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The "old man's shoes"
Brian Kagoro, Chairperson - Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
July 30, 2004

Every single political party and civic institution in Zimbabwe is faced with the succession question. ZANU PF might cherish the conviction of the MDC leader as a way of throwing the opposition into disarray ahead of next year’ s election. I trust the MDC strategists have thought through the implications of this likelihood and taken steps to pre-empt any possible chaos and confusion.

The survival of the MDC beyond the next election shall depend on its handling of this remote likelihood. Often what can’t be done through infiltration is achieved through leadership wrangles and manipulation of differences. This is particularly so, when a leadership void is created at the very top. MDC must not walk into this possibility blindfolded. To do so would permit power sharks to hijack the party. MDC’s architecture might make it amenable to disputes of an ethnic, class and racial nature.

ZANU PF’s biggest success or defeat is in the womb of its contentious succession question. The first battle is to get the incumbent to leave his shoes to a "successor". The second is ensuring that the handed down shoes are not too tight or too big for the successor. The third is for the successor to find his way without slipping or developing blisters. A wise successor must sooner than later find new shoes and define a new legacy. Succession shoe size and type, therefore, matter a great deal in politics. So too does the type and state of one’s feet (prior reputation and legacy) and the pathway (vision).

Any lucky charmer or shrewd schemer can win the battle for the state through eliminating competition. But once state organs have been captured and opponents silenced, running the state is not magic. In modern statecraft the vanquished cannot all be vanquished. As a result they always come back to haunt the vanquisher. This is why a country must be governed through consent and consensus and not just by force and fraud.

Zimbabwe’s political roads and signposts have changed and so too have the type of shoes required to walk them. Zimbabwe must define (or redefine) its values and the type of leadership it wants, as a practical way of building a new ethos. There are no Yellow Pages of political history to refer to in this task. A new national path must be invented through the collective participation of everybody called Zimbabwean. If ZANU PF is not cowardly, it must allow every Zimbabwean in the Diaspora to vote. Why not? These men and women repatriate their earnings to keep our economy afloat. They are acting as social welfare systems for the thousands of citizens who have been impoverished by our poor policies and governance practices.

The subject of leadership must dominate succession debates, because the practice of leadership has reached ridiculously low levels in our country. Mediocrity and rhetoric are often mistaken for substance, so too is literacy, war veterancy and arrogance. Eloquence and wealth have become our perennial albatross. Political leadership has been embroiled and consumed by these superficial elements as opposed to values, purpose and character. Whilst being a war veteran, businessman or professor of something must be recognized and fully honoured; it is not necessarily a qualification for leadership. Countries are not run for warriors, money-mongers and bookworms, for the broad interest of the citizenry as well posterity. Ignorance of statecraft is no defence either.

There are very few exemplary leaders left in our society. Instead there is a movie-star culture of leadership and every little man now wants to rule over or steal from someone as a means of acquiring this status. This culture has promoted a kind of leadership that is neither responsible nor accountable. A morally, intellectually and socially bankrupt leadership. Values such as service, sacrifice, mission and compassion have been forgotten. Very few leaders - if any at all – live up to the values they espouse. The whole nation has become a museum of paper or pulpit tigers and pathetic actors. Our leadership script is like a boring low budget movie, full of action and no progress or substance.

When Mugabe declared an internal war against local economic saboteurs, I commended his courage although the action was mercilessly over-due. The spate of arrests that preceded and followed this declaration netted in Zanu PF chefs, provincial chairpersons and other minor notables. That too was courageous. The question I have not been able to answer is whether Dydimus Mutasa can be viewed as a paragon of virtue and therefore non-corrupt. Does he have legitimacy with the broad Zimbabwean populace? Is this war against corruption just another political ruse? Is this a forerunner of a spate of take-overs of businesses that are seen as sympathetic to the opposition under the guise of fighting corruption? Is ZANU PF perhaps fundraising for the next election? Who within ZANU PF’s leadership has not sinned and can therefore cast the first stone against the other?

My only concern is that no institution can allege that a significant segment of its leadership is corrupt without passing a serious indictment upon itself. Zanu PF cannot possibly escape the conclusion that a corrupt leadership begets a decaying institution. It is neither explainable nor acceptable that a so-called revolutionary party has repeatedly elected and celebrated "alleged thieves and economic saboteurs"? Unless – of course - such an institution has either been infiltrated by imperialists or "bewitched"?

Zimbabweans have been alleging that Zanuists are corrupt for many years. ZANU PF has a dearth of value-based leadership. How much of an institution’s conscience can be lost without losing its entire soul and structural integrity? ZANU PF is clearly battling for its soul. Anybody who has done international consultancy knows that it takes many years to earn US $I million for building a beach house in Cape Town. If the money was earned in the alleged manner where was the tax paid? What nature of consultancy was it? For whom was the consultancy done?

The declaration of war against corruption is either part of an election or succession strategy. Unfortunately history (national and personal) cannot be recreated with ease or re-written without glitches. Victory is not repetitious, but adapts its form endlessly. What counts as victory, therefore, can never be a constant idea, methodology or set of political clichés. The challenges that a people are faced with may remain constant, but they assume various forms. It follows therefore that strategies for meeting evolving challenges must necessarily be adapted constantly. Mugabe has been hesitant to transform some of his methods and strategies of engaging opponents.

The failure to attend to the human rights question shall become ZANU PF’s Achilles’ heel in the next election and beyond. Equally so, the piece-meal and selective manner in which the corruption issue is being tackled is likely to ricochet. The current succession process is mired in conspiratorial politics. Perhaps given the untransformed architecture of ZANU PF, too much political drama will be traumatic and might lead to rebellion or disaffection amongst the party faithfuls.

We might see something similar to what happened to KANU in Kenya. Possibly the Kanunization of Zanu PF? Unfortunately change for and in ZANU PF cannot be made to feel like a gentle improvement of the past. It has to be dramatic if it is to be remotely persuasive to the largely sceptical Zimbabwean electorate. ZANU PF literally has to create internal scapegoats or risk being the actual scapegoat in Zimbabwean politics.

The anti-corruption war is a two-headed snake that is likely to bite its champions. The war declared by Mugabe against his own corrupt lieutenants is commendable. It may unwittingly be a war against ZANU PF as an institution and its leadership. Many might question the prudence of sweeping a house before a whirlwind storm, but I do not. Every institution and political party in Zimbabwe should carry out a leadership audit and deal effectively with the issue of corruption.

Sometimes the greatest task of leadership is the act of leaving office. ZANU PF’s biggest struggle since the war of liberation has been with this very issue. Its leaders just do not know when to leave active politics and hand over to the next generation. They are constantly recycled and each cycle has its esteemed clown and devoted henchmen. At the very best this aspect betrays a poor leadership renewal policy. ZANU PF’s unhealthy condition has infected the national condition.

Chinese poet Tu Fu advised that, "To shoot a rider, first shoot his horse. To catch a band of bandits, first capture its leader. Just as a country has its borders, so the killing of men has its limits. If the enemy’s attack can be stopped [with a blow to the head], why are many more dead and wounded than necessary? The current prosecution of so-called economic saboteurs must aim at the gang leaders. It is insufficient to fry small or medium-size fish, whilst the real sharks remain at-large. The big fish will evade the net as long as the process is controlled politically. It must be handed over to a credible constitutional body with real teeth and the public must see justice being done.

Mugabe’s successor will have the burden of having to double the old man’s achievements in order to outshine him. Otherwise the poor chap will be lost in Mugabe’s shadow, and stuck in a past that is not entirely of his own making. He will have to establish his own name and identity by changing the course of the country. This he can do by following in the footsteps (tsoka) or ignoring Mugabe, disparaging his legacy and gaining power by shining in his own way. It will take an uncommon leader, with uncommon skill to carve out a new path of excellence, a modern route to nationhood. We can only hope that the successor will have clean hands.

Finally, reputation is the mainstay of power and sound leadership. Its loss makes one vulnerable and opens one to numerous attacks from opponents and allies alike. ZANU PF’s reputation on matters of human rights and anti-corruption is in tatters. The same can be said for governance and economic planning.

Mugabe’s successor has to initiate and win the wars against corruption and state terror (to borrow an unpopular phrase!).

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