Zanu-PF: True path to economic emancipation
By: Vernon Kathemba
Posted: Friday, January 21, 2011 11:16 pm
IT is trite that the land reform programme has been viewed from a myriad of perspectives. In some quarters, the land reform programme has been vilified and relegated to the realm of political tomfoolery and labelled the height of political blunder.
Nothing more than a manifestation of Zanu-PF’s desperation to hold onto political power in the face of a clear and impending defeat at the upcoming 2000 polls by the MDC.
On the other hand, others have praised the land reform programme as a second wave of Chimurenga in terms whereof the indigenous population has taken control of our economic destiny in the face of opposition from imperialist external forces bent on keeping Zimbabwe as another debt ridden third world state whose citizens yield very little, if any economic power.
As a young 31 year old lawyer steeped in the Western ideological tradition, I must admit that I was initially persuaded to the former position, and I regarded the land reform programme as a gravely pernicious pursuit.
Today however, I am not ashamed to admit that my views have since changed, and I implore all Zimbabweans, particularly the youth, to change their attitude to the land reform programme for the reasons I will elucidate below.
In order to appreciate how much of a master stroke the land reform programme truly is, one has to be willing to advance their understanding of socio-political-economic and legal issues beyond the strictures imposed by neo-liberal discourse.
In other words, in order to have a proper conception of the genius inherent in the land reform programme, one has to go beyond neo-liberal criteria in order to evaluate the actions taken by the government of the day.
Acquisition of land through colonisation
It is impossible to deal with the land question without first taking into account the manner in which our erstwhile colonial masters acquired land from our African forebears.
In this regard, one is confronted with a stark reality. The reality in this regard being that Colonialists struggled to shroud the true nature of their enterprise under a thin veneer of legality. This veneer is apparent in documents and treaties such as the Rudd Concession which purportedly provided a “lawful” basis for the annexation of various territories.
These documents are very easy to dismiss from a legal standpoint. The most obvious reason being that the British common law of contract was not enforceable in the various annexed African territories, therefore these concessions could not have the purported legal effect since the obligations they allegedly created were founded on a foreign legal system that was not enforceable in the territory where these same obligations were supposed to be enforced.
In the premises, it is clear that properly construed, colonialism was nothing more than a naked military dispossession cloaked in an illusory veneer of Western idiosyncracies meant to justify what was in reality the act of conquest and subjugation.
The dilemma of the post colonial state
The issue then is what does this mean for the post-colonial state that seeks to close the curtain on the opera of maladies conceived by the colonial state and visited upon the African population with the well documented dire social, political and economic consequences?
It is trite since the end of the cold war, the dominant political discourse and cognitive model is that of neo-liberal democracy. As such, the post colonial state finds itself constrained by this model in the formulation and implementation of its domestic and foreign policies.
Given the dependence of most Third World States on Foreign Aid, and the neo-liberal conditions attached thereto by Financiers such as the World Bank which serve the interests of the Western Military and Industrial Complex, it is extremely difficult for the post colonial African State to implement policies that do not conform to the neo-liberal model as these conditions would negate the interests of the Western Military and Industrial Complex.
The Zanu-PF Choice
This brings us to the question of our dear Zimbabwe as a post-colonial state. Without question, the fast track land reform programme was at variance with the dominant neo-liberal model. However, I believe that criticism of the land reform programme should go beyond neo-liberal semantics.
The key issue to me is whether or not the land reform programme has addressed the issue of dispossession, since as outlined above, this was the true character and essence of colonialism.
In my view, the land reform programme represents the best opportunity for addressing the glaring issue of dispossession through conquest. Furthermore, it offers the majority of Zimbabweans a unique opportunity i.e. the opportunity to become masters of their own destiny.
It is an extremely rare opportunity to be afforded the chance to possess land at no cost. Most people are going to spend the rest of their lives paying rental or mortgages in a bid to acquire some right to occupy land. Well here the government of Zimbabwe is giving us all the opportunity to have our own piece of land at no cost to ourselves. All we need to show is that we are citizens and sons of the soil. What a marvellous opportunity this is indeed.
Instead of complaining about the lack of capital and inputs etc, our people need to develop an enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit that will see them solve the challenges associated with farming so as to render the land productive.
We need to cultivate a noir Zimbabwean free from the bondage of Western middle-class neo-liberal thinking. The Zimbabwean of today should regard himself as a Pioneer. Just like Rhodesia was created through the tenacity and relentlessness of the British Pioneer Column, we need Zimbabwean Pioneers who see the enormous opportunity presented by Zanu-PF's fast track land reform programme.
The MDC Choice
To me, the MDC as far as the future of Zimbabwe is concerned represents an alignment of Zimbabwe with the dominant neo-liberal model.
Without doubt, the adherence of Zimbabwe to this model will yield benefits to the people of Zimbabwe.
However, I stress that these benefits will be nothing but an illusion which will in the final analysis keep the country and the people in a state of unconscious bondage and slavery to the Western Military and Industrial Complex. This model of development is currently being applied in South Africa.
However, will this sort of policy ultimately address the lingering question of dispossession and the empowerment of indigenous people beyond the middle class level? I do not think so and this is a key difference between the MDC and Zanu-PF approach that each voter needs to understand.
The Zanu-PF way is without doubt the hard way, however, it is in the long term the best way.
The MDC way is a short term solution that will ultimately lead Zimbabwe into the abyss of individual poverty, Third World debt and subservience to the Western Military and Industrial Complex. All we will have to show for the wealth in our country is an indigenous middle class with no real economic power and access to resources.
This is the reality of the global context in which our country operates, and ultimately the difference between Zanu-PF and MDC policies reveals two different paths to our social, political and economic development as a nation both domestically and internationally.
Zanu-PF needs to articulate its position on these issues a lot more clearly so that the average unsophisticated thinker steeped in neo-liberal ideology does not simply dismiss its position as mere propaganda. Our country is truly at an ideological precipice, and we as its citizens need to understand which path of alignment our vote represents.
Personally, I would vote for the path to true economic empancipation. Zimbabwe is now the new frontier, and as Zimbabweans we need to appreciate that in order for us to make the most of the fast track land reform programme.
* Vernon Kathemba is a lawyer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Labels: FAST TRACK, LAND REFORM, NEOLIBERALISM, ZANU-PF
Read more...
A dose of reality on sanctions for MDC
Dambudzo Mapuranga - Opinion
Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:17:00 +0000
THEY say, "Politics is an overwhelming game and it has a tendency of turning grown men and women into tall tale telling children". The maturity of some of our political leaders needs to be questioned because their behaviour is disgraceful. They say, "Empty vessels make the most noise," and while in politics empty vessels have their uses, putting them in charge of anything other than food and beverage is most certainly a big mistake.
Rewarding chief supporters by giving them posts in government is a common practice, what is an exception is giving these political friends high profile portfolios where they find themselves at every turn displaying their empty vessel characteristics and constantly shoving their feet in their mouths.
Political friends and colleagues are given the safe embassy, a strong deputy, or even a ministry where all you do is read the newspaper.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Gorden Moyo certainly takes the cake when it comes to being an empty vessel.
Unlike his principal Prime Minister Tsvangirai, Moyo has no constituency to talk of and like Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara is riding on the coattails of others.
Plucked from the Bulawayo Agenda, a group that was formed solely for regime change purposes and funded by the West, he has the nerve to try and lecture Zimbabweans on what is good and bad for them.
Minister Moyo, instead of advocating unity among Zimbabweans is instead continually sowing seeds of discord that have always been his mantle as a regime change devotee.
His hatred for Zanu PF blinds his vision and parroting the Prime Minister’s half-educated stances on national issues exposes his lack of depth.
As a political appointee, he should stick to what he knows best, smiling for the cameras and chanting slogans and leave the tackling of real issues to the big boys.
When Minister Moyo refuses to say the word “sanctions” not only is he denying any wrongdoing on the MDC’s part, he is also subjecting Zimbabweans to further economic hardships, poverty, and psychological damage.
There are sanctions written in black and white on Zimbabwe and sugarcoating the word will not make the pill less bitter.
The MDC called for sanctions and this is a documented fact.
The Prime Minister addressed the Sub-Committee on African Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US, the Foreign Relations Committee itself and interacted on numerous occasions with the members of these committees in a bid to push for regime change agenda in Zimbabwe through sanctions among other tactics.
Infact, on some of his visits to the US, Prime Minister Tsvangirai was introduced to other Senators and Representatives in a bid to buy votes for the Bill that later became ZIDERA.
So when the MDC turns around and says it is not their responsibility to deal with the issue of sanctions, who do they think they are fooling?
Forget all that nonsense about Zimbabwe having failed to pay its interest on loans and as such it cannot get any more money from global financial institutions.
How many countries in Africa and Latin America have had their debt cancelled or restructuredd under the increased North-South cooperation umbrella?
How is Zimbabwe different from any of these countries?
Why has America refused to engage the one man who matters the most when it comes to Zimbabwe, its President Robert Mugabe?
America is holding to the belief that its true and tried method of destabilizing countries through poverty and economic strangulation will work anytime soon as the MDC-T consolidates its regime change agenda through its position in the inclusive Government.
The coloured reading glasses came off soon enough for Finance Minister Tendai Biti. What used to be good for the goose remains good for the gander and as such the poor man is having problems trying to find a way out for Zimbabwe’s empty coffers. [See Youtube: The MDC Finally Accepts The Effect Of Sanctions - MrK]
Given his animosity to the RBZ governor Dr Gideon Gono, Biti is not likely to try out the two heads think better than one strategy.
His recent actions expose him for the fake that he is. Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister certainly likes being in the news.
Well, I have a headline for him “Minister Fired For Stupidity”. Unfortunately he cannot be fired because his boss the Prime Minister has no control over him and President Mugabe wanting to keep the peace in the inclusive Government will have to find someway of pulling us out of this latest escapade.
Who in their right mind refuses US$510 million loan with 0.26 interest when they have an empty pocket and a whole country that needs attention?
Biti needs to stop playing fiefdom with Zimbabwe’s economy and finances.
While I understand that those from the MDC-T pinnacle in government are getting salary subsidies from their paymasters, sorry partners in the West, they are condemning the rest of Zimbabwe to poverty.
History teaches a very important lesson time and again: Keep the masses full and happy and you can get away with practically anything. A hungry man is an angry man. Marie Antoinette learnt that the hard way.
While the Bitis and Chamisas of the MDC-T were suckling their mothers' breasts, the men and women who form Zanu PF’s support base were living by hook and crook fighting for their freedom.
To have the MDC-T call themselves democrats and reformers is an insult to the name Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was not born out of selfish individuals like those witnessed in the MDC-T hierarchy who like the proverbial dog, bites that hand of its owner.
How would our reformers like it now that they are in government to have South Africa cut of electricity and close its borders to Zimbabwe because their party refuses to honor what it signed up for in the GPA?
Only men with no dignity have the gall to continually deny what is evident to the ordinary Zimbabwean.
While the MDC-T thinks it is hiding its shame, it is actually exposing itself. The long and short of the story is this: "If you take a thief and make him the hen house guard, you cannot blame anyone but yourself when the chickens start missing".
The MDC-T took thieves, rapists, liars who are good at pleasing and entertaining crowds and made them their representatives, so when their members of parliament, councillors and ministers start stealing, extorting bribes, and raping, the party has no one to blame but itself.
Accusations of selective prosecution, arrests, and sentencing are nothing more but smoke screens to displace attention on the band of criminals some people made the mistake of voting for last year.
Sanctions, restrictive measures, travel and trade bans or whatever one may choose to call them, have done one thing and that is ruin the lives of many decent hard working Zimbabweans.
It is an affront to the men and women of this country to have self-serving pundits disguised as politicians to ask them to compromise their nationalistic values for thirty pieces of silver.
What has been happening in the Prime Minister’s office needs to be stopped.
I am one of the many Zimbabweans who are tired of sitting in a bus that is going nowhere because it has flat wheels, no engine, and certainly no fuel.
Despite promises by the "whindis" that the bus will be departing soon, the bus driver is yet to start the bus because apparently he can't find the key. The mechanic who is fixing the engine does not have any qualifications and his eyes have a glint in them that is typical of mentally deranged persons. The wheels that are being fitted on the bus are all of different sizes and the fuel container was contaminated so the conductor and another "whindi" are trying to clean it.
It is quite obvious this marriage is not working out, continued hate speech from top portfolio holders in the MDC-T indicates that nothing has really changed.
Recently Senator Gutu wrote an article where he was discussing the matter of having all top senior civil servants and politicians declare their assets.
In his usual half-truth telling manner, he went on and on about how there are no sanctions but just corrupt leaders. Well Senator Gutu sure is a chip off the old block when it comes to his anti Zanu PF rhetoric. His father would be very pleased that he is one apple that did not fall far from the tree.
Maybe Senator Gutu and his fellow MDC-Ts can start by coming out in the open about the salaries they have been receiving from the World Bank and all those manies they have been receiving from the US to sell our birth right and explain to us what exactly this kind of practice is called. I call it corruption mixed with a little bit of greed and a pinch of deceit.
The MDC-T has been a puppet programme for regime change since its inception.
Eddie Cross who now goes around calling himself a democrat these days and comparing President Mugabe to Hitler can attest to the fact that all that “they” want are their farms back and everything will be peachy.
It is satanic for the Crosses and Gutus of the MDC-T to continue to vilify the only party whose ethos embraces the essence of what it means to be Zimbabwean.
Take note dear MP and Senator. The only reason you hold these positions is because your sponsors proved to have deeper pockets than the men and women who gave their youth and lives to fight exactly what you represent
Eddie Cross, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, Obert Gutu, Gile Mutsekwa, Morgan Tsvangirai are not the ordinary man on the street. When one of their children, wives, or even themselves falls sick, they do not take a moment to ask around what is cheaper and better going to the neighborhood doctor, clinic or general hospital or which pharmacy has cheaper medication.
They are not bothered that the measly US$150 they are getting as a salary cannot last past payday. Their bills are catered for. They have no transport worries. They have party and government vehicles, which is why they can say with a straight face: "There are no sanctions on Zimbabwe."
They say if you repeat a lie long enough it becomes the truth, but this lie is just refusing to become the truth.
Why is it that it is only those in the MDC-T who refuse to acknowledge that there are sanctions on Zimbabwe? The AU, Sadc, and many leaders on the continent have all called for the removal of sanctions and yet a handful of men and women refuse to accept what everyone else sees.
Freedom, justice and democracy were not handed over in a plate to blacks and it is surely not going to be handed back in a plate.
Rhodesian mercenary turned MDC-T policy coordinator Eddie Cross got it right, no money will come from “our leading friends in the world community” until “we deliver on these key issues”; top issue being the reversal of the Land Reform Programme.
The reason they say Rhodies never die is because they have no place to be buried. Rhodesia is gone and Zimbabwe will never be a resting place for them.
The earth of Zimbabwe has refused to give rest and peace to these evil men that is why they seek to now use fancy terms and rules to coerce our land to accept them.
Labels: FAST TRACK, GORDEN MOYO, HIPC, LAND REFORM, MDC, RHODESIANS, SANCTIONS, TENDAI BITI, ZDERA
Read more...
