Currency of politics lies in its quality because the quality of politics projected by political players does affect public trust and level of involvement in politics. The media and politicians tend to focus on alleged political apathy in Matabeleland while minimising the need for political ideas to be relevant to communities they target. By quality, we are referring to the authenticity of the political content, the age of ideas, how policies resonate with the public, the form, and quality of communications, etc., in the public eye. These factors influence public perception of politicians and political organisations and institutions.
It does not come as a surprise that there are growing concerns about the quality of politics being projected by some Matabeleland focused political groups, and that is increasingly considered to be the single most important factor in the failure to establish public trust in Matabeleland politics. While the public acknowledge that mainstream politics in Zimbabwe does not reflect Matabeleland interests, they are yet to be convinced by current Matabeleland oriented groups.
Disillusioned with the marginalisation enabled by mainstream politics, people of Matabeleland have sought to explore and engage in a revamped political framework that seeks to coordinate local support, empower local socioeconomic and political activity, and more important, make mainstream politics obsolete in the region.
An attractive proposition, one would argue but a fair assessment would likely conclude that to this day, localisation of political activity is yet to gain traction in Matabeleland. Public uncertainty must not be mistaken for rejection, if anything, political messaging, and approach remain the greatest challenges faced by the different Matabeleland organisations.
The political approach of many Matabeleland groups is limited by protective sentimentality; they have become consumed in an anti-ZANU PF policy and anti-ethnic Shona people polity thereby risking losing their political purpose and steering away from their real priority of empowerment of the Matabeleland constituency.
Groups appear conflicted in their ideological approach. They publicly criticise ZANU PF for expanding the executive branch, yet the same organisations declare their solidarity with Putin, a dictator. The groups have adopted secretive operational policies thereby leaving their constituency of Matabeleland uncertain about their motivations and who they represent.
Clandestine political activity will endanger, and not foster political trust in a region like Matabeleland that has suffered politically motivated physical and emotional trauma from both overt and covert state operations. The political context of the region must not be lost; public trust in politics and politicians was eroded by divisive, tribal supremacist and misogynist policies of ZANU PF.
Transparency should top the list of priorities of any political entity that dreams of providing a legitimate home to the Matabeleland electorate. How people communicate ideas – choice of words, language used, tone, speech content – is important; it must be in tune with local sensitivities, culture, and language.
Aggressive messaging, not to be confused with confidence or conflated with bigotry, is a significant part of politics. Loose verbal hostility displayed by some Matabeleland activists may be a click-bait, but at what cost to the wider quality of the politics? Self-deprecating messaging and organisations prone to irrationality will not engineer the desired seismic shift away from the mainstream politics in Zimbabwe because they cannot draw support beyond their base as they push away moderates and the undecided.
Our advice for the Matabeleland focused political groups is that they nurse good politics, and they need to be visible and available on the ground, to their base and beyond, to compete for the control of the local political space. In all that their politics does, people must come first; people need to feel valued for them to engage.
To ignore the importance of public trust in politics and its significance in the stability and the smooth functioning of our institutions is to sacrifice our development. Goals of our organisations need to align with not only our culture but also the aspirations for the future.
Decisions about policy must include the people. All responsible politicians understand that the only genuine source of information about public aspirations is the people. Politicians must not seek to encrypt politics but make it accessible to the public in ways convenient to the public.
When people see their reflection in policies, they are motivated to participate in politics because it suddenly becomes clear to them what nonparticipation would look like and mean to their aspirations. Political groups must create spaces within their structures for public participation.
Investing in the quality of our politics is essential to building trust and stability. People are tired of empty promises; they are fed up with the top-down politics of self-appointed liberators whose political goals are vastly disconnected from the public’s perception of their problems and even more out of sync with public views of solutions. A change in approach is required, and a bottom-up or middle-out approach will go a long way in coalescing public view to inform government policy and building public trust in politics.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 