Zimbabwe’s fresh opportunity

Emmerson Mnangagwa retook the oathSunday, August 26, 2018, this time in his right as the elected president of Zimbabwe. He was named a president in November 2017 following the ouster of former President Robert Mugabe by the military. Before then, his job seemed to be on the line as Mugabe lined up his wife for the office.
Mnangagwa won the July 31 elections in the southern African country. Congratulations to President Mnangagwa and the people of Zimbabwe.
Mnangagwa assumed office with the promise of a new chapter or even a new book for the people of Zimbabwe. His tone was conciliatory and unifying. He stated, among others, “The vision of a new and prosperous Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe we want, is a shared one and transcends political party lines. As your President, I pledge to act fairly and impartially, without fear or favour, as a President of all Zimbabweans. I am your listening President, a servant leader.”
Leaders from neighbouring countries witnessed the inauguration. They came from South Africa, Rwanda, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Before the elections, Mnangagwa had allowed Zimbabweans to experience the freedoms the government denied them in the many years of Mugabe. He allowed free expression of political views and lifted police checkpoints across the country. Citizens felt bold enough to air those views and to vote as their conscience dictated.
Unfortunately, the elections in Zimbabwe followed a familiar African script. The opposition party queried the victory of ZANU-PF. They also now allege a clampdown.
Electoral observers also queried the outcome. Those from the European Union spoke of voter intimidation and lack of media coverage for opposition parties and candidates. Their counterparts from the United States alleged that the ruling party deployed the military to intimidate voters and gave out food aid only to party loyalists.
The matter went to court. The justices dismissed the opposition’s case on Friday, August 24, creating the enabling condition for the swearing in of the president. They had accused the electoral commission of collusion with the government in delaying the result to allow the government inflate the tally in its favour. Opposition supporters protested in Harare, the capital but the government called out the military. They killed seven people. Later, they arrested 27 others, raided the offices of MDC and sent out an arrest warrant for the opposition leader, 40-years old Nelson Chamisa.
Even more common in the unfolding story in Zimbabwe are the allegations of the opposition. Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC Alliance), claimed victory after the ballot. Now he alleges denial of rights.
He stated,”There is freedom of expression,but there is no freedom after expression. There is freedom to vote,but there is no freedom after a vote. In the rural areas, people’s houses get burned, destroyed, on account of expressing themselves. It’s un-African, it is undemocratic, it is unacceptable. And this is the issue we must be able to resolve, because five years from now, 20 years from now, we will still have a vicious circle of disputed elections.”
Mnangagwa won with a narrow 50.8percent of the popular vote. The victory earned him a five-year term. His ZANU-PF, however, won two-thirds of the seats in the 149-person parliament. The considerable majority means the party can alter the constitution at will.
His success now affirmed by the courts, the new president has a fresh opportunity to write a new narrative for that beleaguered country. Much of the world looked forward to the promise of Zimbabwe following its independence in 1980. Reggae star Bob Marley waxed poetic in a song about the liberation of Zimbabwe, the former British enclave known as Rhodesia.
Marley thought the internal power struggle was a “little problem” that Zimbabweans could come together to overcome with independence. Alas. Mugabe was not the “real revolutionary” envisioned in the song. It has not happened, and Zimbabwe under long-term ruler Robert Mugabe crashed the hopes of its citizens and blacks across the world. Mugabe became a byword for sit-tight rulers, dictatorship and oppression of citizens.
Poor governance resulted in poor outcomes on all indices. At a time, Zimbabwe suffered from the world’s worst case of runaway inflation. A hitherto rich country turned from a bread basket to a leaking bucket that impoverished its people even more than under white minority authoritarian rule
Mnangagwa’s challenge and opportunity are to rewrite the story of Zimbabwe, to be the real revolutionary that would usher in a new era for the country. He must bring the people together. He must stop the repression that earned his country the sanctions of Western donor nations since 2002.
It could be a new dawn in Zimbabwe if Mnangagwa, the enforcer of Mugabe’s bad practices over the years, can turn a new leaf. Can Zimbabwe change for better now that Mnangagwa is in office in his right? The world awaits.