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The
rise of Zim's 'one party tyranny'
Mail & Guardian (SA)
December 03, 2007
http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=326632
Two former leading lights
of Zimbabwe's struggle era can testify to how tough life can be
for those who try to chart their own course outside the liberation
movement. In 1988 Edgar Tekere was sacked as secretary general of
Zanu PF and formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), pledging to
stop what he saw as Zimbabwe's slide into "one-party tyranny".
"A one-party state," Tekere told President Robert Mugabe
then, "was never one of the founding principles of Zanu PF
and experience in Africa has shown that it brought the evils of
nepotism, corruption and inefficiency." Having been one of
the most influential figures in the liberation movement and in the
post-war government, Tekere would have been a good bet to pose a
serious challenge to Mugabe.
But, on a free-market
platform that contrasted sharply with Mugabe's plan of more control,
Tekere fared badly in the 1990 election, winning just 16% of the
vote. After that election he slipped into oblivion and penury, living
off donations from former comrades. In 2005 he wrote to Zanu PF
asking to be allowed back. Zanu PF grudgingly took him back -- on
condition he did not seek any office. Some still believe Tekere's
ZUM was an elaborate ruse by Mugabe to create the impression that
he allowed opposition, a suspicion likely to haunt any possible
future splinter party. Then there was Margaret Dongo, a popular
Zanu PF MP. Protesting at corruption in the party, she left to form
the Zimbabwe Union of Democracts. But the project soon fell apart.
Today, despite Mugabe's recent triumph over rivals, talk of a possible
future split refuses to go away.
But lessons were learned
from Tekere and Dongo and their fate will weigh heavily on the minds
of any Zanu PF figure thinking of branching out on his or her own.
There is evident frustration in Zanu PF with Mugabe clinging to
power. However, there has been little talk -- at least not since
2004 - of any of his rivals leaving to form a new party. In 2004
six of 10 party provinces supported Emmerson Mnangagwa's bid to
become deputy president. But Mugabe vetoed the vote and sacked the
chairpersons from the six provinces. In the ensuing fallout Mnangagwa
loyalists, such as Jonathan Moyo, who had been information minister,
talked up their new United Peoples' Movement, a party, it was suggested,
that would be home to disgruntled Zanu PF figures. Mnangagwa resisted,
stayed on in Zanu PF and, at least for now, is one of Mugabe's closest
allies.
A senior Zanu PF official
said Mugabe had spent the past 27 years amassing so much power that,
should he leave, the party would struggle to hold itself together.
Mugabe himself said he went back on an earlier pledge to step down
next year mainly because he believed his party would fall apart
in his absence as "greedy" factions were impatient for
power. A senior Zanu PF official told the Mail & Guardian this
week: "Quite frankly we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves.
There is agitation from his [Mugabe's] peers wanting a chance to
lead and there is that layer below the liberation heroes, the younger
leaders, also really impatient to get a look in." But, he said:
"I don't think a lot of people would want to leave Zanu PF
and all the opportunities it presents." There is the opinion
that part of the Movement for Democratic Change's failure can be
blamed on its lack of "liberation credentials" and that
a Zanu PF splinter group would fill such a gap in the opposition.
However, analysts said any Zanu PF splinter group would need some
sort of alliance with the existing opposition to stand a chance
of making an impact, but that such coalitions would lead to inevitable
differences over policy.
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