We are on our own now

We are on our own now

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By Glen Mpani

AS Robert Mugabe is sworn in after the one-man election the country has to brace itself for another 5 years of suffering. This development spells doom for the country as the crisis is most likely to deepen. Every Zimbabwean who has shared and endured the pain and grief of the last 8 years is probably asking “where do we go from here?”

The thought of Mugabe and Zanu PF presiding over Zimbabwe for another 5 year is too ghastly to contemplate but a reality that we now have to live with. The two unenviable options left for the people of Zimbabwe are either to negotiate with Zanu PF for a transitional authority with the hope of having fresh elections or to confront the government through other legitimate democratic processes such as protests. Both options are less likely to yield any positive and significant benefits for the people of Zimbabwe to extricate them from this crisis but are worthy exploring.

With most regional and friendly countries invited to observe the elections by Mugabe openly condemning the recent elections as lacking the basic minimum standards of credibility, other countries are contemplating recognising the election and these are led by South Africa. Mugabe once more rides on the division in the region.

With the disappointing reports that South Africa and other African countries are preparing to legitimise the election, one wonders how African States can recognise the Mugabe presidency in the face of conclusions by the Pan African Parliament and SADC observer teams that the election was a sham and not representative of the will of the people of Zimbabwe and amid numerous reports of widespread intimidation and violence.

There is nothing much to expect from the SADC and AU especially with Thabo Mbeki’s obsession with Mugabe. As long as the talks between the Zanu PF and MDC do not acknowledge that the 27 June elections were a joke, the negotiations are doomed. I’m sceptical about the sincerity of Zanu PF in their pronouncement of their willingness to negotiate with the MDC. If they refused to negotiate with Morgan Tsvangirai before the election, why now? Is it their illusionary victory in the one man presidential election that has made them to see the light?

To Zanu PF, negotiating is all about consolidating and retaining state power. Negotiation will not respect the March result, neither will they recognise the fact that the current crisis is not about land, Britain or America but a crisis of governance. Worse, the negotiations will produce an ineffective product skewed in favour of Zanu PF. Mugabe will not be amenable to addressing a change of political culture reforming the courts and the constitutions and all state apparatus that have been politicised. Zanu PF will not be keen to disband institutions of violence and repression that have salvaged their so called “victory”. In fact those structures are waiting to be rewarded for the mayhem they created in the name of Zanu PF. For Zanu PF, repression, violence, intimidation and rigging is the source of their mandate and legitimacy.

Can Zimbabweans explore other options such as protests to express their dissatisfaction with the ruling party? The will of the people of Zimbabwe for change has been trampled on and disregarded. The risk of protesting against Mugabe might be too dire to contemplate with the glaring evidence of widespread violence across the country unleashed by Zanu PF.

Debate about why Zimbabweans have not taken part in protests, despite what would seem like a conducive environment, have elicited diverse explanations that range from popular fear of the regime, to the weakness of the opposition leadership and the country’s political culture. Explanations on why Zimbabweans are not protesting range from economic, political, cultural, cognitive and collective action factors. While empirical evidence from studies of protest elsewhere would “associate protest with the economically insecure, the unemployed and individuals who belong to the working class, in Zimbabwe protest potential is reported to be high among the urbanised, the young, professionals, educated and the economically secure”.

This evidence raises questions about the efficacy of the previous mobilising strategies of civil society and opposition in Zimbabwe. Despite being marginalised and confronted with the most severe crisis, they are not inclined to push for economic and political transformation through protest. Could they have chosen to engage the state on a tactical basis, in order to ensure daily survival?

It is time for MDC and civil society in Zimbabwe to invest their energies on organising the people of Zimbabwe to participate in different forms of protest against the regime. Now that the people have succeeded in boycotting the elections, it is important for the opposition to capitalise on the disillusionment and the anger and map out a strategy that can liberate Zimbabweans from this dictatorship. For the strategy to work the opposition has to invest its energies on mobilising grassroots structures working with the people on how they can liberate themselves.

Whatever happens, we are on our own. Come next week Zimbabwe will no longer be on the radar.

Glen Mpani is a Regional Co-ordinator at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) based in South Africa. The views expressed in this article are personal and don’t reflect the organisation's

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