CAN ZIMBABWE HAPPEN HERE ?
In the context of the Last Domino theory, the ongoing solidarity of the ANC with the
despotic Mugabe regime has fuelled alarm as to whether the Zimbabwe experience will be
repeated in South Africa. The answer is YES, if the cornerstones of freedom are not
maintained.
Freedom and power, the two catchwords of post-colonial Africa, are uneasy bedfellows.
Like the two pans of a scale balance, their relationship is one of constant tension. Too
much power marginalises freedom. Excessive freedom leads to powerlessness. Under the
strongman pattern of government in post-independence Africa, freedom has been the
loser. That Zimbabwe's experience would be no different was portended during the bush
war of the 1970s.
The forces of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo perpetrated barbaric atrocities against
their own people all in the name of ' freedom.' The election of 1980 that brought Mugabe to
power was fraught with intimidation and fraud. Whatever freedom it yielded rapidly became
the sole property of Mugabe's Zanu party as his bloody ethnic cleansing campaigns
against the Ndebele in 1983 and 1985 indicated. By 1987 his old opponent, Nkomo,
accepted the merger of his party into Zanu. Between 1987 and 2000, when the MDC
materialised, Zimbabwe was de facto a one-party state.
Since at least 1987 zanufication as a process of the aggrandisement of power, has enjoyed
unimpeded progress in infesting and dominating every aspect of the fabric of life in
Zimbabwe. The absence of an organised opposition greatly facilitated the process.
For the Zanu elite, freedom meant unlimited power. Since the party became
indistinguishable from the state, government became Zanu's private fiefdom and instrument
for enrichment. For everybody else government became synonymous with corruption and
coercion.
First hand accounts of the Zanu power vortex show the role of the police and Central
Intelligence Organisation to have been pivotal in the unleashing of tyranny. From providing
security against crime the police and CIO became the enforcers of Mugabe's criminal acts
against Zimbabweans. As in the former USSR, CIO agents are everywhere. Arrest and
incarceration awaits anyone who abuses Mugabe's name, who sells goods at prices higher
than those fixed by the state or who does not have police permission to reside in a
community.
MDC opposition is harassed and intimidated in every which way. In one instance a baker
was ordered by the CIO to dismiss six of his workers because they were MDC supporters or
else face the closure of his bakery. When he retorted that he ran a non-political bakery,
the CIO told him that employing MDC supporters made his bakery ' political.'
A police roadblock in Zimbabwe is a plunder point. The police confiscate whatever they
fancy on whatever trumped-up pretext they choose. Phones of political opponents are
tapped. Emails are considered risky. All licence applications must include provision for
Zanu benefit. Cricket and soccer are run by Zanu officials. What private schools remain are
forced to comply with the uneconomical fee structure stipulated by the Zanu education
ministry. They are also obliged to allocate two seats on their school boards to Zanu
officials. Even the once white-dominated Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) has become a
Zanu lapdog. Seven years after the farm invasions the CFU director, David Hasluck, his
deputy and two others in the CFU hierarchy are still on their farms.
From the courts and parastatals to fuel, utilities, mines, media, sport, certain churches and
education, Zanu control is pervasive. Mugabe's agenda has only ever had one goal: total
power. Robust, democratic opposition to him just never got going - until it was too late.
Even under Ian Smith opposition was marginalised in Rhodesia.
The first lesson of Zimbabwe, therefore, is that without an organised, established
opposition the chances of mounting resistance to a state-led assault on freedom are zero.
Here South Africa has a distinct advantage compared to Zimbabwe. But it is no cause for
complacency. With the ANC enjoying a 70% hold on power, the pan of freedom in the
scale balance is under siege.
Unless that imbalance is corrected this country faces the Zimbabwe experience. To prevent
that six things must happen or keep happening: (1) co-ordinated opposition to the ANC
must grow ; (2) the reach and presentation of clear alternatives to ANC baasskap must be
extended and improved; (3) a free and vigilant press must be maintained as must the
independence of the courts; (4) corruption must be rooted out and those involved suitably
deterred, not redeployed; (5) the allocation of posts must be on the basis of merit, not
racial quotas or struggle credentials; (6) state interference in civil society and through
social engineering must be curbed.
The price of freedom is constant vigilance, the preparedness to speak out, challenge and
expose, the resolve to get involved in civil society. Blurring those tasks are appeals for
transformation, politically correct compliance and BEE all of which prefer the mute button
as regards the practice of good governance. That's how and where the process of
zanufication begins. Already a class of piggy-back millionaires has been created through
BEE and the like without any benefit extending beyond the actual individuals involved.
Today marks 13 years of the ANC in power. On the calendar April 27 is called ' Freedom
Day.' How much longer that freedom survives the onslaught of ANC power depends on you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duncan Du Bois is a Durban Metro DA ward councillor. He writes in his private capacity.
The views express are not necessarily those of Durban South.com
In the context of the Last Domino theory, the ongoing solidarity of the ANC with the
despotic Mugabe regime has fuelled alarm as to whether the Zimbabwe experience will be
repeated in South Africa. The answer is YES, if the cornerstones of freedom are not
maintained.
Freedom and power, the two catchwords of post-colonial Africa, are uneasy bedfellows.
Like the two pans of a scale balance, their relationship is one of constant tension. Too
much power marginalises freedom. Excessive freedom leads to powerlessness. Under the
strongman pattern of government in post-independence Africa, freedom has been the
loser. That Zimbabwe's experience would be no different was portended during the bush
war of the 1970s.
The forces of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo perpetrated barbaric atrocities against
their own people all in the name of ' freedom.' The election of 1980 that brought Mugabe to
power was fraught with intimidation and fraud. Whatever freedom it yielded rapidly became
the sole property of Mugabe's Zanu party as his bloody ethnic cleansing campaigns
against the Ndebele in 1983 and 1985 indicated. By 1987 his old opponent, Nkomo,
accepted the merger of his party into Zanu. Between 1987 and 2000, when the MDC
materialised, Zimbabwe was de facto a one-party state.
Since at least 1987 zanufication as a process of the aggrandisement of power, has enjoyed
unimpeded progress in infesting and dominating every aspect of the fabric of life in
Zimbabwe. The absence of an organised opposition greatly facilitated the process.
For the Zanu elite, freedom meant unlimited power. Since the party became
indistinguishable from the state, government became Zanu's private fiefdom and instrument
for enrichment. For everybody else government became synonymous with corruption and
coercion.
First hand accounts of the Zanu power vortex show the role of the police and Central
Intelligence Organisation to have been pivotal in the unleashing of tyranny. From providing
security against crime the police and CIO became the enforcers of Mugabe's criminal acts
against Zimbabweans. As in the former USSR, CIO agents are everywhere. Arrest and
incarceration awaits anyone who abuses Mugabe's name, who sells goods at prices higher
than those fixed by the state or who does not have police permission to reside in a
community.
MDC opposition is harassed and intimidated in every which way. In one instance a baker
was ordered by the CIO to dismiss six of his workers because they were MDC supporters or
else face the closure of his bakery. When he retorted that he ran a non-political bakery,
the CIO told him that employing MDC supporters made his bakery ' political.'
A police roadblock in Zimbabwe is a plunder point. The police confiscate whatever they
fancy on whatever trumped-up pretext they choose. Phones of political opponents are
tapped. Emails are considered risky. All licence applications must include provision for
Zanu benefit. Cricket and soccer are run by Zanu officials. What private schools remain are
forced to comply with the uneconomical fee structure stipulated by the Zanu education
ministry. They are also obliged to allocate two seats on their school boards to Zanu
officials. Even the once white-dominated Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) has become a
Zanu lapdog. Seven years after the farm invasions the CFU director, David Hasluck, his
deputy and two others in the CFU hierarchy are still on their farms.
From the courts and parastatals to fuel, utilities, mines, media, sport, certain churches and
education, Zanu control is pervasive. Mugabe's agenda has only ever had one goal: total
power. Robust, democratic opposition to him just never got going - until it was too late.
Even under Ian Smith opposition was marginalised in Rhodesia.
The first lesson of Zimbabwe, therefore, is that without an organised, established
opposition the chances of mounting resistance to a state-led assault on freedom are zero.
Here South Africa has a distinct advantage compared to Zimbabwe. But it is no cause for
complacency. With the ANC enjoying a 70% hold on power, the pan of freedom in the
scale balance is under siege.
Unless that imbalance is corrected this country faces the Zimbabwe experience. To prevent
that six things must happen or keep happening: (1) co-ordinated opposition to the ANC
must grow ; (2) the reach and presentation of clear alternatives to ANC baasskap must be
extended and improved; (3) a free and vigilant press must be maintained as must the
independence of the courts; (4) corruption must be rooted out and those involved suitably
deterred, not redeployed; (5) the allocation of posts must be on the basis of merit, not
racial quotas or struggle credentials; (6) state interference in civil society and through
social engineering must be curbed.
The price of freedom is constant vigilance, the preparedness to speak out, challenge and
expose, the resolve to get involved in civil society. Blurring those tasks are appeals for
transformation, politically correct compliance and BEE all of which prefer the mute button
as regards the practice of good governance. That's how and where the process of
zanufication begins. Already a class of piggy-back millionaires has been created through
BEE and the like without any benefit extending beyond the actual individuals involved.
Today marks 13 years of the ANC in power. On the calendar April 27 is called ' Freedom
Day.' How much longer that freedom survives the onslaught of ANC power depends on you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duncan Du Bois is a Durban Metro DA ward councillor. He writes in his private capacity.
The views express are not necessarily those of Durban South.com
Councillor's Corner
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Lifetime Bluff resident serving his third term in office as representative
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
This weeks Councillor comments
| Duncan Du Bois |
27 April 2007
Phone:467-0343 or mobile:083 291-4913
Municipal Manager - Dr Sutcliffe: Tel 311-2130 ;
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
Report dumping or unauthorised use of verges; Phone 311-7448
Metro All-Call / All hours Tel No.: 361-0000
Metro Police: Tel 402-0680
Brighton Beach SAPS: Tel 451 8060 / 8059
Brighton Beach Community Policing Forum Chairman: Carl Knauff : 082 449-6503
Metro All-Call / All hours Tel No.: 361-0000
Metro Police: Tel 402-0680
Brighton Beach SAPS: Tel 451 8060 / 8059
Brighton Beach Community Policing Forum Chairman: Carl Knauff : 082 449-6503
Useful Contacts
| South Durban Community Environmental Alliance |
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You can contact Councillor D Du Bois by e-mail @ dubois@axxess.co.za