In Zimbabwe ‘verbal grenades’ will not win votes

By Conrad Nyamutata

Politics can be an acrimonious affair or, to quote a common refrain, a dirty game. Part of this reputation can be attributed to negative campaigning. Ahead of what could be the most crucial election ever, some in the anti-Mugabe camp have given credence to this perception.

Perhaps it is the significance of that election — that Zimbabwe might be on the cusp of possible change in leadership — that derogatory campaigning has gone one decibel up. Over the past months, we have heard those aspiring to replace Mugabe, and their officials, seeking to denigrate each other at public forums.

For example, one accuses the other of running a tribal outfit; the other hits back by citing the accuser’s modest academic background. And in probably one of the most sickening remarks, an opposition party official mocks a deputy prime minister losing her hair due to the debilitations of breast cancer.

Rallies and interviews have now become platforms for personal denigration and allegations of mobilising ethnicity rather than articulating policies that will rescue a desperately ailing country. So-called communications strategists woefully lack public relations skills.

Listening to and reading some of the comments of these people, you would think the electorate will judge them on the basis of their capability to hurl the most caustic personal attack on the other.

Clearly, the utility of media platforms and political gatherings — given that rallies are now coming at a premium thanks to Zanu PF and its police — it has been lost on these aspirants, that progressive Zimbabweans are aching for new and mature leadership.

Mugabe must be rubbing his hands with glee, for this behaviour simply feeds into his claim that his opponents have little to offer. Insincere as the indigenisation and empowerment campaign might be, Mugabe’s Zanu PF has, at least, sold a consistent campaign line.

Insincere because the aggressive empowerment policies we see now, ostensibly designed to benefit the majority, come well after the elite has already lined its pockets, benefitted from patronage and amassed assets.

All scandals since Willowgate bear testimony to an ethos of self-enrichment among the Zanu PF elite, and nothing to do with the majority. It is only yesterday the party realised it had lost support that it tried to portray itself as people-centred.

But I digress. The import of this instalment is the failure of Zanu PF’s opponents to fashion consistent and coherent policy alternatives given a self-discrediting regime. Zanu PF, smarting from defeat in the last elections and afflicted by internecine divisions, has never been more vulnerable.

While Mugabe has literally de-campaigned himself over the years through warped economic policies, corrupt and repressive rule, his opponents cannot afford to be complacent. It is, therefore, unfortunate that leadership aspirants choose to trade insults rather than articulate alternatives to Zanu PF’s despotic and ruinous tenure.

The victimisation card is not enough for Mugabe’s opponents. True, he has exposed the repugnance of his regime. But it is important that the electorate get substantive assurances and is not jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

For a country that has been so wrecked with carefree abandon, there are fundamental and pressing issues to address rather than preoccupation with divisive issues, denigration of persons’ academic standing and callous trivialisation of personal tragedy. The quest for political power should come with some dignity.

The art of political communication should not include rancour but persuasive skills, credibility and consistency. These foul-mouthed politicians and their communications personnel need to design consistent and visible messages which address these key areas; messages we can permanently associate with them.

In the case of Zimbabwe, suffering citizens need leadership capable of dragging it from the economic cesspit, introducing democratic rule and bringing it back into the community of nations. The lack of respect within higher political echelons can also influence how ordinary supporters relate to each other.

So, to our politicians, for the electorate’s sake, please debate and criticise each other’s policies, if you have any at all. Hate speech is just emotion; it will not and should not win votes.