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The SADC Troika on Zimbabwe: Against the arrogant disdain, impunity and reckless rhetoric in Harare
Ibbo Mandaza, SAPES Trust
April 04, 2011

The outcome of both the re-election of the Speaker of Parliament, on 29th March 2011 and the recent meeting of the SADC Troika (on Politics, Defence and Security) on 31st March 2011, constitute sufficient warning lights to the effect that the balance of forces attendant to the Zimbabwe political process are fast turning against the power mongers in the state.

Thus, those in Harare, for so long spoiling for a fight and unwilling to make the GNU and its inclusive government proceed as originally designed, need to take note and cast aside the reckless rhetoric that has accompanied policy statements on the economic front and the arrogant disdain in the face of the SADC Troika-s pronouncements on Zimbabwe last Thursday.

First, the re-election of the Speaker of Parliament and the suggestions and conclusions that Members of Parliament voted across party lines; or, more significant, that MDC-s Lovemore Moyo could not have been re-elected without the critical support from some of ZANU PF-s MPs. Rather than any one on the ZANU PF-s side crying over spilt milk, it would be more useful to reflect and consider for a moment the extent to which such an outcome, the second time around, might reflect the growing convergence, across the perceived political divide and towards a consensus about obvious national priorities, including the need to have the GNU and its inclusive government succeed in its twin mission of national reconciliation and economic recovery.

To put it simply, there is a fifth column within the Zimbabwean state, purporting both to represent the '-securocrats-- (who, according to this thesis, are opposed to the MDC and its involvement in the GNU) and reflect the mainstream ZANU PF thinking.

All this is reflected in the manner in which, inter alia, the state media is piloted in the hands of a self-appointed '-Prime Minister-- (who, in the words of one senior ZANU PF Politburo member and Cabinet Minister '-is accountable to no one but himself--!); messages carefully crafted and orchestrated so as to create a convenient world view which, though out of sync with the reality on the ground, is systematically projected as the view of the Party, of the President, 'Head of State and Government, and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces-, etc, of the State itself, of the majority of Zimbabweans!

So, it is this little fifth column - made up of no more than five or seven persons, including the self-appointed 'Prime Minister- - that has claimed and assumed a most disproportionate space in the body politic of Zimbabwe. And as long as no one within the ZANU PF establishment has stood up to it publicly, the little fifth column appears to be the state itself, writ large and indispensable. In reality, however, this is a downright reckless and dangerous lot which, in the not-too-distant future, is bound to be shipwrecked as the majority of Zimbabweans, tired and impatient with the dangerous pranks of a few malcontents, lend their support to the emerging convergence across both ZANU PF and the MDC.

Second, the outcome of the meeting of the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security held in Livingstone, Zambia, last Thursday. The fifth column is understandably wounded, even if its response to the tough message from the regional body is nothing less than myopic and even delusional.

Take, for example, this excerpt from The Saturday Herald-s columnist last week: 'While ZANU PF has all along depended on SADC support in its fight against imperialism, it should remember that in the final analysis, it may have to confront imperialism alone. This urges for a none-but-ourselves stance.-

And, probably through the same pen, the strident editorial in the last Sunday Mail, and erstwhile colleague a scandalous attack on South Africa and its President whom the paper describes as 'a dishonest broker-; a position regrettably echoed by my brother Jonathan Moyo who, in my view, is otherwise more informed than his novice editor at The Sunday Mail and his colleague at the Ministry of Information.

Sadly, such reactions constitute an indictment on the Zimbabwe State itself, as long as no one therein stands up to distance the country from the most undiplomatic of utterances against a sister country and its head of state. But even President Mugabe himself cannot be excused, not least for suggesting, as he did in his statement to the ZANU PF central committee last Friday, that SADC is noble only when the regional body is on his side!

The truth is that SADC (inclusive of Zimbabwe!) which, contrary to the assertions of the Saturday Herald-s columnist, has never been anti-imperialist, is merely responding to the reality of global politics, including the ascendancy of the 'doctrine of interventionism- such as we are witnessing not only in North Africa but also in Sierra Leone a few years ago, and now in the Ivory Coast.

In this regard, there might be significance in the fact that South Africa had been guest in Mauritania for the ECOWAS Summit on the Ivory Coast on 29th March 2011, days before the SADC meeting in Livingstone. Reports from there indicate that Nigeria in particular had politely and diplomatically advised South Africa - and, by implication, also those other members of SADC concerned - against meddling in Ivory Coast where ECOWAS, together with the African Union (and the 'imperialists-!), had decided to intervene to make good an election outcome gone wrong: a glaring red card for Gbagbo!

Could it be that the South African President and the other Troika members had taken a leaf from ECOWAS, including the happenings in North Africa reference to which President Banda of Zambia made during the meeting in Livingstone?

Intervention, whether military or otherwise, should remain an anathema in global politics, regardless of whether it is at the hands of imperialists, as in the case of Iraq, a combination of imperialists and the diplomatic support of such neighbours as the Arab League and Nigeria and South Africa, as in the case of Libya, or directly by ECOWAS, as in the case of Ivory Coast. Ultimately, it should always be the responsibility of the citizens of a country to determine its destiny.

However, it is naïve to expect that global politics will always play out according to that book, least of all that this should be so when the rest of the world regards you as a 'rogue state-, when even the best of your friends conclude you are now not only a liability but also a spent force.

Indeed, the pronouncement by the SADC Troika amounts to 'intervention- in Zimbabwe, however benign in real terms and regardless of how offensive it might be to those concerned in Harare. This marks a drastic shift in the balance of forces within SADC and the AU alike, responsive as these bodies are bound to be in the face of global realities, including a "UN Chapter VII-, as the basis upon which intervention per se appears to be premised.

It might be that South Africa has as yet no coherent foreign policy or that it has tended to act impromptu on various issues, including Zimbabwe. But it is self-deception and even delusional for anyone in Harare to believe that South Africa cannot, even when forced to do so impromptu, pluck up the courage and capacity to act on Zimbabwe, as an expression of its national interest, in defence of its capitalists (including the mining houses whose share prices tumbled last week on the back of threats of nationalisation in Harare), or at the promptings of international capital and its 'imperialists-.

For those who have self-appointed themselves the indispensable 'think tank- in the Zimbabwe State, this is not the occasion for arrogant disdain of warnings from SADC nor for reckless rhetoric that has so far scared many an investor and prevented Zimbabwe from capitalising on its enormous human and material resource base and potential. This is the time for a reality check on the part of the fifth column, to decide whether to join the mainstream of political convergence that characterises Zimbabwe today, or continue with reckless abandon, to your own peril in the not-so-distant future.

*Ibbo Mandaza is a Zimbabwean academic, author and publisher.

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