When identity attachment becomes a national problem

Partisanship and lack of accountability that plague our government are symptomatic of a deep-seated socio-political problem that is the corrupting influence of tribal allegiance in the national discourse. Tribal identity has since become a significant factor in how individuals are perceived and how our ‘experts’ interpret the world. Tribe shapes and determines how people will experience their country, including access to opportunity.  

While people’s identities matter, unhealthy tribal attachment can compromise policy evaluation, damage trust, and impair service delivery. At times experts have struggled to step outside the tribe safe zones to scrutinize government policy and offer recommendations that are devoid of tribal bias. Instead of objective analyses of policy, we get tribalized manifestations that soften or amplify failures or successes dependent on the identity allegiances of the analyst.

Arguably, after politicians, no one has betrayed the Zimbabwean public more than the academia and self-indulgent experts. Their expertise is often not entirely without partisanship or prejudice; their positions are often not altered by new evidence and knowledge but tribal allegiances and the pressing need to fit on the ‘right side’.

It must be of great concern to the public that increasingly some of our experts have turned into sycophants of the President than constructive critics of government agenda and/ or its implementation. Some expert views on the President’s questionable engagements in business and politics are regrettable deflections away from his incompetence and inadequate leadership than objective calls for accountability and change.

The video below is a good example of an ‘expert’ trying to play both sides. The ‘expert’ seeks to absolve President Mnangagwa’s third term bid rumours. He confidently argues, without evidence, that it is the machinations of those close to him, those who benefit from proximity to power, including family members, who have vested interest in protecting their criminal activities.

According to the expert, who alleges Mnangagwa’s cognitive decline, the President is not only unaware of the alleged overtures, but he also has no interest in a third term. He goes on to give detailed accounts of corrupt activities involving the President, his family members and allies but falls short of directly blaming the President for corruption or calling for him to account for his role in questionable deals.

If the president is an active shield for those involved in criminality, what does that make him? Those who keep the company of the uncouth, and knowingly profit from such association, do not make the podium for trusted protectors of the law but are accomplices to its violation. Mnangagwa’s presidency is littered with neglect of the needy citizens.

To the observant, at the core of our experts’ messaging is the exploitation of public emotions of fear and anxiety. This does not constitute hope nor change, it is damaging partisanship. The least our people deserve today is partisanship. The public does not need demagoguery but is crying out for solutions.

What society deserves is an informed voting constituency hence, we appreciate the presence and contributions of experts in informing the public on a wide range of topics, but it would be a disservice to them and the public were their word to be taken at face value. Experts must not live rent free in our political space. While we appreciate expert advice, experts are still humans and fallible, any ambiguity of their ‘expert’ advice must be called out. And we are concerned about partisanship. 

Dealing with hardship dictates that we develop tools that would help us explore and understand its causes and effects. We do realise that it is very hard to put aside partisanship. We do appreciate that giving up the easy, cheap politicking that divides and destroys is not easy, and putting aside personal prejudices is not something humans would readily do, but these are exactly things we need to put aside to realise our capacity as a nation.

The public must awaken to the betrayal of national dreams taking place in the country because of partisanship and tribalism; it is the duty of every citizen, no matter the racial or ethnic profile, to fight for patriotism over partisanship – to be vigilant, to protect freedom and liberty, to speak out and act against State demagoguery or risk being trampled upon by misguided zealotry and extreme partisanship advanced as expertise.

We argue that what is essential today is not which tribe or race holds the most power but a change of direction from partisanship to patriotism; we must courageously set partisanship aside and embrace the best ideas and solutions no matter their origin; we need to replace the toxic tribalism and partisanship of contemporary Zimbabwe with the Zimbabwe that will turn (to concrete reality) the dreams of the war of independence and freedom against colonial rule and the oppression it represented. It has become a political imperative.