The Sunday News
Dr Bongani Ngwenya
Preamble:
IT is indeed no doubt that the past political economy positioned Zimbabwe as an island with this thick barricade surrounding it in an attempt to keep at bay and wedge out the imagined and perceived forces of regime change and thoughts of recolonisation.
I remember at some point we even told the likes of the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair to keep his England while we keep our Zimbabwe, of which they gladly obliged as they had absolutely nothing politically to do with us anymore, but economically. We pulled out of the Commonwealth of Nations after the suspension. We had defeated them in the liberation struggle and had won our independence in 1980 for good. We continued as a nation in false hope and belief that we could survive in isolation and inward looking as a strategy for our economic development to no avail until the political turn of events of last year forced us to admit that enough was now enough. What happened, is in the past and we saw the ushering in of the new dispensation towards the end of last year.
The new political dispensation and political economy came with a burden of convincing the world that Zimbabwe is now open for business and that bygones are bygones. The world is slowly but surely getting convinced that Zimbabwe is indeed getting open for business. My worry, however, is the cautious approach that the world seems to be taking at the expense of the real transformation of the country’s economic development trajectory in line with the new found political economy.
I strongly believe that so much confidence in the new political dispensation has built up out there, obviously evidenced by the positive disposition and attitude towards the new Zimbabwe and its leadership that the world is showing, with the latest being the invitation to attend the Commonwealth gathering, albeit at a non-participatory capacity in the meantime.
It is very clear that it’s just a matter of time, Zimbabwe will soon be readmitted into the club. What is putting a pause in everything is the looming national elections scheduled for mid-year. It is my conviction that these elections should have been suspended, as in my opinion became irrelevant following the demise of the past political dispensation and its leadership. I don’t know, maybe it is because I am not a politician.
The impact of the current electioneering mood in the country:
I am just imagining how far the few months of a transitional authority could have taken us as a nation so far towards the real economic transformation of the country following the riddance of the past political dispensation. Yes, it may be too late to suspend the elections now. I am just throwing in this argument as food for thought, however, with a serious lamentation on the missed opportunity to really open Zimbabwe for business.
I am imagining on this very independence celebration day as I am writing this article, the practical and real economic investment outcomes, not pledges the transitional authority could be counting today. This is not to take anything away the effort of the new Government and its leadership so far to change the economic fortunes of the country for the better and re-engage the international community.
The electioneering mood that has engulfed the country with both the ruling party and the opposition parties squaring on each other is overshadowing the “Zimbabwe is now open for business” mantra, the “economy, economy” mantra, the “Zimbabwe will not be the same again” mantra. All the attention is shifting towards the elections, though so far, compared to what used to happen in the past political dispensation the campaigns are peaceful. However, the grumblings and concerns about electoral reforms, the calls for facilitation of Zimbabweans in the diaspora to be able to participate in the elections as well, if not handled well could upset the expectations of delivering fair and free elections. We all know the consequences of failure to do so as the whole world is watching with keen interest.
I am imagining if all the current focus, attention and resources that are given to campaigning for the coming elections were given to the resuscitation of our economy and ridding the country of all the ills of the past political dispensation and political economy by my imagined transitional authority in Government. I believe the economy could be showing more positive changes for the better by now.
Unlike the experiences of the Government of National Unity that was characterised by a lot of policy inconsistences and clear policy divisions along the different political parties lines that composed the Government of National Unity, I am convinced that this time around, the transitional authority would have been more focused and work in real unity of one purpose, that is, to transform the economy of the country.
Zimbabweans showed that they were capable of achieving that goal when they rallied behind and in full support of Operation Restore Legacy. For once in the history of the country being Zimbabwean united the people of this country in their political diversity and persuasion. This is probably exactly where my imagined transitional authority could have fitted in.
As a result it is difficult for the world to forget our yesterday and trust our today and the future and this is putting a lot of pressure on the coming elections to deliver anything, not short of a free and fair election outcome. In conclusion, it is our hope as a nation that the coming elections result in the desired outcome of being free and fair for the good of this country that has suffered malfunctioning economic management for too long.
-Dr Bongani Ngwenya is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow and can be contacted on [email protected]
