Zimbabwe must stop being a sanctuary for tribalism

Politicisation of tribe has, since independence, found support across a certain constituency of Zimbabwe. We note that as governance structures of the country are perfected, the politics of the country represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the majority tribe.

Tribalism promotes blind allegiance, ignores merit and enables incompetence as identity becomes the main qualification for positions of influence in society. Consequently, the State House is occupied by a downright fool, tribalist, and a complete narcissistic moron. We have for President a belligerent, dim-witted bully who obtains what he wants by intimidating others into doing his bidding for him, or by downright force.

Fascination with consolidating power within the Shona tribe and submission of everyone else weakens institutions and policy. When Shona creed is turned into law, we are left with nonresponsive institutions and resentful communities.

Diversity needs not translate to division or acrimony. Difference must be cherished, accommodated, included and an ecosystem where a real sense of belonging is nurtured must be cultivated in our society.

Intentional education about anti-discrimination is required so that we can address its sources. In the majority ethnic Shona community, the path to a united country means validating discrimination concerns by other groups in the country; it means acknowledging that what ails the Matabeleland community does not just exist in the minds of people in that region, but it is real experience that results from current, intentional and unintentional, discriminatory policies.

The male Shona dominated government must understand that a prosperous country needs everyone to be empowered to achieve their potential. History has taught us that manipulating procedures so that unethical means are enabled to force vulnerable and/ or minority communities to toe the line does not work when you want to build a cohesive society. It only causes objection and resistance.

You will never gain respect by looking down upon people. Communities that you look down upon will not necessarily look up to you, they will look for alternatives, some alternatives of which may put the country’s developmental goals into jeopardy.

True leadership is the ability to foster cooperation through honest consultation of interest groups up, down and across society. Instead of consolidation, political power must be distributed proportionally across society in coordination and cooperation with every community, and any measures that threaten to subordinate some communities must be identified and rejected.

Respect for the liberation war veterans is universal, but we have reservations over some war veterans portraying a sense of entitlement by wilfully enforcing their will on the public. Some war vets act as an out-of-control entity with no regard for state institutional pathways. They believe their interpretation of national grievances and solutions thereof are shared by the entire nation.

While individual war veteran members may have a point about president Mnangagwa’s leadership deficiencies, their intervention (call for Mnangagwa to step down immediately) appears to be self-serving more than it is motivated by concerns for national interests.

Factionalism within the ruling party – ZANU PF – is the root cause. Some war veterans are concerned about consolidating their power and political influence in the party and by extension, the country and fear Mnangagwa has been marginalising them while extending influence on his family and his cronies.

Changing the political ecosystem to improve transparency in governance must be our priority because it is beneficial to all, not some. We must ensure that people have the same opportunity to express their views and to influence the decisions that are made in their name, and who makes those decisions and how.

It is important to have in place responsive processes that will improve access to opportunities for political influence to all qualifying citizens; and processes must be primed to recognise and act on the fact that some individuals might need more help than others to exercise their right to influence decisions.

We must aim for equal opportunities for effective political influence up, down and across our society. It is true that not all inequalities in political influence are unacceptable; individuals and groups who invest more time and effort to politics may understandably have more political influence than those less invested in politics. However, it would be unfair for some individuals and groups to have greater opportunities to influence decisions than others just because of their tribe and/ or wealth or proximity to power.

No tribe has a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom; obscene attempts for total control of the socio-political ecosystem by any one population group needs push backs from all concerned about fairness and justice. The majority tribe cannot lay claim to exclusive understanding of the trauma of deprivation on the minority population groups. People must not be allowed undue political influence based on their wealth, tribe, and connections. We need to create a political ecosystem that extends equal opportunities of political influence.