Will Mnangagwa be king?

via Will Mnangagwa be king? – NewsDay Zimbabwe 6 November 2014 by Vince Musewe

It’s quite obvious to some of us that President Robert Mugabe had no clue on the potential of this country when we inherited it from Ian Smith.

A couple of months back, I conjectured that Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa would not necessarily be bad as President of Zimbabwe moving forward. I still hold that view because I think that, despite his sordid past and his alleged hand in fraudulently prolonging Mugabe’s reign, which, of course, has been disastrous for all of us, he does have some gravitas to be the Head of State.

Given the dearth of leadership within Zanu PF, we may have to accept him for now. The question we must ask is whether this will be good for Zimbabwe or not.

In my opinion, Zimbabwe needs a paradigm shift in the President’s Office. I am convinced that, on coming into office in 1980, Mugabe had no clue on, first, what we inherited, and, second, on the unimaginable upside potential of this country.

I doubt whether to this day he can fathom how much potential he has arrested merely for political expediency.

In order to appreciate this, one only has to look at the decimation of agriculture, the opportunities in the mining sector, the underperformance of our tourism sector, the destruction of our State enterprises, the dilapidated infrastructure, the under-utilisation of our industrial capacity as a country and the huge diverse skills base that we once had.

Zimbabwe has a mindboggling potential because of what we inherited from Smith. As far I am concerned, our country is a miracle waiting to happen and I somehow believe that someone like Mnangagwa, being the businessman he is, would appreciate that and, at least, move this country onto a better developmental trajectory.

However, in order for us to unleash the potential of this country, we will not only have to take a different path than that taken by Mugabe since independence, especially on agriculture and indigenisation, but we will also have to attract our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora back home.

We do have the potential to even surpass South Africa, especially when it comes to productivity, literacy, skills base, work ethic and low crime levels; there is no doubt about that in my mind.

However, in order to do that, we cannot afford to prolong our predator politics. We must accelerate the creation of a developmental State.

The erratic winds of political change seem to be pointing in Mnangagwa’s direction and the momentum is certainly gathering. I am sure if he prevails, we are going first to see a more disciplined government, the purging of deadwood and government parasites, thieves and delinquents, improved human rights, simply because he must exonerate himself from the ghosts of the past, and a more pragmatic informed approach to international relations. That would be my advice to him.

I doubt that we shall see as much transparency within government in the short-term, but I think we are certainly going to be in a better position than we have been since 2000.

I also suspect that he will try and address the Mugabe historical legacy with the British establishment and, hopefully, begin to address the land issue, particularly with regard to maximum utilisation of land assets, food security and the removal of conflict on land.

He will, of course, want to win 2018 elections, there is no doubt about that, and that could be his Achilles heel. You see, Zanu PF are most unlikely to win any free and fair election in Zimbabwe simply because the injury done to that brand by Mugabe, regardless of who might be at the helm in the future, is irrecoverable.

Given Mnangagwa’s hand in past elections, especially the 2008 and 2013 polls, I remain worried and doubtful that we will see the election standards that we want. We will, therefore, have to create the necessary pressure.

So in the event that Mnangagwa becomes king, we ought to consider how we can take advantage of the leadership change and encourage him to take an inclusive approach when it comes to issues of national interest, especially economic recovery, better resource management, the fight against corruption, poverty alleviation and the rebuilding of the country’s capacity to produce in both the private and public sectors.

My advice to him would be as follows:

First, he should ensure that our laws are aligned to our new Constitution as a matter of national priority. We must see our MPs being more serious on this issue;

Second, we need to create jobs urgently, and this can only happen if we attract investors back into the country;

Third, he must be tough on corruption within government and within State enterprises. No investor is going to invest in entities where there is no transparency and accountability;

Fourth, I would definitely want to see some ministers go especially in key sectors such as agriculture, energy, ICT,
environment, local government, transport, education and health;

Fifth, for our economic recovery, the revival of agriculture is key. The land audit must be completed and we must plan and rationalise our land use, land tenure, including the resolution of the dispute on land assets.

That would certainly indicate that things have changed at the top; and,

Last, I would encourage him to take a more inclusive approach and engage with all democratic movements within the country to build consensus on the future of our country, it must be clear to him that Zanu PF can no longer go it alone nor can they afford any political arrogance that we have seen to date.

If he were to do only the above things up to 2018, I would call it progress.

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