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Zimbabwe
Compared: 'Progress' in the Rest of Africa - 'Progress' in Zimbabwe
Conference
Amanda
Atwood, Kubatana.net
November 08, 2010
'Progress' in
Zimbabwe Conference index
page
View audio file details
Roundtable
Participants: Jocelyn Alexander, Bill Freund, John Saul, Roger Southall,
Luise White, Claude Kabemba
Presenting Blessing-Miles
Tendi's work on powersharing in Zimbabwe as compared with
Kenya, Jocelyn Alexander stated that the differences are greater
than the similarities. Because of the difference in the nature of
the political parties in the two countries, it made the political
divide far harsher. In Zimbabwe, it is difficult to leave a political
party, whereas in Kenya party membership has historically been more
fluid.
However, Tendi
argues, the outcome is equally bad in both countries terms of the
power sharing agreement. Kenya and Zimbabwe, Alexander said Tendi
argues, settled on similarly flawed power sharing models after foreign
diplomatic intervention. This sets a dangerous precedent -
incumbents can now calculate that if they lose elections, waging
violence and refusing to step down can facilitate the power sharing
government in which they will keep most of their power. This threatens
to reverse the gains electoral democracy has made in Africa. Tendi's
paper described power sharing governments as the "new coup."
Listen
Bill Freund described
a number of different models that African states took after independence,
and particularly in response to pressures from the West for structural
adjustment and other reforms. At one end of the spectrum were countries
like Ghana who "did everything they were supposed to do."
This, Freund argued, was a good strategy - the West didn't
dare to let Ghana fail, since it was setting such a positive example
of compliance. Thus, aid money had to keep coming. A second group
violated a lot of the ideas a lot of the time, but still did fairly
well. Freund listed Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia as examples of
this group - states which are hardly democratic, but West
reamins committed to them. In the third group, Freund said, were
countries like Gabon and Cameroon. They had "elections,"
but their dictators stayed in power, and made the system work for
them.
Zimbabwe, Freund said,
could have gone the route of Zambia, but Mugabe took the rogue state
option instead. But Zimbabwe doesn't have the resources that,
for example, Hugo Chavez can leverage in Venezuela. The result has
been the collapse of the system. The very heart of Zimbabwean capitalism,
Freund argued, those very profitable commercial farms, have been
ruined. Freund argued that most rogue states better resourced than
Zimbabwe - and possibly better managed.
Claude Kabemba discussed
his reaction to some of the points made during the two days of the
conference. He said that in 1980, Zimbabwe was very different from
the rest of Africa. But today, Zimbabwe is quite similar to most
other African states and societies, particularly in terms of the
challenges it faces and the issues raised in the newspaper headlines.
Kabemba said
that, with the exception of Swaziland, African countries have chosen
multi-party democracy. But they are reluctant to implement it according
to the democratic rules. Instead, he said, politics is about accessing
power and maintaining power by all means. The rules of democracy
are not followed as they should be. The reluctance to change is
an attempt to maintain power. This is happening across the continent,
with the exceptional case of Ghana, which has deliberately decided
to apply the democratic rules.
Listen
Kabemba also
expressed his concern with continued instances of rule by a strong
man, not by instuttions. There is a cult of the strong person who
leads - both in ruling parties and in opposition parties.
He also discussed
the economic decline being seen across Africa, and his concerns
that that decline is also linked to some kind of growth happening
in some of the countries. What you are seeing, he said, is a call
for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) across the continent. There
is still a belief that Africa will be saved by external support.
But that FDI, when you look at it, is jumping spaces. It is going
to where minerals are, oil is, and timber is. So the challenge is
to move out of the pillage model of exploiting minerals through
the elite. When we embraced democracy, Kabembe argued, we thought
we would have control of resources. But we still don't -
the game has changed. Now we are negotiating contracts, but we are
failing to negotiate equitable contracts, because they've
told us that FDI is more important than resources. You have to consider
your tax system so that you don't tax the investors too much.
No country has developed through taxation of minerals, Kabembe argued.
How do we maximize benefits of minerals, he asked.
Listen
Roger Southall argued
that the state in Africa no longer has a monopoly on violence. Society
has been militarised, he said, but there has also been a devolution
of security functions to private companies. Thus, he argued, there
is a need to rethink civil / military relations and democratisation.
Luise White argued that
Zimbabwe has a unique place on the African continent. There is,
she argued, much about it that demands a certain specificity. Nevertheless,
we've engaged the language that makes it like everywhere else
in Africa. She said that the phrase "colonial Zimbabwe"
is a misnomer - it wasn't a colony, it was a self-declared
independent state. But calling it "colonial" is a good
way to describe it when you don't want to give Southern Rhodesia
with discursive credibility.
White also warned
that governments of national unity simply reinvent the one party
state with more international clout than the one party state has
had since the 1960's. She said this is retrogressive. There
is now a single party apparatus that has access to international
funding and donor participation.
Listen
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