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Manifestos show policy congruence
Sifelani Tsiko & Caesar Zvayi The Herald (Zimbabwe)
February 23, 2005

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=40988&pubdate=2005-02-23

Summary of promises to the electorate

WITH 36 days to go before the holding of Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections, most of the political parties and candidates have drafted campaign manifestos detailing the programmes they wish to pursue in order to improve the lives of their constituents.

What is quite interesting is the policy congruency that occurs between the parties at election time, a congruency that was missing over the past five years, and that is bound to disappear again after April 1.

Looking at the manifestos of the country’s mainstream political parties, Zanu-PF and the MDC, one wonders why legislators from either side of the house almost came to blows on policy decisions. But then as they say "rinonyenga rinowarara" (he who courts humbles himself), the manifestos have to be read in context, to separate the rhetoric from the authentic.

What exactly are the two main parties promising the electorate, and does it tally with the policy positions they have taken over the past five years?

The Zanu-PF manifesto which was launched on February 11 runs under the theme; "Sovereignty over our National Resources," a theme that tallies with the Zanu-PF campaign that has been dubbed "The Anti-Blair election." The MDC, on the other hand, launched its ambitious manifesto under the theme; "Promise to the People of Zimbabwe –Jobs, Food,’’ last Sunday.

In this article, The Herald makes a comparative analysis of the pledges made by the two parties to the people of Zimbabwe.

In its 53-page 2005 election manifesto, Zanu-PF opens with a bold statement of intent that reaffirms the party’s unwavering stance on fundamental national issues. These issues include national sovereignty, the party’s role in the ongoing fight against neo-colonialism and cultural imperialism, consolidating the gains of the agrarian reforms, national unity and the need to defend the country’s independence for the present and future generations.

"Zanu-PF is the party of the struggle, liberation and democracy. It was Zanu-PF and Zanu-PF alone, which led the people of Zimbabwe in their relentless armed struggle against British racist settler colonialism after forcibly planting itself on our soil in 1890," reads part of the ruling party’s manifesto.

This has been part of the Zanu-PF campaign since 1980 and the party is hopping to appeal to voters by rekindling memories of the long and painful road to independence.

The party is uncompromising when it comes to issues of national sovereignty and makes it clear that it would not allow foreigners to interfere in the country’s internal affairs.

"Zanu-PF offers to the Zimbabwean people its tried and tested leadership for another five years, during which it pledges to consolidate the new direction Zimbabwe has charted for itself, a direction guaranteeing that Zimbabwe shall never be a colony again, that never again shall it ever be a minor or a chattel in global affairs," President Mugabe wrote in the foreword to the manifesto.

In its 13-page "magazine" manifesto, the MDC starts by pledging to build a new Zimbabwe that will have "liberty, freedom, prosperity, job opportunities, justice, safety and a living wage."

Since the party was never involved in the country’s fight for independence, and since some of its high ranking members actually fought against majority rule, the MDC manifesto essentially calls for urgent attention to address current problems facing the country, which it posits without regard to historical context.

The MDC manifesto promises to urgently address matters related to the "five critical" areas namely – a sound economy, agriculture and livelihoods, a new Constitution and "good governance", a social agenda and women and youth.

Land is still at the core of Zanu-PF’s election campaign again this year. However, whereas in the last general election the focus was more on giving land to the people, the current campaign pledges to focus more on raising productivity on the farms. The ruling party pledges to continue supporting farmers with inputs and finance to help them capitalise their operations with a view of raising the country’s agricultural production.

Zanu-PF says it fully appreciates the role it played in the fight for land and firmly believes that the land is the most important tool it can use to empower the people economically.

The party is upbeat about the land question and boasts of having managed to parcel out land to a total of 140 866 families under the A1 model on 2 611 farms with a combined land area of 4,2 million hectares.

In addition to this, the party managed to resettle 14 500 people under the A2 commercial scheme model on farms measuring more than 2,3 million hectares.

With its land policies, Zanu-PF is confident of winning a fresh mandate from the majority of voters in the rural areas who have benefited from the agrarian reforms and the agricultural support mechanisms put in place by the ruling party and its Government.

The MDC, which all along has been the most rabid critic of the agrarian reforms, has also surprisingly taken the land issue on board, and now promises to give the resettled farmers title deeds.

Ironically, high ranking MDC officials have openly told local and international media that should their party attain power, it will restore land tenure to the pre-2000 levels.

There are some striking similarities in some policies of Zanu-PF and the MDC when it comes to agriculture. The MDC now also acknowledges that agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, that farmers should be supported with agricultural inputs, technical, financial and outreach service support to raise productivity, the positions which have been pursued by the ruling party all along.

However, the two parties differ on approaches to land ownership.

The MDC pledges to give title deeds to landowners in both communal and resettlement areas and to promote security of tenure in order to improve the viability of farming, stimulate investment and boost production.

Zanu-PF, which has always maintained that land is state property, favours the communal ownership of land in view of its egalitarian principles guided by its Marxist-Leninist ideology.

The ruling party has reaffirmed its position as the peoples’ party that largely stands for the interests of people in both the rural and urban areas.

Both parties, however, are extending their largesse to the rural populace. The MDC manifesto seems to have backtracked from the party’s stance of opposing land reforms in a bid to clinch the rural vote. On economic issues, Zanu-PF, in its manifesto, is buoyed by the major successes it has scored over the past 14 months owing to the home grown economic turnaround strategies it adopted, after ditching economic prescriptions from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The party manifesto lets economic indicators detail its achievements. The Zanu-PF manifesto details how the Government has managed to rein in inflation from a high of 622,8 percent in January 2004 to about 132,7 percent last December.

The MDC’s promise, however, is at variance with the policy positions taken by the party over the past five years, and the message which ran through party president, Morgan Tsvangirai’s address at the launch of the MDC campaign in Masvingo. Tsvangirai took an adversarial position to the ongoing economic turn around programme. In its manifesto, however, the MDC echoes the issues raised in the Zanu-PF manifesto.

Both parties have set out goals to reduce inflation to single digit levels, to stabilise the foreign exchange rate, to improve fiscal discipline, to create jobs, to increase the level of investment and strengthen the country’s mining and manufacturing operations. Zanu-PF goes a step further and pledges to continue with its "Look East" policy to boost co-operation in the fields of agriculture, industry, tourism and other critical areas with Asian countries rather than focussing on traditional western markets whose governments have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Though the MDC makes no mention of the Asian markets, Tsvangirai’s derogatory remarks about the Asian markets said it all. Not surprisingly, the party promises to open links with international financial institutions in Western countries to increase investments and boost economic growth.

On housing, the MDC appeals to voters by aiming to build over 750 000 houses within five years to reduce the urban housing backlog and ensure adequate, decent housing in rural areas. The party claims that its housing programme will create more than 100 000 jobs.

Conversely, Zanu-PF says it would, under its National Housing Delivery Programme, aim to build 1 250 000 housing stands by 2008.

The ruling party says that this year’s budget allocation of $2,286 trillion for housing and infrastructure development is testimony of its commitment towards easing the shortages of accommodation in urban centres.

On health matters, even the MDC whose demonisation campaign has entailed lobbying the Global HIV/Aids Fund to stop disbursing funds to the country, has also pledged to fight the pandemic.

Both parties pledge to fight the prevalence of HIV/Aids by increasing funding and taking a battery of measures to help mitigate the effects of the disease on society.

Some of the promises made in the manifestos include increasing health expenditure, improving the health care delivery system and improving the conditions of service and remuneration for all health professionals.

Zanu-PF says it would continue with its programme to upgrade the country’s major referral hospitals. So far the party says it has committed $200 billion towards the maintenance and rehabilitation of three major referral centres — Harare Hospital, Mpilo Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals.

Zanu-PF promises that its biggest budget vote will remain education and that the party will in the next five years work to improve the schools computerisation programme, school buildings, teacher training, to expand university education and vocationalising tertiary institutions.

On this issue the Zanu-PF track record speaks for itself as the country has the second highest literacy rate in Africa after Egypt. Zanu-PF rightfully says the education sector has registered spectacular successes since independence.

Primary school enrolment rose from 1,2 million in 1980 to 2,4 million in 2004, secondary school enrolment rose from 74 000 in 1980 to 826 000 in 2004 while enrolment in technical colleges grew from 3 000 in 1980 to the current 100 000.

The number of universities has risen from one to 13 over the same period.

The MDC claims that it will provide free primary education for all and increase significantly financial support to secondary and tertiary institutions. The party also says that it will respect freedom of choice and protect fully, the rights of private schools to operate without hindrance and interference from the State.

Both parties agree, in theory, on the need for a stable economy, the need to revamp the country’s over-stretched health delivery system, job creation, the need to raise agricultural and manufacturing production and to meet the housing and education needs of the population.

The parties fundamentally differ on the approaches, principles and strategies of achieving these pursuits.

In the end, an intelligent voter will have to use the benefit of hindsight, to judge which of these two parties is making genuine promises and which one is doing it for the sake of political expediency.

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