ANC Victory, Liberation Movements’ Ideological Strength
Pride Mkono
Zimbabwe Herald
THE South African election has come and gone and the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC) and its tripartite alliance of labour under COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP), romped to victory with 62 percent of the vote. The opposition attempted to put up a fight, but eventually they had to settle for sharing the remaining 38 percent, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) grabbing the larger chunk of the vote, while ‘new boys on the block’ Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were perhaps the biggest winners as they emerged as the third largest party in the South African parliament.
Despite the ANC’s various failures in government, the election reasserted the party’s dominance of politics in South Africa, while on the other end the opposition seems to be failing to come up with coherent strategies of unseating the ruling party.
It must be stated that probably apart from the EFF, which presented itself as a revolutionary “left of left” party fighting for black empowerment, there isn’t a single party in South Africa that distinguished itself from an ideological standpoint.
It is the bane of all opposition parties in the region.
Liberation parties, such as ANC, Frelimo in Mozambique, and Swapo in Namibia and Zanu-PF here at home on the other hand, are firmly in the driving seat and set to continue dominating politics in the foreseeable future despite a coterie of problems bedevilling them ranging from economic failure, corruption and abuse of power.
In the circumstances, one can actually argue that the post-independence opposition in Africa is generally weak and divided as well as ideologically bankrupt. In fact, judging by our Zimbabwean experiences, lack of ideological grounding appears to be the biggest undoing of opposition political formations.
MDC was formed on the backdrop of the failing Economic Adjustment Programme (ESAP) adopted by the Zanu-PF government at the behest of the IMF and World Bank.
This policy literally ruined Zimbabwe’s industries which were already strained by lack of capital.
The austerity measures imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions led to widespread socio-economic suffering and the erosion of social safety nets as Government abdicated its duty and responsibilities to the people as social services it used to provide were being privatised.
Retrenchments and loss of income became the order of the day and were not helped by droughts.
The resultant economic disaster was to be worsened by the weakening of the Zimbabwean currency.
The local populace became disgruntled.
It was in this setting that MDC emerged as a political formation whose goal was summarised by their slogan ‘chinja maitiro/guqula izenzo’ (change your ways).
The formation was just a grouping of disgruntled social and civic groups such as students, workers, the urban poor and sections of the middle class.
They were brought together by their distaste of the Zanu-PF establishment. They immediately launched an offensive at Zanu-PF, but what they failed to do was to transform this loose coalition into a political party with a broader transformative agenda and not just the ‘Mugabe must go’ mantra.
It was not long before the lack of ideological grounding began to haunt the movement as it was confronted with the land question.
Some of its partners under the International Socialist Organisation led by Munyaradzi Gwisai felt strongly that MDC must support the acquisition of land by the black population, which hitherto had been crowded in semi-arid and unproductive reserves.
MDC never sat down and crafted an alternative means of distributing land to the landless and thus started to parrot the unsustainable and tired message of the commercial white farmers of the time who were advocating the ‘willing buyer/willing seller’ programme. Gwisai and company were booted out of the movement.
The second test came in 2005 when the then secretary general Welshman Ncube squared off with Tsvangirai, leading to the violent and bloody break-up of the movement. And now after 15 years of existence, MDC has finally all but disbanded into various fractions of its former self.
One can clearly see that the MDC failed to come up with an alternative vision of transforming Zimbabwe, which would go beyond removing Zanu-PF. If they had such a vision, then the Inclusive Government would have been an opportunity to showcase their vision.
Pride Mkono is former president of Zinasu and political commentator.
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| South African President Jacob Zuma at the 100th anniversary of the ANC. |
Zimbabwe Herald
THE South African election has come and gone and the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC) and its tripartite alliance of labour under COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP), romped to victory with 62 percent of the vote. The opposition attempted to put up a fight, but eventually they had to settle for sharing the remaining 38 percent, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) grabbing the larger chunk of the vote, while ‘new boys on the block’ Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were perhaps the biggest winners as they emerged as the third largest party in the South African parliament.
Despite the ANC’s various failures in government, the election reasserted the party’s dominance of politics in South Africa, while on the other end the opposition seems to be failing to come up with coherent strategies of unseating the ruling party.
It must be stated that probably apart from the EFF, which presented itself as a revolutionary “left of left” party fighting for black empowerment, there isn’t a single party in South Africa that distinguished itself from an ideological standpoint.
It is the bane of all opposition parties in the region.
Liberation parties, such as ANC, Frelimo in Mozambique, and Swapo in Namibia and Zanu-PF here at home on the other hand, are firmly in the driving seat and set to continue dominating politics in the foreseeable future despite a coterie of problems bedevilling them ranging from economic failure, corruption and abuse of power.
In the circumstances, one can actually argue that the post-independence opposition in Africa is generally weak and divided as well as ideologically bankrupt. In fact, judging by our Zimbabwean experiences, lack of ideological grounding appears to be the biggest undoing of opposition political formations.
MDC was formed on the backdrop of the failing Economic Adjustment Programme (ESAP) adopted by the Zanu-PF government at the behest of the IMF and World Bank.
This policy literally ruined Zimbabwe’s industries which were already strained by lack of capital.
The austerity measures imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions led to widespread socio-economic suffering and the erosion of social safety nets as Government abdicated its duty and responsibilities to the people as social services it used to provide were being privatised.
Retrenchments and loss of income became the order of the day and were not helped by droughts.
The resultant economic disaster was to be worsened by the weakening of the Zimbabwean currency.
The local populace became disgruntled.
It was in this setting that MDC emerged as a political formation whose goal was summarised by their slogan ‘chinja maitiro/guqula izenzo’ (change your ways).
The formation was just a grouping of disgruntled social and civic groups such as students, workers, the urban poor and sections of the middle class.
They were brought together by their distaste of the Zanu-PF establishment. They immediately launched an offensive at Zanu-PF, but what they failed to do was to transform this loose coalition into a political party with a broader transformative agenda and not just the ‘Mugabe must go’ mantra.
It was not long before the lack of ideological grounding began to haunt the movement as it was confronted with the land question.
Some of its partners under the International Socialist Organisation led by Munyaradzi Gwisai felt strongly that MDC must support the acquisition of land by the black population, which hitherto had been crowded in semi-arid and unproductive reserves.
MDC never sat down and crafted an alternative means of distributing land to the landless and thus started to parrot the unsustainable and tired message of the commercial white farmers of the time who were advocating the ‘willing buyer/willing seller’ programme. Gwisai and company were booted out of the movement.
The second test came in 2005 when the then secretary general Welshman Ncube squared off with Tsvangirai, leading to the violent and bloody break-up of the movement. And now after 15 years of existence, MDC has finally all but disbanded into various fractions of its former self.
One can clearly see that the MDC failed to come up with an alternative vision of transforming Zimbabwe, which would go beyond removing Zanu-PF. If they had such a vision, then the Inclusive Government would have been an opportunity to showcase their vision.
Pride Mkono is former president of Zinasu and political commentator.
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