Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe; So many years experience doing the same unworkable things
Pity he is now 86 years old and not left with many more years to practice the new governance skills he is learning from the Inclusive Government.
Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Matibili Mugabe has rather fortuitously found himself engulfed by torrential winds of change.
Thrown in the eye of the storm of change by an ill conceived Military strategy to shield the Zimbabwe military commanders from crimes they committed against humanity in 28 years of a Zanu PF hegemony most of us would want to forget quickly, President Mugabe is...
strategically perched at a vantage point to learn.
Unfortunately his advanced age means the learning opportunity will be of minimal value to the Nation whose impoverishment he has scripted and solely presided over for an uninterrupted 3 decades.
Mugabe was forced to concede significant chunks of the draconian powers he had carved for himself over 28 years as Head of State to former Trade Unionist and current MDC President now Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Right Honourable Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
And within a week of that momentous event in our history the underpinning management and leadership styles of Mr Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai are beginning to manifest in results that are interesting to note.
Mugabe acquired the Presidency of the country after leading a protracted and formidable armed resistance to undemocratic Colonial rule by British settlers.
The struggle he led had numerous casualties that must have formed his uncompromising command management style that he was to practice over 28 years in sole charge of the country.
Before leading the struggle Mugabe had not managed anything of note.
He was raised by a single parent in a Church environment. Like all boys of his age he grew up herding cattle and fighting the battles attendant in that hazardous occupation of cattle herdsman.
After that he trained as a School Teacher and had little if any management challenges from children in a country where corporal punishment was and still is encouraged as a disciplinary measure.
He was plucked from the comfort of a white collar classroom job to the jungle of politics of resistance where he fully exploited his mastery and proficiency in oral and written English to land crucial positions in the leadership of the Liberation from Colonial rule struggle.
Tsvangirai to him most if not all of the powers clipped from Mugabe devolved grew up in a two parent family and also went through the ritual of herding cattle and its calamities.
African fatherly care and grooming that is so apparently remiss in Mugabe’s adulthood has evident lasting formulations on Tsvangirai’s adulthood that make him behave and relate to people in a manner diametrically opposite to how Mugabe projects himself.
Where Mugabe chose the macho style to achieve political ends to mitigate colonial misrule and economic hardships of colonial rule by joining a hazardous Liberation struggle Tsvangirai was tempted but on second thought decided otherwise.
He sought menial employment to mitigate the same hardships and caution his immediate family from economic exposure at a time when Mugabe chose to sacrifice economic comfort from a teaching salary for the non remunerated liberation struggle leadership job.
Said otherwise Tsvangirai’s upbringing informed him to choose family survival strategies ahead of National survival strategies he had no idea about at the same time the more mature Mugabe opted for a National strategy that exposed his core family to immense risks for future benefit of the nation but perhaps more importantly his core family unit.
Formal employment imposed certain demands that formulated Tsvangirai’s response to adversity at the same time the War experience formulated Mugabe’s response to challenges in his way.
Where Mugabe chooses force and compulsion to get his way Tsvangirai combines negotiation with passive resistance to achieve the same end.
On forceful acquisition of the end result Mugabe then uses the power to push his way through the residual resistance to his self imposition in powerful positions.
Tsvangirai on the other hand continues to charm and negotiate his way to power consolidation.
There a price to pay in each strategy and this is what Zimbabweans are experiencing from the coalition government initiative in the country.
Mugabe has learned one means of gaining power and exercising it. After forcing his way into power in 1980 he has used feigned “reconciliation overtures” to deposed foes to disarm them and them prevail upon them.
Where reconciliation failed to win what he intended to gain he has resorted to using unbridled force to prevail.
That is why in his experience every power retention initiative is classified as an operation. The use of the word operation to define management strategies is a manifestation of Mugabe’s entrenched management by cohesion philosophy that were vindicated by the triumph of the Liberation struggle over Colonialism.
To him and his party using the word operation to define a management project gives it machismo.
It creates conditions for unconditional complicates from the connotations of the implied military force behind the operation if anyone stands in the way of accomplishment of the goals of the operation.
For three decades cohesive management has kept Mugabe in unchallenged control of the country.
So it seemed but what was happening was that for the entire 28 year period of his cohesive hegemony Mugabe was able to use force to suppress open dissent to his misrule.
Beneath that a swell of discontent was building up under fragmented informal political leadership.
Early informal leaders of the resistance to Zanu PF and Mugabe cohesion succumbed to repression because a critical mass of opponents had not been mobilised to counteract the organised Zanu PF repression machinery.
The false sense of tranquillity was to implode when the more organised workers discontent was marshalled into organised political discontent by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in clandestine consultations with informal Civic political leaders.
A protracted struggle was on the cards to wrestle political power from Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The initial phase of that struggle has culminated in a coalition government in which Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the key men.
It’s kind of a back to school government for President Mugabe and continued further education government for Prime Minister Tsvangirai.
Who learns the most and has the capacity to convert the lessons into political mileage will one day in the near future form a democratically elected government for the country.
Zimbabweans are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to pass that verdict in the next democratic elections to be staged no later than 2013- a lengthy wait but nonetheless worthwhile if it will give them the chance to once again assert themselves as the sovereign.
Some positive advantages have already started accruing to the PM at the expense of the President.
The arrest of Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy (Pachedu) Bennett has escalated negative public sentiment against the octogenarian President as it has stroked the fumes of the burning fire of illegal abductions and detentions of MDC and Civic Society activists.
In legal parlance the Head of State is the human manifestation of the state who can be legally and physically punished for state crimes of whatever nature.
Publicly Mugabe has said Bennett’s arrest and detention is a legal matter that the country’s courts must resolve but inwardly he does not believe a single word in that public posturing.
He knows as the nation does that he is the Court of last resort and is gambling that pardoning a convicted Roy Bennett will endear him with the people who have deserted him and his party.
Cynical political brinkmanship of this nature has no place in politically volatile Zimbabwe. He is stroking political anger against his party and his loathed rubberstamped imposition as the President.
When eventually Mr Bennett and the abused political detainees are set free which is never in doubt, he will discover that he will not be the darling of the nation but rather the villain.
Meanwhile the Prime minister has taken some bollocking for the continued state repression under his watch.
What is evident though is that the people are watching in disgust that their PM is being abused by an entrenched system of human rights violation and calmly and collectively dealing with the challenge and when the positive result manifests he will get the plaudits for achieving their peaceful liberation.
The virulent State media has suddenly become as tame as a duck. Gone are the inflammatory commentaries from the coterie of Zanu PF propagandists and unsubstantiated libellous articles it used to routinely publish.
The subjects of libel are now its headline newsmakers and they are finding it most challenging to ignore them when everything positive happening now is from their portfolios and everything negative is from the Zanu PF portfolios of Cabinet posts.
But while that positive development is welcome it is no reason for the hardworking MDC Ministers to sit on their laurels.
The neutralisation of the rabid press is nowhere near the benefit and euphoria and confidence the release of abused political activists will generate in the people.
Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana must be quacking in their pants if they know what is in store for them from the coalition government.
Their services are no longer required and if they will not be allowed the luxury of opting to resign as they will be terminated shortly.
This is regardless of the fact that the Junta is rooting for their retention. There are too many in the Inclusive government uncomfortable with these two Mugabe and not Zanu PF blue-eyed boys and it’s no longer a secret that JOMIC will unanimously recommend their being relieved of national responsibility at Functional Head level.
Zimbabweans are eagerly waiting to meet, greet and embrace them on their disgraceful way down as they did on the duo’s ascendancy to key positions in government.
A word of advice- there are a few they have trashed on their way up waiting with a few unpleasant mouthfuls that they would do well to turn a blind ear to.
Another significant indicator that the PM is in the ascendancy is the agreement by the Teachers Unions to urge their members to return to work after a year long collective job action where the arrogant junta regime refused to give them a hearing that they have now been granted within two days of the new dispensation in the country.
Hopefully Mugabe and Zanu PF have gained some insight into the power of consultative management over cohesive management from that development.
Most importantly the MDC which could not host any election rallies and celebration rallies before obtaining High Court orders in the past are now posed to hold not one but 12 celebration rallies for the party’s 10th anniversary.
All they did was inform the Police of the intended dates and the venues and the celebratory mood has engulfed the impoverished nation once again.
Not that the grassroots will get any reprieve from the economic hardships they are currently fighting to overcome from the celebrations but the confidence the rallies instil is a telling sign of the fate awaiting those who have denied them freedom of political assembly in the past.
Other than the home Affairs Co-Ministering experiment and the Bennett /Made Ministerial pairing in the Ministry of Agriculture President Mugabe must watch carefully the developments in the Media, Information and Publicity Ministry where Jameson Zvidzai Timba will understudy Webster Shamhu, Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development where Evelyn Pfugamai Masaiti will understudy Dr Olivia Muchena, Public Works where Aguy Georgias will deputise Theresa Makone Labour and Social Welfare where Tracy Mutinhiri will deputise Paurina Mpariwa and Justice where Patrick Chinamasa will have Jessie Fungai Majome to content with.
There are important lessons he will learn from who emerges most effective in those ministries where not just management styles are in contrast but also gender sensitivity, strategic thinking, decorum and progressive thinking will be put to test.
These are crucial human rights safeguarding ministries that must never be allowed to bogg down over useless political posturing which is likely to arise in the political leadership.
While not as important in its ranking as an indicator of change Professor Jonathan Moyo’s comments on Cabinet appointments from all parties to the coalition government are themselves an indication of where the political wind is blowing and an admission by a disgruntled Zanu PF reject worthy serious consideration.
He may be very wrong on the Finance ministry but he is closer to home in other observations.
President Mugabe must now move with times and abandon the belief that he is experienced because his experience is nothing more than 1 year’s experience repeated over 28 times with similar failed outcomes.
That is not the kind of experience a president can take pride in.
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