via Zimbabwe’s ideal President – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 19, 2015 by Vince Musewe
Our President must only use his or her conscience and good offices to serve all, with no fear or favour to praise singers and parasites.
It must not matter what political party any President belongs to, whoever it is must truly represent the interests of all Zimbabweans regardless of race, political affiliation gender or ethnicity.
I seriously think that if we are to change the political narrative in Zimbabwe, we need a new President who has the character to act beyond narrow political party interests and realise that Zimbabwe has all it needs to be a prosperous and inclusive democracy.
As I have said before, we must use people power to liberate politics and not expect politics to liberate us.
Our next President must not belong to any political party so that he or she will be able to put Zimbabwe and its people first. That is to say, we need an independent President who holds no political baggage or has any political favours to meet when he or she occupies the highest office in the land.
This will also mean our President will not have time to play politics but only have around him people who share the vision of the Zimbabwe we want.
For me this is the only way we can break predator politics and the toxic patronage that has cost us so much.
We must also have a strong Parliament that owes no favour to the person who is President and looks only at the interests of the country, not the political party they come from. Our judiciary must truly be independent and appointed based on ethics and competence and deliver fair justice.
The judiciary would make the best decisions that serve Zimbabwe and not the President.
We must create a non-partisan professional army and police that are headed by the best amongst us. When it comes to ministers, we must have the best of the best that can be hired or fired based only on ethics, competence and loyalty to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, not loyalty to a President.
In my paradigm, ministers should not have to be MPs, but must be accountable to Parliament. In fact, they must be vetted and recommended by Parliament for appointment.
In this scenario, Parliament will have the courage to impeach a President without fear if he or she breaks the law. They will also have the power to recommend the dismissal of ministers.
Ministers would do their job and retain their positions not because they are loyal to a President, but because they are delivering. Zimbabwe does not really need deputy ministers and there should be no such thing as a permanent secretary of this and that.
We need just about 12 ministries backed by a professional technical team to deliver. No minister or senior civil servant should run a business or do business with the government.
They must be paid well of course.
We must see a President who fights corruption tooth and nail with no fear or favour and demand total accountability from all public servants.
Our President must not care what the media says as long as they are within the law.
He must not want to control radio or television. There should be total freedom of speech and association unhindered by a government or the President.
Under such stewardship, Zimbabwe would be an attractive investment destination and we would get the economy back on track in a very short space of time.
There should be no indigenisation laws at all except local content requirements where foreign investors must stimulate the development of a local production base through the supply chain.
We must focus on agriculture revival based on titled property ownership, use tourism as the country’s public relations platform, create an independent minerals revenue board made up of the best professionals to maximise the country’s return on its mineral assets, attract all Zimbabweans in the Diaspora back through incentives and tax holidays, focus on youth empowerment and development, accelerate access to information on all platforms for all, focus on human capital development as the competitive advantage of the country, have a crack police force to deal with corruption and protect those that are vulnerable through welfare.
Genuine war veterans must receive special status and must be looked after by the State for life.
While our land policy must be based on title and the establishment of industrial food production and value-add hubs that incorporate small-scale farmers who would have title to their land, large-scale industrial farms can be owned by any citizen or company with no discrimination whatsoever.
This is the Zimbabwe that some of us imagine and nothing is impossible.
Vince Musewe is an author and economist. You can contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com
COMMENTS
Vincent-Your line of thinking makes you an ideal candidate to follow Dzamara.
You should be President Vincent. Say your mind and it will set us all free.
This is an interesting article by Vince but one that shows the damage Mugabe has done over the years.
When people think president they think Mugabe but he is the poorest example of a president any country can have and I think Vince has based his view here on the presidency of Mugabe.
I think there is nothing wrong with a president who comes from a party as long as they are constitutional safeguards which are observed. Mugabe however, is a kind of a president whatever the constitution says he will ignore it if it doesn’t suit his agenda or stops him from pursuing his evil goals.
For example he ignored his own party’s constitution to have one woman as deputy and instead installed Mnangagwa because that’s what he(or his wife) wanted.
He openly says those who do not support his party will get nothing from his government and he makes sure they suffer which you wouldn’t expect from any normal president but Mugabe is the worst president this world can have – brutal, ruthless and doesn’t care.
So Vince there are Zimbabweans out there who can make out far better leaders, who will rule for the better of all and obeying the constitution and make sure that everyone benefits from whatever the country have.
Well that’s easy so the president should be:
White cos Mugabe is black.
Non racist cos Mugabe is racist
Democratic cos Mugabe is a dictator
Duly elected cos Mugabe has rigged all polls
A good governor cos Mugabe is the worst
An educated person cos Mugabe despite his degrees is not educated
Serve the country cos Mugabe has served his own interests
Alive cos Mugabe is a fossil
Younger than 50 cos Mugabe is 91
Follow the lands constitution cos Mugabe doesn’t
And so on.
It’s a real pity that Zimbabweans can’t see the old doddering fool for what he truly is and continue to support zanupf. But we can only dream on. Words and the pen have failed so its time to seek alternative solutions.
I wish that I Was in a chance to return to Zimbabwe,the land were my wife and kids were born,to invest and to work hard,but the risk of failure is too high.i am rich enough to do some smal investments but not wealthy enough to fail .I am too honest to survive on funny deals which make my neighbour and society suffer because I am a part of society. My kids do not know really know the land were they were born. What’s the use if I can shop and live safely in Borrowdale but suffer in Kuwadzana or High Fields. Please my fellow brothers and sisters unity and hard work is the key to survival no matter what your political affiliation might be. The next president should be the hardest working person of the country,the most honest and compassionate member of society no matter what his ethnic background might be. A father for all Zimbos a man or woman who’s heart bleeds when his neighbour suffers and who would do anything to make it better so that the whole society can develop and prosper ,not a person who appears on big posters all over the country no matter to which political party he or she belongs.I am convinced that if people would be able to feed themselves properly,have decent but humble housing,send their kids to school and get medical attention when needed the majority would be satisfied. Hard working intelligent people can accumulate wealth but should do it always with the good for society in mind. I am aware that this a very difficult and painstaking exercice but not impossible.
It’s about government corruption,education,poverty systems that tend to repeat themselves for quite some time until they can be broken. It’s always up to the overall masses of people in a particular country as to what they will settle for.The power is in the people if they want it.I don’t think you should think so narrow about blacks.All races have had disastrous societies at different times in history.Also, some countries choose to preserve their culture instead of embrace technology. Differences in national income (in the form of per capita gross domestic product) are correlated with differences in the average national intelligence quotient (IQ). The authors further argue that differences in average national IQs constitute one important factor, but not the only one, contributing to differences in national wealth and rates of economic growth.