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The problems that dog the opposition in Zimbabwe
Brian Kagoro
August 01, 2007

http://www.nehandaradio.com/kagoromdc010807.html

The malaise that dogs the opposition in our country has three inter-related dimensions, which we have collectively articulated on this platform, and yet we are happy to ignore when these dimensions manifest in their crudest forms. First, there is an ideological crisis because the main opposition politics in our country was born out of a clear social base and veered into the neo-liberal trap of reducing its function to contesting elections. Its mission was over-simplified into that of supplanting an exhausted nationalist oligarchy of looters, pretenders and brutes.

But removal of kleptocracy by itself hardly constitutes a uniting ideological premise for a movement in a country in such dire need of structural transformation. Such that consensus on the need to remove Mugabe does not extend to a re-construction programme for leadership at all levels as well the economy and political architecture of our country.

Second, there is a crisis of political programming. Even if one were to accept the argument that even the ANC did not have ideological asymmetry when it assumed power in South Africa, one would be forced to accept that it had a clear political programme that formed the premise of its tripartite alliance (RDP). An election is not wholesome rather holistic political programme. Particularly in a country where systems, institutions and processes of sanity have been denuded to such a vulgar extent. Yes unity is important, but that unity must be premised on a political programme should ideological consensus prove difficult in the short term.

Third, there is the question of leadership renewal. In the last two decades Mugabe has managed to produce Simba Makoni, Jonathan Moyo, Eddison Zvobgo, Joyce Mujuru, Emmerson Munangagwa, Xavier Kasukuwere, Gideon Gono, Happyton Bonyongwe, etc. In each moment our attention have been diverted by these constructions and at other times almost deceived by them. Whilst the consistency of leadership in the MDC is commendable, perhaps the party needs its own constructions. A lease of new blood and fresh ideas. These would not supplant Morgan Tsvangirai but re-enforce and capture national imagination and attention away from the banal political analysis of Morgan and Arthur.

Perhaps, there are those who do not care whether the opposition wins or loses the next election? They see the status quo as favorable to their interests (personal or otherwise). Perhaps the absurdities of the developments in the MDC are reflective of its Zanufication? Rather reflective of an exclusive politics that we have all entertained and romanced over the last five years? We have created camps and fiefdoms and we have forgotten what it means to be truly inclusive. We elbow each other out of opportunities and we malign each other in circumstances and instances when we should be standing in solidarity.

Perhaps the real undoing of our politics is our tenacious appetite for opposing each other as opposed to the establishment. When we ought to have been organizing, we have been agonizing? Instead of gathering we have been scattering? The failure of opposition unity is in essence a failure of the humane essence.....the ability to serve each other and recognize and celebrate our respective strengths and shield our respective weaknesses? After all none of us is an angel?

We can never defeat Zanu PF standing to its political right. We have to stand to its ideological left and dramatize the contradictions of its defensive radicalism and contrived left rhetoric. We also have to accept that the crisis of livelihoods in our country is not a disease of the post February 12, 2000. That it has its roots in the transition to independence as well the disastrous SAPs and cocktail of neo-liberal poison that we imbibed from 1989 to 1999.

Our economic re-construction agenda should therefore address poignant and pertinent issues relating to meeting of the basic needs of the citizenry, creation of employment, eradication of poverty and misery. It must also guide us towards a pro-people re-industrialization model. In short ,it must allow us to imagine afresh an egalitarian society; agrarian and national questions as well re-construction of the Zimbabwean state and its role.

Civil society in Zimbabwe is very weak, nevertheless resilient. It has survived extreme battering from a very brutal system. However, civil society is also part of the problem as it exhibits the same strands of divisionism. Some of it has even shamelessly constructed itself along ethnic fiefdoms and regionalistic politics. Because of its inherent appetite for sectarian politics ,it is ill disposed to play a unifying role in our national politics. The MDC we may not be able to do anything about, but civil society we should certainly focus our attention on in a very self-reflective and critical manner.

At the risk of not stopping when I have finished, let me end my rumblings right here.

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