Matabeleland leadership and management in local government

For those Matabeleland senior citizens acutely aware of the early 1980s political scene, the postcolonial government led by ZANU PF in Zimbabwe is an ignorant, arrogant, highly incompetent, and retrogressive institution that cannot protect us from real hazards because it shifted its focus to fake hazards the very first day it took office. This is not accidental but a policy design, and things do not have to be this way. Transfer of power from the public to politicians and concentration of power in any one person or population group cannot be the future.

Politics in Zimbabwe is highly partisan which affects government leadership and management focus. The country must move away from policy founded on partisanship, personal interest and political convenience to evidence-based practice.

The Robert Mugabe-led administration misused the critical early stages of postcolonial rule in the 1980s to purge Matabeleland society and PF ZAPU supporters. Instead of focusing on building real independence and freedom by strengthening local and national governance through inclusion, rebuilding power institutions to redistribute real power, extend human rights across the width and depth of society, the megalomaniacal Mugabe set about appropriating public power; he centralised and concentrated it in Harare and on himself.

Riding on the wave of post-independence African nationalism euphoria, Mugabe could do no wrong in the eyes of Black Africans. The media was transformed into a propaganda tool to build and sell the narrative that Joshua Nkomo (PF ZAPU leader and a Ndebele) and Ndebele people were dissidents who presented a real threat to national safety and security, and to ethnic Shona people. Mugabe assumed the role of a cult leader purposed to guarantee security and protection of Shona interests. Thus, he earned himself and his party, ZANU, a blank cheque of allegiance from a largely low information ethnic Shona voter constituency.

Turn to November 2017, ethnic Shona people were celebrating the forced removal of Mugabe from power. Mugabe and his sycophants, not Ndebele people, had killed or maimed more ethnic Shona people than anyone in the history of the country.  

Now that we understand that politicians’ interests are politicians and power, we must recalibrate our political spaces. People must organise around humane policies, not tribal or political affiliation.

Marginalisation presides over economic and political stagnation in Matabeleland. If care is not taken, we will die a miserable constituency, lost and forever aggrieved. We must break the cycle of abuse. Things must change on the ground, leadership and management must improve at local level.

We need to free ourselves from a notoriously authoritarian personality culture that has not only yielded to authorities but has actively facilitated the abuse of lower social classes and certain population groups while shielding authorities from accountability. This culture has become essential fuel of the cult of personality, the ‘mukuru’ or ‘bakuru’ culture within the Shona society where those with vast material resources and the political elite are treated like gods who can do no wrong.

Individuals with authoritarian personality traits will readily punish anyone who dares criticise revered individuals or institutions, even when such action is against their own interests, where their leader or authority stands is where they stand.

The public can no longer express independent opinion due to real threat to personal safety. Individuals will wait till they are sure of the stance of the powerful before they safely ‘choose’ a position on issues.  

For real progress in Matabeleland, we must go back to our foundations where we revered the power in the office but not feared occupiers of the office. We must treat leaders as fallible humans who have been given the public mandate to carry out specified, specialist duties in society in line with the rules of the land. Everyone in our society, including leaders, must be expected to respect the rule of law.

We argue that if leading and managing our households is a duty, participation in the local political process must not be a voluntary exercise but an essential citizen duty. We need to look at ways of incentivising public participation.

Accountability must be central to our institutions and dissent normalised as an act of patriotism. Citizens must be constantly engaged in the decision-making process in their local area and nationally, not only once every few years when they must vote for leaders. We must intentionally promote access to equal opportunities to power. Leadership and management of communities must be a role for many, not the privileged few.

Citizens are the most powerful branch of government locally and nationally. We must be intentional in educating citizens how governance structures, at various levels, operate, and incentivising participation in the governance process.

A well-led and inclusive Matabeleland is an asset to everyone. We need our leadership to focus on vision, inspiration, and strategic direction, while management focuses on the practical implementation of those strategies through planning, organising, and controlling resources.