THIS country is now 133 years old since the first European settlers took occupation in 1893. My father once said to me that he could not think of an extended period when we had stability and growth.
Life in this country was always a roller coaster. Just when you think we are at last getting our act together, we do something to disrupt the occasion.
Our political leaders have all served for long periods of time: Lord Malvern for 37 years, Ian Smith for 15, Robert Mugabe 37 years. I know from my experience of corporate management that it is impossible to remain fresh and innovative for these prolonged periods in high-stress positions. This was recognised by our current government when they limited the tenure of all top civil servants and business executives to two terms of five years.
Our current president came to power in 2018 after he won the elections in that year. After 2008, the 2018 elections were about as representative as you could get. I attended his inauguration along with another 60,000 Zimbabweans and dozens of dignitaries and heard him pledge to respect and honour the constitution that we as a country had adopted in 2013 with 93 percent of the vote.
Since then, he has served his first term of five years plus another three and has two years to go until he must step down. But remember, this is a man who at the age of 16 joined the liberation struggle, was sentenced to death when he was 18 and then served until 1964 in a high security prison in Harare before being deported to Zambia.
He rejoined the liberation struggle and when we gained Independence in 1980, he was appointed minister of state security. He faithfully served Mugabe for the next 37 years before forcing him into retirement in 2017. Not an easy life.
Despite repeated undertakings to respect the constitution, he has now presided over a process to extend his term to 2030 when he will be close to 90 years old and to centralise even more power in the hands of the presidency. Even worse, he intends to simply force these changes through the parliament where he is confident of a two thirds majority. And yet the constitution requires a referendum.
This is the third major amendment to the constitution of 2013 in a short period of time, but by far the most substantial.
Like all the liberation era political parties that have dominated the political life of Africa since the ‘winds of change’ swept through the continent, Zanu PF is losing popular support. The ANC of South Africa, the oldest and possibly the most significant of these parties, has lost its majority and seems on its way to total self-destruction.
Zanu PF has earned a reputation in Africa as a movement that has developed the manipulation of democracy to a fine art. In my view, they have not won an election since 1980 and have consistently manipulated or decimated the opposition, from the genocide from 1983 to 1987 against Zapu to the deliberate falsification of the 2008 elections accompanied by the burning of the ballot.
When their political and economic delinquency forced regional countries, led by South Africa, to force change and form a Government of National Unity in 2009, we saw real reform and progress. Once this pressure was lifted, Zanu PF went back to normal, but were lumbered with a constitution crafted in a transparent manner and approved by a massive majority in 2013.
Now they are attempting to remove those shackles and create a situation where they can impose a new president on the country and govern into the future, even though they would clearly lose any election held under supervision and on a free and fair basis.
This is a tactical and political error. It is possible for a liberation based party to retain power after the transition they engineered but is taking a serious effort to renew leadership and policy.
In Mozambique, the Frelimo party lost the recent election there by a narrow margin, forced their candidate to take power but in the process turned to new leadership that came out of the post liberation era in that country. The new president told me that his main task was to rebuild national support for Frelimo, and he is changing policy and taking steps to limit corruption and other excesses of power that characterise many parties in Africa.
With two years to go in his present term in office, the greatest challenge for Mnangagwa and Zanu PF is how to elect new leadership that will represent our young population and give them hope. My generation of leadership has run its course and, in many ways, have failed our country. It’s time for the next generation to step forward.
My years in the opposition against Smith and then Mugabe have given me a good understanding of the capacity of the majority to recognise merit and real change. This country is ready for that, and as soon as someone offers this package to the country, they will vote for it. Political parties have no choice but to comply.
The attempt to avoid these changes in power will fail in one form or another. History has clearly shown this, and our country is more than ready for real change.
If these constitutional changes are just a ploy to avoid the democratic change of leadership in the Zanu PF party, it might well seal their fate.
As for the present opposition, they are just a laugh. The party that led the struggle for democracy and a new constitution in Zimbabwe, the MDC, no longer has a single member in parliament.
Eddie Cross is an economist, former opposition MP and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s official biographer