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COUP OR NOT, THERE’RE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

20/11/2017 08:08:00 By Vusi Sibisi

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At the time of penning this article, it appeared Zimbabweans were heading for an early Christmas after the army took over control of the country and placed long-time authoritarian President Robert Gabriel Mugabe under house arrest, an episode that carries momentous lessons for Africa.

Not surprisingly, the possible ouster of President Mugabe brought a ray of hope to long suffering Zimbabweans who appeared to be solidly behind the military intervention. But at the same time ominous dark clouds were threatening to dim that newly found optimism following reports that Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom Mugabe recently fired from the positions of Vice President of Zimbabwe and of the ruling ZANU-PF party - ostensibly to pave way for his wife Grace to succeed him - precipitating the revolt by the army, do not augur well. Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa after his axing but now is back in Zimbabwe, cannot be separated from Mugabe for co-ownership of the atrocities committed against the people of Zimbabwe over the years. He was Mugabe’s chief enforcer. In a 37-year reign of terror with Mnangagwa as the enforcer, the regime literally made its detractors disappear from the face of the earth, courtesy of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), not forgetting the infamous Gukurahundi during which the army’s Fifth Brigade massacred over 20 000 Ndebele people in the mid-1980s on a journey to achieve invincibility and in the process reduced the once great Zimbabwe to cinders.

As I see it, Zimbabwe under Mnangagwa will not be better off than it has been under Mugabe. In fact, it might become worse off because with Mugabe out of the way, it will fall on Mnangagwa to protect their evil legacy to escape justice were a democratic government to emerge post Mugabe. Exacerbating matters for Zimbabwe’s immediate future is the stated position of the military not to allow a non-veteran of the 1970s liberation war to lead that country. This means that even when the situation has returned to normalcy, the army will ensure that power is monopolised by veterans of the liberation struggle, which translates to a ZANU-PF hegemony. And when it comes to manipulating elections, the monstrous Zimbabwean security apparatus is second to none having mastered the art under Mugabe since independence in 1980. While academics, political analysts extending to the leaders of SADC and the AU and beyond sweat it out over the question of whether or not a coup is in progress in Zimbabwe, many lessons will accrue from this crisis.

For instance, the question of whether or not a coup is in progress can be settled by addressing the question of whether Zimbabwe has ever had a conducive political environment to hold free and fair elections post independence in 1980. True to form, leaders from SADC and AU, eager to protect one of their own, would argue that Mugabe’s government was legitimate and an outcome of free and fair democratic elections. Coincidentally, these are the same leaders who in 2008 allowed Mugabe to steal elections from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC through a government of national unity (GNU), when Mugabe had lost outright. The last elections at the end of the term of the GNU, which put the current government in power, can never be said to have been free and fair since the massive security apparatus and marauding ZANU-PF youth league members intimidated and created a climate of fear for the opposition parties and their supporters to participate freely. Thus using other methods than the ballot to unseat such a government can never be equated to a coup détat per se but rather the beginning of a process towards political normalcy. Otherwise the French Revolution might as well have also passed as a coup détat. The other lesson from the Zimbabwe crisis is in respect to the typical problem that has bedeviled post-colonial Africa.

This is in relation to liberation heroes-turned-political leaders investing the political futures of their countries in the military. But there always was one inevitable ending to this marriage of convenience; the military always turned against their political benefactors, hence the instability that has haunted the continent. As I see it, there are disturbing similarities in the behavioural traits of absolute authoritarian leaders, such as Mugabe, right across Africa who are all driven by greed. It is this trend that has given currency to the stereotype of African leaders being genetically disposed towards tyranny. Yes, there seems to be a dictator lurking subterranean waiting to break free in just about every African leader, hence the appetite to worship and protect despotic leaders by regional leaders within SADC and AU. Yet at no stage has SADC or AU intervened on behalf of civil populations being butchered by their despotic leaders, as evidenced by what is currently obtaining in Burundi right under the noses of these organisations. Any wonder why Africa remains a basket case of poverty and disease in spite of her massive natural wealth while her leaders are among the wealthiest in the world!