Zimbabwe Information Center in North America
A project of the North American Coalition for a Free Zimbabwe (NACFREEZ)
By Stanford G. Mukasa
Letter from America
November 19, 2007
MDC
Opposition movement must build a vision and roadmap for a post Mugabe Zimbabwe
A think tank has recommended that the United States must shift its policy toward helping in the reconstruction of the post -Mugabe Zimbabwe.
However, some people may feel all resources and all the focus must be concentrated on defeating Robert Mugabe and his regime and then dealing with reconstruction issues later.
But there is a historical precedent as well as a good reason to start working now on a long-term plan in reviving Zimbabwe’s tattered economy.
Zimbabwe has the natural resources and the industrial base to help it recover from years of mishandling by the Mugabe regime.
Zimbabwe also has human resources, albeit, now scattered all over the world, that could be mobilized to restore the economy to its leading position in the geopolitics of southern Africa.
The tragedy in the history of the anti- colonial struggles in Africa was that the nationalist leadership was too focused on gaining political independence that they never developed a real vision for a post- colonial robust economic development program.
And when independence came the new post- colonial leadership in Africa merely inherited and perpetuated the colonial infrastructure, social and political systems that in many situations effectively marginalized the vast majority of masses on whose behalf the very struggle for independence had ostensibly been fought.
One big lesson Zimbabweans and indeed the international community must have learned is that it makes a great deal of sense to ensure that when independence is obtained the nation must hit the ground running.
When Zimbabwe obtained her independence in 1980 there were hopes and assumptions that the country had been prepared well for self rule. Indeed Zimbabwe had, unlike many other African countries at the time of indepednence, a large pool of skilled professionals.
Ironically, the delay in gaining independence, over 20 years after Ghana gained hers in 1957, meant Zimbabwe had more time to learn from the experience of post- colonial rule in Africa.
And during the first ten years of Zimbabwe’s independence it looked like the country had had a steady progress, earning it the name, the bread basket of the region.
But 20 years after independence Zimbabwe began to show signs of the social, economic and political strain that characterized the vast majority of post-colonial African countries. The situation further worsened after the year 2000 when Mugabe entrenched his rule, a situation that prevails to this day.
As the year 2007 comes to an end the opposition movement in Zimbabwe faces challenges and opportunities in the coming year.
During a visit to the United States a few years ago a member of the opposition movement was asked the question: If Mugabe were to step down today and power handed over to the opposition movement, would you be able to govern the country?”
Putting aside the motives, assumptions and naiveté behind the individual who raised this question, there is no doubt that an international inquiry into what plans or vision the MDC has for Zimbabwe, should it become the next government of Zimbabwe, is a valid challenge for the opposition movement.
To its credit, the MDC has drawn up a number of plans for a post -Mugabe reconstruction of Zimbabwe. These plans are based on the assumptions of the prevailing economic and political conditions and the expected time frame within which Mugabe and ZANUPF would hand over political power. But this time frame is very difficult to determine because Mugabe and ZANUPF are determined to hang on to power all at costs and for as long as it takes.
However, there is one aspect of the MDC vision and plans for a post -Mugabe Zimbabwe that needs not be based on when Mugabe and ZANUPF will give up power.
MDC must begin immediately or continue to make an assessment of its manpower and resource needs for it to govern Zimbabwe.
The transition from a Mugabe regime to a new regime can potentially be traumatic, especially for the very rich Zimbabweans who benefited from Mugabe’s tyrannical rule. Every effort will be made by Mugabe’s super rich cronies to hang on to their ill -begotten wealth by frustrating any efforts to transform the country towards a new geopolitical dispensation.
Phase One of the MDC master plan for the reconstruction of the post- Mugabe Zimbabwe must be a comprehensive inventory of the country’s manpower and resource needs.
MDC must have full and complete information about who occupies what positions in the state system and civil service. Next, the MDC must assess the level of risk associated with the role the very same individual could play in the post -Mugabe Zimbabwe.
The idea here is not to embark on a wholesale purge of the civil service but to ensure that when change comes the new government will have individuals who will not only carry out, but are capable, professionally, of carrying out the needed reforms.
An inventory of the training and educational needs of the country must also be undertaken. Under normal circumstances the handover of political power would be accompanied by a civil service that recognizes its new mission under a new administration.
But nothing is normal in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe regime. While, undoubtedly, the majority in the civil service will be committed and enthusiastically support a new regime and a new direction in the country, there will be disgruntled elements who, having benefited from the past, will do everything to sustain their privileged positions.
The United States, Canada and the European Community member countries have pledged aid for the reconstruction of the post -Mugabe Zimbabwe. Under the Zimbabwe Development and Reconstruction Act the United States has pledged up to $26 million to help Zimbabwe get to her feet.
The opposition movement needs to come up with a phased plan that will include a training program for Zimbabwean nationals who will be expected to help in the reconstruction and running of a post -Mugabe Zimbabwe.
In 1967 the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 2349 which established the United Nations Educational and Training Program for Southern Africa or (UNETPSA).
The purpose of this program was to train nationals from the countries of southern Africa who were still under the yoke of colonialism and apartheid. These nationals were to be enrolled in training institutions around the world.
The aim was to have a critical mass of trained professionals who would be placed in strategic positions within the civil service and government in the post-colonial and post-apartheid southern Africa.
Undoubtedly, countries of southern Africa benefited significantly from this program when they gained independence.
With the possible exception of teachers, there were no significantly critical shortages of personnel needed for the civil service in Zimbabwe. This was partly because a large cohort of the existing civil service that transitioned from the Ian Smith regime was willing and ready to be part of the new post-colonial, political and social order. They contributed their expertise in the running of the new state system. Admittedly, they were encouraged to stay and benefited from the political settlement that came from negotiations.
Whatever the outcome of the ongoing negotiations between the MDC and ZANUPF the opposition movement needs to embark on putting together a blueprint of its manpower resource needs, especially by tapping into the Zimbabweans in Diaspora. A lot of skilled professionals, academic, university professors, teachers, accountants, economists, administrators, doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers, journalists, sociologists, historians, information technology experts and scientists have fled Zimbabwe. In their place, Mugabe has staffed these positions with excombatants, soldiers, cronies and thugs, many of whom will not have the qualifications and motivation to promote a post -Mugabe regime that will have a different vision to that of Mugabe.
The Zimbabweans in Diaspora are helping millions of starving Zimbabweans. It is estimated that they remit between $1 million and $3 million a day to their relatives in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabweans in Diaspora are the second highest foreign income earner for Zimbabwe. But the Zimbabweans in Diaspora are more than cash cows for the desperate Zimbabweans at home. They have the expertise and professional skills needed to run the post -Mugabe Zimbabwe. While the vast majority of the Zimbabweans in Diaspora are doing menial jobs, even when they have professional skills, there are many other Zimbabweans who are practicing their professions abroad.
A good example are the staff at Short Wave Radio Africa and Studio 7.
Their daily broadcasts into Zimbabwe have come to epitomize best practices in professional broadcast journalism. Yet other professional Zimbabweans work in local municipal governments, hospitals as doctors and nurses, at universities as professors, as well as in other management, business, and scientific technical institutions. One Zimbabwean is employed as a senior advisor to the mayor of a large metropolitan city here in the USA.
MDC needs to work with donor agencies in identifying and assisting with scholarships Zimbabweans who can be placed in training institutions for skills that will be urgently needed to jump-start the post -Mugabe regime.
Such a new order in Zimbabwe can never rely on the rag tag band of mercenaries, thugs and veterans who are currently occupying some of the positions in the civil service when they should be behind bars for crimes against humanity.
However, unless the opposition movement begins such a training program as well as identify the skilled and professional Zimbabweans in Diaspora who might be willing, subject to mutually acceptable conditions, to return home at a moment’s notice, the new post -Mugabe regime might have to rely on the same thugs and cronies of Mugabe for staffing some of the civil service positions.
To make matters worse, the new regime after Mugabe might find itself relying for its civil service on some of the very same people who have driven Zimbabwe to the ground. Bad governance in Zimbabwe and the subsequent ruination of the country’s economic and social infrastructure cannot be attributed to Mugabe alone but to his butchers’ helpers manning the strategic positions in government as well as in civil service.
Some members of the civil service might in mitigation argue that their roles were to carry out orders from above. This may be true, but only to some extent. A British TV series called Yes, Minister, while giving a British experience of the role and influence of the civil servants especially permanent secretaries, gave at the same time a revealing insight into the potential influence of permanent secretaries in many administrations.
The fact is Mugabe alone cannot have possibly wreaked so much havoc on Zimbabwe without the enthusiastic support and active participation of his cronies in the civil service.
A professional civil service will need to function in an environment of an empowered civil society. The basic element of a civil society are a respect for the rule of law and well organized and politically active civil society institutions like trade unions, youth, student and women’s movement, church groups and others. These will form the pillar of a public watchdog movement against excesses, undemocratic practices as well as corruption in government.
The opposition movement must ensure that these institutions are a well oiled machinery that are up and functioning especially in the struggle against the dictatorship of Mugabe.
When the world of Mugabe and ZANUPF ends, whenever that will be, the people of Zimbabwe will expect a real sociopolitical structural change and not just a superimposition of a new leadership over the oppressive structures established by Mugabe.