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The New Age Voices Issue 24
Youth Agenda Trust
October 06, 2011

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Lessons from Zambia: Is Tsvangirai Zim's own Sata? Youths hold the key to Mugabe successor

Following an election that many have said is certain to change the political landscape of the region, young people in Zimbabwe have urged the leadership in Zanu PF to emulate the conduct of former president Rupiah Banda and his party, before, during and after the Zambian general elections which saw perennial campaigner Michael Sata finally being sworn in after decades of frustration.

The Zambian elections which were monitored by local and international observers have been described as credible and were conducted under the SADC guidelines on free and fair elections and can easily be used as a benchmark in countries such as Zimbabwe.

Comparisons have been drawn between Zimbabwe and Zambia with some saying Morgan Tsvangirai may emulate Sata in the forthcoming national elections.

Rupiah Banda belongs to a party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) that had been ruling Zambia for the past 20 years but recently lost to Sata in an election that has won the hearts of many admirers within the region especially Zimbabwe where Civil servants like Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba have sworn not to recognise any other winner in the forthcoming elections unless it's Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe.

Ed Cropley notes that veteran Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata built his election upset on an army of young support fired up by promises of no corruption and lots of jobs, a winning formula that may carry lessons for politics across sub-Saharan Africa.

"At the ripe old age of 74, the silver-tongued former trade unionist has been mobbed by young supporters whenever he hits the streets of the former British colony.s bustling capital. On a visit to a polling station on September 20, the crowd burst into spontaneous chants of "We want change, we want change," Cropley says.

Sebastien Spio-Garbrah of DaMina Advisors, a frontier Africa consultancy says Sata's victory was won on the backs of disillusioned, swing voters and strong support from the one million new youth voter bloc".

"Banda's thwarted re-election may send signals to other beleaguered incumbents in Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya and elsewhere facing tough upcoming re-election battles to focus on the youth vote", Sebastien said.

Successful mass uprisings in North Africa, driven largely by young men and women armed with little more than mobile phones, have already set alarm bells ringing south of the Sahara, where many entrenched leaders base their credentials on winning independence rather than building stronger societies, Cropley also noted.

Chris Melville of political risk group Menas said Sata.s victory was anchored on the youth vote. "Capturing the youth vote has been an increasingly important electoral strategy for governments since the return to multi-party democracy across the continent in the 1990s," he said.

"However, the approach most have taken is that reaching out to the youth is really something you only do during election campaigns," said Cropley.

Speaking to The New Age Voices, journalist Valentine Maponga said that the Zambian government led by Rupiah Banda showed that it is possible for sitting heads of states to gracefully accept defeat in elections instead of resorting to violence and many other such actions to avoid exiting office.

"The peaceful election and subsequent transfer of power in Zambia is a lesson to Zimbabwe in many aspects. The first lesson we get is that it is possible to respect the will of the people and to effect a smooth transfer of power in Africa.

"State institutions, including the security sector, quickly respected the people's will and this was quite commendable considering our situation here in Zimbabwe. Service chiefs are not for political parties and should respect the leadership that is elected by popular vote. No one has the right or power to veto what the people want, said Maponga.

Analyst Blessing Vava said that the Zambian example's greatest lessons was that politicians must respect the will of the people and that the electoral process must be transparent and be able to retain the confidence of the masses.

"The first lesson is that leaders are not indispensable. Once people are tired of you they boot you out. We commend Banda for accepting defeat, and it's a call to all African leaders that they should respect the will of the people. Thirdly, we need to appreciate the role of proper and non-partisan institutions in electoral processes as witnessed in Zambia.

"Sata's victory exhibits that perseverance pays in politics. He has been an opposition leader for 20 years and becoming a president does not need one to be educated. He is a man who came from grass to grace, starting as a sweeper at London's Victoria Train Station and now he is a Head of State," said Vava.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Director Macdonald Lewanyika noted, "The Zambian elections outcome was a victory for the people's will and shows that real power resides on the streets where the people live. The resolve shown by the people of Zambia in enhancing their democracy through change of government is worthy of salute, and in spite of the skills that Sata and the PF party possessed, the Zambian people are the real victors of this election.

"The celebrations were far from being from members of the Patriotic Front only, which had won the presidency, making Michael Chilufiya Sata the fifth president of post-independent Zambia, but for all Zambians, judging by the multitudes of people who stormed into the streets in their bed clothes to celebrate.

The celebrations were those of a nation, saluting itself for maturing its democracy and enhancing the culture of change. The celebrations were of a nation staying true to the founding principles of democratic governance, where the authority and right to govern is determined by the collective will of the people as expressed through elections. As Zimbabweans, we can only look to the north with envy and guilt," Lewanyika said.

MDC Youth Assembly Secretary General, Promise Mkwananzi said: "In Zimbabwe, there is an emerging broad consensus that the youth are the potential game changers in the struggle for the accomplishment of the elusive democratic revolution. These new developments are in part a result of an accelerated economic recession which has destroyed the hope of young people from the US, China, Europe, Asia, Africa you name it.

"There are less and less opportunities for young people to prosper, global unemployment has reached fever pitch and so has the anger in young people. Thus the assumption of critical leadership by the youth has both negative and positive implications. The ball is in the court of the authorities to ensure that they channel youth energy towards positive use, he said.

In his tearful and dignified concession speech, Banda acknowledged the shift in demographics that is occurring across the continent. "My generation, the generation of the independence struggle, must now give way to new ideas, ideas for the 21st century," he said. He also set an important precedent on a continent where peaceful transfers of power are all too rare.

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