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UNPACKING THE CRISIS IN ZIBABWE

Who is who and what is what
Wednesday 2 September 2020

LECTURE POINTS
Jonathan N. Moyo

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1. In this presentation, I show that Zimbabwe has been a country in

continuous crisis since 1980 with reference to six unresolved

foundational questions: (1) the national question, (ii) the

economic question, (iii) the equity question, (iv) the law and

order question, (v) the sovereignty question and (vi)

fundamentally important consent question. While all of these

questions have remained unresolved over the last 40 years, the

one which has been particularly pronounced and has triggered the

current full-blown crisis is the consent question.

2. Against this backdrop, it should be noted that, as a rule,

officialdom in Zimbabwe never acknowledges any crisis. According

to the official line, Zimbabwe has been a paradise on earth since

18 April 1980. The only fleeting exception was in 13 November

2017 when the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) executed a

military coup to ostensibly “remove the criminal elements that had

surrounded the former President (Robert Mugabe), resulting in

ANXIETY AND DESPONDENCY among our people”. But even

with this unprecedented intervention that deposed President

Mugabe and imposed Emmerson Mnangagwa as President of

Zimbabwe, neither ZDF nor ZanuPF described the situation

leading to that coup as a “crisis”.

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3. Basically, “crisis” is a bad word in ZDF and ZanuPF circles. It is

something that other countries experience, but not Zimbabwe

under ZDF and ZanuPF.

4. Yet it is common cause that Zimbabweans today are under the

grip of unprecedented anxiety and despondency, which make the

situation that obtained in the run up to the November 2017 military

coup look like an early Sunday morning picnic. The simple fact is

that the country is in the jaws of a crippling crisis:

• that’s why Zimbabwe’s real rate of annual inflation was

706% yesterday (1 September 2020);

• that is why the country’s GDP has shrunk by some eight

percent;

• that is why some seven million Zimbabweans are living

from hand to mouth, well below the poverty datum line

facing starvation and needing urgent humanitarian

assistance;

• that is why the country is crumbling with 90%

unemployment, leaving only the public service standing

out as the formal employment sector;

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 • that is why the country is experiencing unprecedented

levels of capital and skills flight with the Diaspora

whose population is hoovering around six million

Zimbabweans, with some five million of them in South

Africa, and more heading the same way and into other

neighbouring countries;

• that is why lives and livelihoods in Zimbabwe today

have become threatened and endangered by a regime

which has adopted a crude law and order approach to

just about everything, including economic policy; and

• that is why the ANC resolved yesterday that it and its

government will engage ZanuPF and other parties to

find solutions to what it described as a crisis that South

Africa is feeling not only at the Beitbridge Border but

also inside that country.

5. Therefore, the crisis in Zimbabwe has become palpable and

ubiquitous. While the manifestations of the crisis are clear, its

structural features remain fuzzy. For this reason, it is important to

unpack the crisis in terms of who is who and what is what, in the

hope that such a deconstruction will enable a viable and

sustainable resolution of the crisis.

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6. One of the most vexing political questions in the study of state

politics is how to unpack the prevailing interests and sentiments of

society to understand and explain what is happening, and the

implications thereof, without falling prey to the vagaries of

propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation.

7. Without entangling ourselves in the web of methodological

trappings, and informed by the praxis dictum that theory always

follows practice, a tried and tested methodology of unpacking the

prevailing and thus dominant interests and sentiments of society is

to identify the public quarrels of the day, name the protagonists in

the quarrels, delineate the options they have and evaluate the

implications thereof.

The main reason why the unpacking of quarrels of the day is

critical to understanding what is happening in society is because

human interaction is by definition a product of conflict and

consensus.

8. Sociologically speaking, the dialectic of conflict and consensus

manifests itself in paradigmatic and secondary ways. When the

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 dialectic is paradigmatic, it means the predominant situation in the

public sphere is conflictual and consensus is minimal or absent.

9. Where conflict is predominant as discerned from the quarrels of

the day, it means there are fundamental or foundational questions

that are unresolved. Such a situation inevitably leads to a CRISIS.

10. Without belabouring the point, CRISIS is the absence of

consensus and the prevalence of CONFLICT over a public quarrel

in society. Put differently, CRISIS is the CONSEQUENCE of an

UNRESOLVED QUESTION in society. The crisis can be IMPLICIT

or EXPLICIT. A country with implicit or explicit crisis is by definition

prone to instability and its destructive consequences.

11. Over the last 40 years, and more particularly since the

November 2017 military coup, Zimbabwe has been under the grip

of SIX UNRESOLVED PARAGDIMATIC QUESTIONS.

12. These six unresolved foundational questions are:

(i) The National Question

(ii) The Economic Question
(iii) The Equity Question
(iv) The Law & Order Question
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 (v) The Sovereignty Question
(vi) The Consent Question

13. The mishandling of the first question led to the gukurahundi

genocide between 1980 and 1987; and the attempt to resolve it

through the controversial 1987 Unity Accord between PF Zapu and

Zanu PF ended in failure. In any event, while questions (i) to (v)

have plagued state politics in the country since 1980 as centres of

IMPLICIT crisis, question (vi) has stood out since Zimbabwe’s

Independence as a centre of EXPLICIT crisis in the country.

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 14. Below is a schematic outline of the six unresolved conflicts or

questions, to illustrate but not exhaust the point, starting with the

National Question.

UNRESOLVED CONFLICTING CONFLICT ISSUES

CONFLICT FORCES
1. THE • Refusal to
NATIONAL implement
QUESTION: • Political parties devolution
• Cultural groups provisions of the
What is the • Religious constitution
paradigm for denominations • The country’s
fostering • Ethnic groups contested
national unity • Nationalities founding values
and engendering • Generations and principles:
a sense of • Gender Are they based on
national identities one, some or all
identity, • Age groups of these
common • Politicians foundations:
belonging, one - Traditional
• Traditional
heritage and - Religious
leaders
shared - Cultural
• Provinces
aspirations for - Political
• Regions
Zimbabwe and - Industrial
• Everyone
Zimbabweans? - Modern
against
- Technological
everyone
- Global
- Constitutional

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 15.

UNRESOLVED CONFLICTING CONFLICT ISSUES

CONFLICT FORCES
2. THE
ECONOMIC
QUESTION: • Mnangagwa, his • CONTROL OF:
family and Forex
What is the cronies (Kuda Funding of
viable, efficient, Tagwirei, Edwin agriculture
effective, and Manikai, Douglas minerals
just mode of Munatsi, John (especially gold
generating and Mushayavanhu, and platinum)
creating the Herbert Nkala, procurement
wealth of the Oliver Chidhawu) (tenders)
nation? Cabinet
VERSUS positions
Public service
• Private Sector posts
• ZDF Civil service
• CIO posts
• The People Treachery on
land
redistribution

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 16.

UNRESOLVED CONFLICTING CONFLICT ISSUES

QUESTION FORCES

3. THE EQUITY • Mnangagwa,

QUESTION his family, his • Inequitable
(principally cronies and distribution of
about clansmen resources to
economic and provinces/regions
social justice): VERSUS • Skewed allocation
What is the of public resources
best way of • THE PEOPLE • Uneven
ensuring distribution of
social justice agricultural inputs
in the • Clanised
generation appointments to
and national and
distribution of publics service
the wealth of positions
the nation?

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 17.

UNRESOLVED CONFLICTING CONFLICT

CONFLICT FORCES ISSUES
4. THE LAW AND
ORDER
QUESTION: • Mnangagwa, • Freedom of
What is the MID (General Expression
democratic Thomas Moyo),
basis and way of CIO (Isaac Moyo • Freedom of
building and and Owen association and
maintaining Mudha Ncube) disassociation
peace and and ZRP
stability? (Stephen • Right to
Mutamba) demonstrate
and protest
VERSUS
• Undermining
• THE PEOPLE the authority of
the President

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 18.

UNRESOLVED CONFLICTING CONFLICT

QUESTION FORCES ISSUES
5. THE
SOVEREIGNTY
QUESTION: • Mnangagwa, • Source of
Where does Luke Malaba, executive
sovereignty Jacob Mudenda, authority
reside or where Mabel • Source of
is it derived Chinomona, SB legislative
from: the state Moyo, Ziyambi authority
or the people? Ziyambi and • Source of
Priscilla judicial
Chigumba authority
• Source of the
VERSUS authority of
Chapter 12
THE PEOPLE institutions

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 19.

UNRESOLVED CONLICTING CONFLICT ISSUES

CONFLICT FORCES
6. THE CONSENT
QUESTION: What • A compromised
is the basis of • ZDF Zimbabwe
legitimate, • ZEC Electoral
democratic, and • ConCourt Commission
constitutional • Parliament (ZEC) – illustrative
governance? • ZANU PF case in point:
• WAR VETS illegal Chegutu East
• POLAD MP Dexter Nduna
confirmed by ZEC
VERSUS to have lost but sits
in Parliament)
• THE MDC-A • Corruption of the
• NELSON separation of
CHAMISA powers
• MDC-A MPs • Unsettled means
• THE VOTER for attaining and
retaining power
and exiting from it
• The primacy of the
right to vote as an
essential pillar of
the Constitution

• Clash between
section 129 (1)(K)
and section 67(3)
of the 2013
Constitution

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20. While there are various manifestations of the crisis in

Zimbabwe, all of them footnotes to the country’s six unresolved

questions, from a consent point of view, it is important to underline

that the pervasive cause of the current crisis in the country is the

disenfranchisement of the voter in gross violation of section 67(3)

of the Constitution.

21. Section 3(1)(i) of the Constitution provides for “recognition of

and respect for the liberation struggle”, as a one of the nine key

founding values and principles not just of the 2013 Constitution but

also of the Republic of Zimbabwe itself. Two key grievances of the

liberation struggle standout:

- The right to vote

- The return of the land to the indigenous population

22. As much as people might want to keep coming up with

pretentious or self-serving definitions of the crisis in Zimbabwe, or

choose to deny that there’s a crisis, the unavoidable bottom line is

that the crisis in the country is defined by the consent crisis

triggered by an electoral system in which there’s no

relationship between the vote cast and the vote counted. This

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 is reflected by the unjust outcomes of the votes cast in the 2018

presidential and parliamentary elections.

23. Regarding the 2018 presidential election, the Zimbabwe

Electoral Commission (ZEC) tabled its Report in Parliament on 27

June 2019, as required under section 241 of the Constitution, in

which it made it clear, perhaps inadvertently or perhaps out of

incompetence but helpfully so, that it did not conduct the

presidential poll in accordance with the peremptory provisions of

sections 37C(4) and 110 of the Electoral Act. This fact stands

alone regardless of the ConCourt ruling on the matter. An illegally

run election cannot produce a legal outcome because legality

cannot result from illegality. I deal with this issue extensively in

Excelgate. The rights of the voter were abused by ZEC’s illegal

conduct of the presidential election and the violation was made

worse by the ConCourt’s endorsement of the illegality. If this is not

resolved, the crisis in Zimbabwe will persist and even worsen, and

there would be no point in pressing for political or electoral reforms

ahead of the harmonised elections scheduled for 2023; nor would

there be any point in participating in those elections.

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24. Talking about ZEC and the judiciary in Zimbabwe, it is

staggering that although Dexter Nduna lost the 2018 parliamentary

election Chegutu West, he remains the MP for the constituency.

Nduna knows he lost; ZEC not only knows that Nduna lost but also

that he lost as a result of a counting error by ZEC and the judiciary

knows that ZEC made a counting error in favour of Nduna. If ZEC

and the judiciary can allow this injustice, placing the responsibility

to correct on the MDC-A candidate who won the constituency, and

relying on a technicality that the winner’s lawyers did not follow the

correct procedure in seeking to correct ZEC’s error, then the public

in general and the electorate in particular do not need the services

of a rocket scientist to show that the disposition of ZEC and the

judiciary has been to dispossess the MDC-A of its presidential and

parliamentary votes by hook or crook. With Nduna’s Chegutu West

case in mind, what is there in the Zimbabwe electoral system to

stop ZEC and the judiciary from facilitating electoral theft? Of

course, nothing. What is incomprehensible is the silence of the

rest of society over this unprecedented attack and abuse of the

right to vote. Why is the public not outraged?

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25. The abuse of the right to vote is even more glaring in the

shocking saga of the recall of MDC-A MPs from Parliament. In the

first instance, it is important to keep in mind that the recall of

MDC-A MPs has been and is being done outside the electoral

process. It has come as a premediated assault on the voter, to wit,

the citizen.

26. The right to vote is entrenched in section 67(3) of the

Constitution of Zimbabwe as follows:

Subject to this Constitution, every Zimbabwean citizen who is

of or over eighteen years of age has the right—

(a) to vote in all elections and referendums to which this

Constitution or any other law applies, and to do so in secret;
and

(b) to stand for election for public office and, if elected, to

hold such office.

27. Although little attention has been paid to this fundamental

point, the right to vote is also the right to stand for election for

public office. This right is an Essential Pillar of the

Constitution. The right belongs to the voter, not to a political party

or any other person but the voter. Without this right, constitutional

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 democracy collapses and the consent question is impossible to

resolve.

28. Regarding the recall of MDC-A MPs, it is instructive that

section 129(1)(K) of the Constitution, which has been used to

cause the mayhem that has triggered an unprecedented crisis in

the country, is in conflict or incompatible with section 67(3) of the

2013 Constitution.

29. Section 129(1)(k) provides as follows:

129 Tenure of seat of Member of Parliament

(1) The seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant—

(h)…………

(k) if the Member has ceased to belong to the political party of

which he or she was a member when elected to Parliament

AND the political party concerned, by written notice to the

Speaker or the President of the Senate, as the case may be,

has declared that the Member has ceased to belong to it

[emphasis added].

30. I have emphasized the conjunction to highlight the fact that,

contrary to s129(1)(K) of the 2013 Constitution, all the recalls of

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 the MDC-A MPs have come as ambushes to the affected

legislators; because they have not been preceded by the cessation

of their party membership through resignation or dismissal in terms

of any due process. This alone is demonstrative of the insidious

agenda behind the recalls.

31. Otherwise the main point is that s129(1) k, clearly imposes a

limitation on the right to vote as entrenched in section 67(3). This

limitation infringes the Essential features of the Constitution in

relation not only to the right to vote but also to right to stand for

public office. For the right to be meaningful, its outcome must

stand undisturbed by any other person, and certainly not by a

political party. The right to vote does not belong to political parties,

it belongs to voters. The matter would be entirely different if the

power to recall MPs, contemplated under s129(1)(K) was in the

hands of voters.

32. Broadly, the limitation imposed on section 67(3) of the

Constitution by section 129(1)(K) is not sustainable for the

following reasons, among others:

• There is clearly no rational or legitimate connection between

the limitation imposed by section 129 and the right to vote.

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• There is no rational objective or reasonable justification,

equality, fairness, or openness as set out in section 86 of the

Constitution that is served by a scheme requiring members of

Parliament to remain members of a certain political party.

• The limitation is not of a general application. Laws that are

designed for special application are ipso jure void, as they

prima facie violate the principle of equality and the rule of law.

• It is patently flawed and wrong to assume that voters

electing a member of parliament have to belong to a political

party in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote and

hence must suffer the limitation associated with their freedom

to belong to a political party of their choice.

• Voting is by secret ballot and free from party choices or

affiliation. Such a constitutionally entrenched right cannot be

subject to the limitation of a party choice or affiliation, which

is irrelevant, and without a place in the conduct of voting by

secret ballot.

• The right to vote does not only belong to fully paid up

members of a political party in good standing with their party.

• All elections are based on universal adult suffrage on the

common voters roll.

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 • The power to recall MPs, conflicts with the right and freedom

to belong to a political party of one’s choice in relation to

which no one should have to be penalised or suffer any

consequence,

• The recall of MDC-A MPs amounts to the disenfranchisement

of the voter, and thus an unprecedented attack on the Bill of

Rights.

33. The consent question has now flared up in Zimbabwe. A

society that cannot respect the right to vote, cannot be expected to

respect the right of the individual as a citizen, a worker, a civil

servant, a journalist, a nurse, a doctor, a consumer, a student, a

farmer, a traditional leader, a student, a teacher, a parent, an

investor or as a human being.

34. The foundation of a good society begins with the respect of

the voter, as the source of the consent of the governed regarding

who should govern them, by ensuring that the votes cast in

election for public office correspond with the votes counted.

Zimbabwe must address this fundamental question, as a matter of

critical importance and urgency, if it is to resolve its current crisis.

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