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Zimbabwe Briefing - Issue 93
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (SA Regional Office)
September 26, 2012

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Rank Warlords and the Jambanja (Disorder) Political Economy

The recent beating of soldiers at the Charge Office commuter omni-bus rank is by no means an accident but a symptom of the Jambanja economy spearheaded by ZANU PF elites all over the country. The invasions of urban economic spaces post-2000 are as a result of the economic philosophy of Jambanja (Chaos or disorder) mainly led by ZANU PF. The land invasions presented a number of opportunities to the ZANU PF elites and ordinary members in Zimbabwe to amass ill-gotten wealth. This fits well into Chabal and Daloz's analytical framework of instrumentalisation of disorder, Paul Cramer's analogy that 'War' is not a stupid thing and William Reno's shadow state.

Similarly the chaos in Zimbabwe's urban economic spaces is not stupid, but a very functional necessity that provides opportunities for primitive accumulation to Zimbabwe's elites. In this case the syndicates of Rank Marshals have their roots and godfathers/godmothers in Zimbabwe's political elites' offices. These urban economic spaces represented by the informal market activities account for a huge economy that usually skips policy makers. Chabal and Daloz argue that chaos or disorder is functional and presents huge opportunities for the African elites to translate social disorder into patronage that shore up the loyalty of their client net-works. Similarly the socially disorder that gripped Zimbabwe after the introduction of Jambanja by ZANU PF presented an opportunity for the then ruling party to doll out rents to clients in return for loyalty. This saw ZANU PF elites benefiting through assets and farm produce expropriation, as a new breed of farmers (Farm Harvesters) emerged.

Basically all they had to do was to target a farm with equipment and produce and mobilise poor peas-ants and villagers who would be moved onto the farms; whilst through their political connections organised offer letters and then move in and strip off the farms. The only farming knowledge that this group possessed was harvesting and not the nurturing and tendering for the produce. This form of primitive accumulation continued until it reached its comatose level as there was no more to scavenge on. The same scenario explains the activities around Marange diamond fields where the ZANU PF elites encouraged chaos and disorder whilst they stripped

the natural resources. Even when normalisation was sought it was not to create a functional and accountable means to exploit these resources for the national good but to restrict it to a few ZANU PF elites in the name of state owner-ship through Zimbabwe Mining Development Cooperation. To get more insight into the Jambanja economy one has to under-stand its philosophy and what is at stake. One key element that has perpetuated this chaos was the attack on institutions and promotion of anarchy.

Mawowa 2008, in his MA thesis "Tapping into the Chaos: Crisis' State and Accumulation in Zimbabwe" observes that the ruling elite and the informal miners went into an unwritten agreement or social contract of some sort whereby the informal miners will support ZANU PF whereas the Political elite will pay a blind eye to their activities. This became one of the key principles underpinning the Jambanja political economy as the ruling elite struck alliances with the underclass represented by informal activities. This dovetails quite well into ZANU PF's discourse of indigenisation and 100%economic empowerment. Thus disorder proves functional as the political elites manage to dish out rents, as they maximise on the social disorder. This explains the current efforts by the minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment to sanitise illegal mining or panning. Already, the colonisation discourse has been evoked as being responsible for creating the term illegality. However the reality is that mining is a complex activity with many ecological challenges that need to be addressed and can't just be left to the whims of Jambanja philosophy. Regulation and institutionalization of mining is an inevitable necessity and as such alongside the empowerment of these informal mining there is need for a regime of rules, regulations that guide conduct and engagement. However, it seems for the political elites in ZANU PF empowerment or indigenisation is about doing away with the law.

This attempt to legalise disorder is not stupid, but has to be read with-in the context of the volume or size of the economy within the so-called informal economy. Harare for instance is reported to have above 6000 commuter omnibuses in its ranks, with each commuter omnibus paying $2 per trip and with an average of 15 trips per day. This translates into $180, 000.00 per day and assuming a 22 working days in a month equals to $3,960,000. This means the rank economy alone represents an economy of $4million dollars a month using conservative figures as some have pegged it to be around $10million. This explains why some of the Mandimbandimba's (Rank Marshalls) were reportedly driving top-of-the range cars, including black BMW X5s, Range Rovers and Mercedes Benz MLs. They were also seen wearing designer suits and black tops in-scribed with the words 'security'.

The gang is reported to be already controlling most flea markets, council owned flats and other bus ranks across Harare. The gang is also synonymous with violence and intimidation in Harare and for years has led attacks against perceived supporters of anyone opposed to ZANU PF. Interestingly the mayhem that led to the beating of soldiers happened at Charge Office which is a less than minute walk to the Main Police Charge Office and nothing happened. The question that needs to be asked is that how would soldiers in national uniform be dragged and humiliated in front of the public right at the door step of the police station with no any arrests. This can be explained by Mawowa's (2008) observation that the ruling elite went into an alliance with the underclass which would in turn see the discretional and selective enforcement of laws that criminalise some activities. But Mawowa further shows that the relationship is dynamic and beyond mere alliances; elites often preside over syndicates which would at face value seem like chaotic and disorderly gold panning groups. Yet this in real sense is organised disorder.

Similarly the Chipangano vigilante groups would appear at face value like a chaotic group, run by ill-disciplined party youths, yet at its zenith presides a senior party official. William Reno characterises this as the shadow state, where these syndicates represent informally commercially oriented networks. Media reports allege Local Government Minister Ignatious Chombo and ZANU PF politburo member Tendai Savanhu as the godfathers of Chipangano. This explains why the local government minister has always run to the defence of lawlessness by ZANU PF members and allied informal traders in the urban areas. The real motive is wealth accumulation and sustaining the political project.

Therefore, underneath the beatings of the soldiers is a thriving economy that requires little or no capital input but gives huge returns. This form of primitive accumulation traces back to the Jambanja Political Economy of post 2000 whose historical roots lies in the Fast Track Land Resettlement Programme.

The opportunity to quickly amass wealth at very low or marginal costs explains why there has been chaos in these informal urban economic spaces. Whilst ZANU PF's ruling elite is busy pre-occupied with the grabbing of commercial and industrial assets, its underclass is busy grabbing informal urban economic spaces and enforcing some form of informal taxation for their own benefit. Thus, by participating or lending loyalty the under-class is then provided with access to economic resources in the informal sector.

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