted to be seen to be attracting suspicions as to their questionable allegiance to the government. It had always donated graciously to ZANU-(PF).
Mugabe has also set out to boost his image internationally. This he seems to have achieved with flying colours, for he managed to avoid international censure for the human rights violations he committed in the 1980s, most notably, the massacre of people in Matabeleland.
He seeks to control foreign diplomats accredited to his country so that they see and hear only what he wants them to see and hear. He doesn't allow them to have anything to do with anyone whom he doesn't approve of. He tells them where to go and where they can't go. He sets down conditions for conducting their duties in the country. Foreign journalists also suffer the same restrictions. They can't travel without escort.
These oppressive strategies have enabled Mugabe to survive politically, assuring him of victory over his rivals and keeping the people in check.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement