As a long-established ZANU-PF critic and opposition supporter who is aspiring to occupy a leadership role in the mainstream opposition, I found it very difficult to write about what General Constantino Chiwenga should do if he happens to become Zimbabwe’s next president.
This is because I know that there is nothing good that comes from the ZANU-PF regime, even if it changes its leadership a thousand times. I know that the only hope for Zimbabwe comes from a transition of power from ZANU-PF to a democratic and competent government through a free and fair election.
However, I acknowledge the reality that the opposition is currently dead, civil society is weak and silent, and that there is no possibility of meaningful electoral reforms between now and 2028.
This makes it delusional to expect Zimbabwe to go through a democratic transition of power in 2028 or even in 2033.
It is either President Emmerson Mnangagwa will succeed with his 2030 absurdity and cancel the 2028 election, or the 2028 election will go ahead, and whoever is going to be ZANU-PF’s presidential candidate will be declared the winner.
This is tragic, but it is the reality that we are facing as a nation. Any search for solutions must start by acknowledging this absurd reality.
In this article, I am focusing on what I think General Chiwenga should do if he happens to become Zimbabwe’s next president.
I believe that if he does what is recommended in this article, he will create a platform for resolving Zimbabwe’s problems and enabling a democratic transition of power.
I acknowledge that although General Chiwenga fought the liberation struggle from the right side of history, he is one of the people who created the problems that we are facing today as a nation.
He has played a part in repressing democratic freedoms and blocking the democratic transition of power.
I therefore do not want to present him as a saint, he is not. But I also do not want to focus on the wrongs that he has committed, but on the window of opportunity that is still available to him which he should use to do what is right and redeem his legacy.
I believe that he has a role to play in taking this country towards the right direction, especially facilitating the democratic transition of power to a new government, whether he becomes the next president of Zimbabwe or not.
General Chiwenga and the ZANU-PF succession battle: from a kingmaker to an enemy
General Chiwenga is one of the people who played a key role in transitions of power within ZANU-PF. He was one of the young and radical ZANLA guerrillas who were stationed at Mgagao, a military training camp that was based in Tanzania, who signed the famous Mgagao Declaration at the height of the liberation struggle in October 1975.
Others who signed the document were Perence Shiri, Solomon Mujuru, and Josiah Tungamirai. The declaration denounced the leadership of Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, who was the President of ZANU, and applauded the leadership qualities of Robert Mugabe.
It became the foundation on which Mugabe was elevated to the leadership of ZANU, and this was formalised during the special congress in 1977.
Apart from the Mgagao Declaration, General Chiwenga played another critical role in the transition of power within ZANU-PF. In November 2017, Mnangagwa was fired by Robert Mugabe from his position as a co-Vice President following a vicious succession battle.
As soon as he was fired, his life was in unspeakable danger. He fled the country at night and went to South Africa with the help of General Chiwenga and other generals. Within weeks, General Chiwenga led a daring military coup which deposed President Mugabe from power.
It is reported that Mugabe asked him to take over the Presidency instead of bringing Mnangagwa back, but he insisted on bringing Mnangagwa. After clearing the way, he brought back Mnangagwa and gave him the throne.
It is difficult to imagine how someone can lead such a precarious military coup and then hand over power to someone who was out of the country and helpless.
General Chiwenga and his colleagues could have decided to take the power instead of giving it to Mnangagwa, especially considering that if the coup had failed, they were going to be killed by Mugabe.
The truth is that without the intervention and magnanimity of General Chiwenga and the army, Mnangagwa would not have politically recovered. He was a crocodile that was out of the waters.
It is important to note that General Chiwenga was one of Mugabe’s most trusted lieutenants and that is why the coup caught Mugabe by surprise. Mugabe never contemplated that General Chiwenga may mount a military coup against him.
General Chiwenga therefore betrayed this trust by leading a coup which removed Mugabe and enthroned Mnangagwa. This is how much he sacrificed to bring Mnangagwa to power.
However, it is now clear that President Mnangagwa does not want General Chiwenga to succeed him and that he and those who support him in the succession battle no longer appreciate the role General Chiwenga played in executing the coup and giving him the throne.
Discrediting the role of General Chiwenga in the coup, Temba Mliswa, an ally of President Mnangagwa, claimed that “the second republic was born out of collective effort involving citizens, the army, parliamentarians, the opposition, and others.
No single individual can lay claim to sole parentage of the initiative. That creates a dangerous and destabilizing entitlement”. This is not true.
The truth is that it was the army, under the leadership of General Chiwenga, which removed Mugabe and sought the participation of the masses to sanitize the coup.
Mliswa also disingenuously argued that President Mnangagwa was magnanimous when he appointed General Chiwenga as one of the Vice Presidents when the truth is that it is General Chiwenga who was magnanimous when he led the coup and gave the presidency to Mnangagwa.
During a recent press conference, Christopher Mutsvangwa openly criticised General Chiwenga, saying that there were no “Generals” during the liberation struggle and that General Chiwenga should not think that he played a more important role than others in the liberation struggle.
Previously, he argued that the succession issue in ZANU-PF will be decided by the people because General Chiwenga does not have the natural right to succeed President Mnangagwa.
During a burial ceremony at the national shrine, Tatenda Matevera disdainfully led her supporters in singing the song “Mupanduki chera mwena nguva yakwana” with reference to General Chiwenga.
This is a clear sign that within ZANU-PF, General Chiwenga is no longer viewed as a kingmaker, but as an enemy to be lynched. This turn of events is not surprising.
Alex Magaisa warned in his BSR that “Rulers that get into power through a coup might be grateful to their co-conspirators, but they do not trust them.
They know that the co-conspirators are just as ambitious and may even be impatient to have their turn… In extreme cases, co-conspirators are killed, or they meet suspicious deaths. In other cases, they are jailed”.
This is what is happening in ZANU-PF. Whether you like General Chiwenga or not, whatever the circumstances, it is morally reprehensible to turn against someone who sacrificed his life and limb to secure the throne for you at a time when you were helpless and extremely vulnerable.
Ironically, President Mnangagwa himself believed that he was entitled to succeed President Mugabe using the narrative that within ZANU-PF, there is an order of succession that goes back to the Mgagao Declaration of 1975.
It was the G40 faction which valiantly challenged this narrative. The 2017 military coup made President Mnangagwa the beneficiary of this narrative of succession politics in ZANU-PF.
But today, he is now saying that succession politics in ZANU-PF are determined by the people, but the truth is that he wants to be succeeded by someone who will protect his interests. He fears that General Chiwenga may turn against him and his family.
At this point, it is not clear where the dice will fall but the succession battle has reached another level. Those who are supporting President Mnangagwa are doing so because they want to protect their positions and plunder.
They are ready to fight in every way possible, including eliminating those who belong to the Chiwenga faction. If not carefully negotiated, the succession battle will plunge Zimbabwe into a civil strife which will take decades to recover from.
It is reported that during the coup, there was an unwritten agreement that Mnangagwa will serve for one term, but power got to his head that he not only breached the agreement and ran for the second term, but he is now seeking to mutilate the constitution and go beyond the term limits.
The succession crisis in ZANU-PF is tragically not about which faction will prevail on account of its superior ideas and vision for Zimbabwe, but on account of its control of the coercive apparatus of the state.
Now, let me turn to the fifteen priorities which I think General Chiwenga should pursue if he happens to become Zimbabwe’s next President.
Priority number 1: Establish an inclusive government to transform Zimbabwe from the politics of divisions and exclusion to the politics of unity and inclusion and from contested elections to free and fair elections
Zimbabwe is a wounded, angry, and deeply polarized society because of the politics of arrogance, entitlement, hatred, intolerance, violence, plunder, divisions, and exclusion championed by the ZANU-PF regime.
It has never healed from the wounds of Gukurahundi and the politically motivated violence that engulfed it from 2000 onwards. Since independence in 1980, thousands of citizens have been harassed, tortured, maimed, and killed on account of politics.
Thousands were arbitrarily arrested and detained, and thousands had their livelihoods destroyed or confiscated. Zimbabwe is also angry and wounded because of the unspeakable poverty and wretchedness its citizens have endured for endless decades.
The first step that any leader who loves Zimbabwe must take is to form an inclusive government whose core mandate is to heal the country by transforming it from the politics of divisions and exclusion to the politics of unity and inclusion and from contested elections to free and fair elections.
When Mnangagwa became Zimbabwe’s President in 2017 following a military coup, he was embraced by the opposition, civil society, and even the international community because of the hope that he will turn the country to inclusive and progressive politics.
When the MDC Alliance and civil society representatives went to America in December 2017 to give testimony on the situation in Zimbabwe to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, there was a backlash from opposition supporters who had the hope that the Mnangagwa regime needed to be given a chance to turn the corner. In his Big Saturday Read, “Going to America”, Alex Magaisa criticized the visit because “it came at a time when many people are clinging to the hope that after Mugabe, perhaps there is a chance for a better future”.
Magaisa argued that Zimbabweans supported the coup because they were tired and wanted a new start and that there was a large body of opinion that believes that there is indeed a new dispensation which must be given a chance. Respected and accomplished people such as Trevor Ncube also gave Mnangagwa their goodwill.
I am using these few examples to show you that there was abundant goodwill that the Mnangagwa regime was given by citizens across the political divide. If Mnangagwa was a wise leader, he could have harvested this amazing goodwill that Zimbabweans gave him.
Tragically, he squandered it and took Zimbabwe deeper into the dungeon of polarization, individualism, sycophancy, corruption, plunder, incompetence, and the politics of twerking.
He is now threatening to mutilate the constitution with his 2030 agenda, a move that may plunge the country into civil strife.
If General Chiwenga happens to win the succession battle in ZANU-PF and become the next President of Zimbabwe, he must be a magnanimous leader.
He must reach out to the opposition, war veterans, the church, civil society, the media, the academia, the youth, traditional leaders, Zimbabweans in the diaspora, and other constituencies of the Zimbabwean society and establish a genuinely inclusive government whose role is to transform Zimbabwe from the politics of divisions and exclusion to the politics of unity and inclusion and from contested elections to free and fair elections.
If he achieves this, he will certainly gain a huge amount of goodwill from Zimbabweans across the political divide, including mine.
I know that the idea of a Government of National Unity is not appealing to Zimbabweans because the 2009-2013 GNU failed to deliver the reforms that were expected by the opposition. However, this was not a GNU in the true sense of a GNU.
It was a tool which ZANU-PF used to waylay the opposition and restore its dead political fortunes. It rigged the 2013 elections in ways that have remained mysterious until this day. This is not the GNU that I am talking about.
I am talking about a GNU that implements far reaching political, economic, and electoral reforms which will turn Zimbabwe from toxic politics to inclusive politics and from contested elections to free and fair elections.
If General Chiwenga establishes such a GNU and achieves these milestones, his past misdeeds and mistakes will be forgiven, and he will go with a legacy that no one can erase. In the rest of this article, I propose the priorities which the GNU should focus on.
Priority number 2: Going back to the values of the liberation struggle
The liberation struggle was about restoring our land, rights, dignity, and collective prosperity as black people. It was about Gutsaruzhinji. But today, liberation struggle credentials are used as a passport to get positions in government and plunder national resources.
If you are someone with a clean conscience, you cannot deny the tragic reality that what is happening in Zimbabwe today is a shameful desecration of the values and expectations of the liberation struggle.
ZANU-PF has plundered Zimbabwe to the point where Zimbabweans have been forced to believe that the racist regime of Ian Smith, with all its evils, was better.
General Philip Valerio Sibanda, you were right when you said that “It is unfortunate that after independence, some of us went wayward and we started amassing wealth, we started getting involved in corruption and so forth, but we were taught to share”.
However, you were wrong when you said that “some of us” went wayward, implying that only a few went wayward.
You were also right when you said that you went to war to restore the dignity of black people.
But today, black people are walking on raw sewage, admitted to public hospitals and leaning institutions that are derelict, drive on roads that are infested with potholes, use a dehumanizing public transport system, live without water and electricity, children are learning under trees, and our soldiers are being used to protect the Chinese who are plundering our country, destroying our environment, dispossessing our villagers, and abusing our people.
Where is the dignity that you fought for? Whenever I listen to the struggle song “Tondosangana kuZimbabwe”, with its deeply inspiring hopes and expectations of independence, and juxtapose it with the shattering ruins that Zimbabwe has become today, my heart flees from me.
Zimbabwe must return to the values and expectations of independence. We need to compile them and make them an indispensable part of our social, political, cultural, and economic life as a nation. If we cannot do that, then the liberation struggle was fought for nothing.
Should General Chiwenga become the next President of Zimbabwe, he must make sure that the country returns to the values and expectations of the liberation struggle. During one of his speeches, he said that “our struggle for independence was founded on the values of unity and love.
These are timeless and ageless values which we must personify today and tomorrow and which we must pass on to those who come after us. They make a nation; they give character to a people and above all, they make us winners in every sphere of human endeavour”.
Priority number 3: Building independent institutions, especially the army, police, CIO, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and Judiciary
Independent institutions play a critical role in protecting and promoting the interests of the nation. Whenever state institutions are captured by a few political elites, they protect the interests of a few at the expense of the interests of the nation.
They protect corruption instead of protecting transparency and accountability. Zimbabwe will never become a great nation without reforming state institutions and making sure that they can do their work independent of political and other forms of interference.
Let me start with the army. While it has played a critical role in safeguarding peace and security in the country, it is the biggest problem in our national politics. It played a huge role in blocking the democratic transition of power, especially in 2008.
Army Generals openly supported ZANU-PF and claimed that Zimbabwe will not be led by an opposition politician. The army has been involved in overt and covert political violence in this country. On 1 August 2018, it killed 6 civilians and injured 35 others.
It has been involved in massive corruption and human rights abuses related to the exploitation of natural resources such as diamonds. Since the 2017 coup, Zimbabwe has become deeply militarized, with the army regarding itself as the kingmaker in Zimbabwean politics.
This is not good for the nation. The army should operate under the confines of the constitution. Section 208 of the Constitution prohibits any sector of the security services or its members from acting in a partisan manner; furthering or prejudicing the interests of any political party or cause; and from being active members or officers of any political party.
The Police, just like the army, have played a commendable role in promoting and maintaining law and order in the country. However, it is also heavily politicized. The police deny opposition leaders and supporters the right to exercise the democratic freedoms that are enshrined in the constitution.
It harasses, intimidates, and arrests peaceful opposition leaders and supporters, but it does not arrest ZANU-PF leaders and supporters who perpetrate politically motivated violence because they are protected by ZANU-PF.
This is not the problem of the police, but of the system itself. We need a system that allows the police to do their work professionally.
The CIO remains a dreaded institution which is widely believed to conduct covert operations, especially abducting, torturing, and killing ZANU-PF critics.
State institutions must be there to protect citizens. The judiciary is notorious for its inhuman and unfair handling of opposition politicians, activists, and critics of ZANU-PF.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is notorious for rigging elections. We need a new political culture which allows state institutions to operate independently and professionally.
The leaders and supporters of ZANU-PF must understand that when we demand independent institutions, we are demanding what is good for everyone, including them.
When Robert Mugabe and the G40 were deposed from power and persecuted during the 2017 coup, they needed independent institutions to help them but there was none.
Today, General Chiwenga and those within ZANU-PF who oppose the 2030 agenda need independent institutions to help them but there is none. Politics belongs to the civilian domain.
Whatever happens, we must never accept the use of non-political means against political opponents. Political disagreements must always be resolved using political means.
Independent institutions are critical for promoting and defending the rule of law. Absurdities such as human rights abuses, political violence, election rigging, violation of the constitution, corruption, and impunity thrive in Zimbabwe because of a systemic culture of disrespect for the rule of law. We need a new culture of respect for the rule of law. No one should be above the law regardless of social status and political affiliation.
Priority number 4: Going back to governance systems that are rooted in Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage
One of the objectives of colonialism was to exterminate Africa’s indigenous knowledge and governance systems and replace them with European models of governance.
The purported endgame was to “civilize” Africa. However, the intention was to make Africans lose faith in their identity: culture, values, languages, and governance systems. At independence, Africa inherited the governance systems that were imposed by the colonial project.
With the benefit of hindsight, liberal democracy has largely failed to deliver peace, security, unity, and development in Africa. Instead, it has delivered toxic polarisation, contested elections, and the election of corrupt and incompetent people to positions of power.
It has also maintained the colonial economic order and created new pathways for Africa to be exploited by the world’s powerful states.
At independence, the new African governments were supposed to go back to the cultural values, practices, and systems of governance that existed in Africa before the coming of colonialism and enrich them with carefully selected aspects of liberal democracy.
This could have made it possible for Africa to be governed using systems of governance that are rooted in the values, beliefs, and practices of the African people. We cannot continue to have systems of governance that are alien to our ways of life as Africans.
We need to go back to systems of governance that are rooted in our identity and enriched by select aspects of liberal democracy. This is what the next President of Zimbabwe must do if the country is to turn the corner.
Priority number 5: Severely punish corruption, including by life imprisonment and if need be, by death sentence
If Zimbabwe is going to have a President who will be loved by the masses, it is a President who is committed to fighting corruption.
Zimbabwe has been engulfed by corruption such that whenever I listen to the struggle song “Nzira Dzemasoja”, especially its condemnation of corruption, and juxtapose it with the vile corruption that is devouring Zimbabwe today, committed by the very comrades who fought the liberation struggle and sung “Nzira Dzemasoja” I shudder with disbelief.
They moved from Nzira Dzemasoja to Nzira Dzembavha. When the military generals removed President Robert Mugabe from power in November 2017, they claimed that they were targeting criminals around Mugabe.
But today, there are more criminals around President Emmerson Mnangagwa than there were around President Mugabe, with President Mnangagwa himself appearing to be the Chigananda in Chief.
In fact, during Mugabe’s time, corruption was embedded in the system, but under Mnangagwa, corruption has become the system itself.
Corruption has killed Zimbabwe such that any serious fight against it must include these two non-negotiable forms of punishment: life imprisonment and death sentence for egregious cases of corruption.
We know that ZANU-PF is the citadel of corruption and that there is no serious fight against corruption that can be executed by the ZANU-PF leadership.
However, General Chiwenga, who is fighting to succeed President Mnangagwa, has said the right things about fighting corruption.
Just to give a few examples, he is on record saying that corruption is now a security threat to the nation, that “a loud and clear no to corruption by whomsoever.
Corruption aborts our quest for sustainable economic development, peace, and stability”, and that “We all swore to a shared future in which everyone has a place on the table.
A place in the sun, for a culture of equal opportunity where every Zimbabwean is served in equal measure. Zvehubvanzu bvanzu kudya kwemhumhi takazviramba.
Our vision 2030 is for all of us, kwete dzamunoti mbinga, kuhondo taidziti zvigananda. Those who grow big tummies through ill-gotten wealth and questionable morals”.
During the ZANU-PF Politburo meeting of 17 September 2025, General Chiwenga presented a dossier exposing corruption by President Mnangagwa’s allies. This includes the alleged looting of US$3.2 billion by tenderpreneur Kudakwashe Tagwirei and other egregious cases of corruption by Wicknell Chivayo, Scott Sakupwanya, and Paul Tungwarara. He called for the arresting and prosecution of the Zviganandas. What is clear is that the allegations came at a time when ZANU-PF is going through a vicious succession battle.
It is therefore not clear whether General Chiwenga is genuinely fighting corruption, or he is using the accusations as a tool to fight his opponents in ZANU-PF.
Temba Mliswa, who is fighting in defense of President Mnangagwa, has criticized General Chiwenga’s commitment to fight corruption, arguing that the fight against corruption should be “holistic” and not targeted at a few individuals.
He also said that General Chiwenga is not clean, linking him to the US$15 billion diamond revenue which Mugabe said was stolen and to the Chinese who are plundering Zimbabwe’s resources.
He also claimed that the properties that are in General Chiwenga’s name could be proceeds of corruption. In this article, I am not saying that General Chiwenga is clean.
I am saying that he can chose to play a crucial role in the fight against corruption should he become Zimbabwe’s next President.
It is tragic that we are now living in a Zimbabwe where thieves and sycophants are celebrated and hard and honest work is mocked. We need a Zimbabwe that celebrates and rewards hard and honest work.
The fight against corruption must start with recovering state resources that were looted over the years, especially during the so-called Second Republic of President Mnangagwa.
For example, Wicknell Chivayo must be arrested and prosecuted and everyone who received a car and money from him must be ordered to give back the car (at the value it was bought) and the money.
For example, if someone received a car that is worth $100 000.00 and $ 50 000.00 in cash, that person must be required to give back the $ 50 000.00 in cash.
Regarding the car, that person must be given two options: to either give the state $100 000.00 in cash and keep the car or give back the car and the state auctions it, and the person pays the balance.
For example, if you received a car that is worth $100 000.00 and you give it back and the state auctions it at $60 000.00, you must pay the balance of $40 000.00.
The reason why they would be ordered to pay back the money and cars is because when they received these gifts, they knew that these were proceeds of corruption and plunder.
Ordering them to pay back will send a strong message to the Zimbabwean society that accepting proceeds of corruption has severe consequences.
What should the government do with the recovered money and assets?
The fight against corruption in Zimbabwe will bear fruits if the masses are made to understand how and why corruption is responsible for the collapsed education and health delivery systems, poor roads, shortage of water and electricity, and the general failure by the state to provide public goods.
In simple terms, they must know how corruption directly affects them on a day-to-day basis. This is why I think that after recovering the looted money, the new government must use it to build new projects which will stand as symbols of making Zimbabweans to understand what the country could have achieved had it not been of corruption.
I specifically suggest that the money should be used to build new schools, clinics, hospitals, roads, and railways across the country’s provinces.
Imagine a patient walking into a clinic or hospital which was built with the money that was recovered by the state. Imagine children attending a school or university that was built with the looted money that was recovered by the state.
Imagine passengers using a railway system that was built with the looted money that was recovered by the state. Imagine passengers boarding a modern train that was purchased with the looted money that was recovered by the state.
Imagine citizens driving along roads that were constructed using the looted money that was recovered by the state. This will give them a clear picture of how corruption has killed this country and what it can achieve with a leadership that is not corrupt.
It will also give them the willpower to expose and fight corruption in all its forms and manifestations.
Priority number 6: Reforming the economy and building new infrastructure, especially roads, hospitals, schools, and universities.
The ZANU-PF regime has failed, not just to build new infrastructure, but even to maintain the infrastructure it inherited from the colonial era. Today, Zimbabwe is still relying on the infrastructure it inherited from the colonial era.
This is shameful. Should General Chiwenga become Zimbabwe’s next president, his inclusive government must focus on reforming the economy and building and renovating our infrastructure.
Priority number 7: Outlaw the exportation of raw minerals and focus on beneficiation
We, as a country, have lost a lot of resources because we export raw materials to other countries and end up buying back the finished products at higher prices. Let us look at our gold and diamonds as examples.
Countries that have no gold or diamond are the biggest beneficiaries of our gold and diamond. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Whatever the circumstances, we must always be the biggest beneficiary of our own resources, but this can only happen if we stop selling raw materials and focus on beneficiation.
Priority number 8: Decolonizing our education system by connecting it to our natural resources and aligning it with the future
Our education system was designed to make us hewers of wood and drawers of water. It was designed to make us incapable of knowing and exploiting our natural resources. Imagine that I come from Bikita, but I do not know the minerals that are in my birthplace.
I have been busy acquiring as much education as possible for me to look for a job while Chinese from Chongqing come and exploit the resources in Bikita. This is not acceptable. We need an education system that can do the following two fundamental things.
On the domestic front, it must make Zimbabweans highly knowledgeable of their natural resources and equip them with the knowledge skills to add value to the resources and sell them to other countries as finished products.
We cannot continue with an education system which alienates us from our natural resources.
On the regional and global front, our education system must equip Zimbabweans with the knowledge and skills that are on demand presently and in the future, especially in the areas of science, technology, and innovation.
Priority number 9: Moving from the politics of violence, fear, and sycophancy to the politics of ideas, meritocracy, and freedom
Since independence in 1980, ZANU-PF has relied on violence and fear to retain power. When a government uses fear and violence against its political opponents, it is not a sign of power, courage, and invincibility, but of fear, cowardice, vulnerability, and the sheer lack of ideas.
Never again should violence be used as a tool to achieve political objectives. No Zimbabwean should be abducted or killed on account of politics. The government should establish anti-political violence special courts to deal with politically motivated violence.
Moving from the politics of violence, fear, and sycophancy to the politics of ideas, meritocracy, and freedom can only succeed if ZANU-PF brings people of ideas into government and allows them to use their ideas and skills for the benefit of the nation.
There are many Zimbabweans who are leading global institutions and winning awards whose knowledge, skills, and competence can take the nation to great heights, but ZANU-PF does not give them the space to do so because it values sycophancy and twerking above ideas and competence.
That is why characters such as Owen Mudha Ncube and Tatenda Matevera are given influential positions in government. In the age of artificial intelligence, having Tatenda Matevera, a sycophantic actress at the helm of the Ministry of Information Communication Technology is the signature of incompetent leadership.
Nations can only succeed if they value ideas, competence, and meritocracy. Nation building is not a partisan project, it is not about affiliation to ZANU-PF or any other political party, but it is a collective project that is centred on big ideas and the commitment and competence to implement them.
The government must establish a Talent Identification and Recommendation Unit whose role is to identify knowledgeable and skilled Zimbabweans who should be brought into government to develop the nation.
However, in its current state, even if ZANU-PF brings people of ideas and skills in the system, the system will turn them into clowns instead of them changing the system.
Priority number 10: Secure the return of skilled labor from the diaspora
Zimbabwe has lost and continues to lose its skilled and economically active citizens, with some of them working in the world’s top institutions. It is tragic that Zimbabweans in the diaspora are building other countries while their own continues to fall into the dungeon of poverty and dereliction. These Zimbabweans are not to blame.
ZANU-PF’s corrupt, incompetent, and authoritarian rule has forced them to leave their country in search of opportunities in other countries. Instead of attracting people of great ideas and appointing them to positions of power so that they can contribute to nation building, the ZANU-PF regime abducts, imprisons, and persecutes them.
It appoints illiterate, arrogant, and corrupt sycophants to positions of power. Such behavior does not encourage Zimbabwean intellectuals who are in the diaspora to return and serve the country.
Zimbabwe needs a government that creates an environment which encourages its intellectuals who are in the diaspora to come back and play a leading role in building the nation.
In the Big Saturday Read titled “Will they ever come back”, Alex Magaisa says that “there are many that have left and more that wish to secure a chance to leave. But the question is: will they ever return at all? As part of the search for solutions to its economic problems, Zimbabwe should be asking what needs to be done to retain or secure the return of skilled labor”.
Zimbabwe will not solve its economic problems without harnessing the knowledge, skills, and networks of its great minds who are in the diaspora.
For those who may not be able or willing to return home, the government must establish ways of enabling them to contribute their knowledge and skills towards national development.
Priority number 11: National healing and reconciliation
Zimbabwe cannot move on without addressing the injustices of the past, especially Gukurahundi and the politically motivated violence that engulfed the country from 2000 onwards.
We need an open conversation about these chapters of brutality and savagery and what needs to be done to heal the nation.
The government must establish a framework for the compensation of victims of politically motivated violence. The welfare of our war veterans must be genuinely promoted through grants, access to health, and development projects.
Priority number 12: Declaration of war on drug and substance abuse
Drug and substance abuse have become a national pandemic that is destroying present and future generations. According to the Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network, 60% of admissions into mental health institutions are linked to drug and substance abuse. Some efforts are being made to fight against this pandemic. For example, the Judicial Service Commission has set up special anti-drug and substance abuse courts and the training of judicial officers and prosecutors to tighten the Justice system’s response to the scourge.
However, the truth is that most of the drug lords either hold leadership positions in ZANU-PF or are connected to ZANU-PF political elites. This gives them the power to sell drugs with impunity because they use ZANU-PF to protect themselves from the justice system.
They also survive because they bribe law enforcement authorities. The criminal justice system cannot arrest and prosecute drug lords who are protected by the system. It is this protection that must be completely removed.
Nine Chinese nationals who were convicted of illegal possession of cocaine were fined US$150. 00 while a popular Zim dancehall musician, Nyasha Reginald Mano, popularly known as Ras Pompy, was sentenced to six months in prison for unlawful possession of illegal cough syrups.
Our justice system goes after the ordinary people and leaves the people who are at the heart of this crisis. General Chiwenga, should you become Zimbabwe’s next president, you must deal with the drug and substance abuse crisis once and for all.
Priority number 13: Declaration of war on land barons
It is tragic that land barons are causing havoc in Zimbabwe with impunity because of their political connections and protection. The ZANU-PF regime under President Mnangagwa has no willingness to fight these land barons.
General Chiwenga, should you become Zimbabwe’s next president, you should make sure that land barons do not have a place in the Zimbabwean society.
I listened to a speech in which you said that “We give title deeds and eliminate the problem of land barons who are pegging stands everywhere. We say no to that. There is law in this country, and we must follow the law. What I am saying here will be done.
We are not talking about folk tales, the time for folk tales is over”. Indeed, the time for folk tales in the fight against corruption, land barons, and drug abuse should be over if you happen to become the next president of Zimbabwe.
Priority number 14: Declaration of war on the marauding and disdainful Chinese nationals who are operating in Zimbabwe
As Zimbabweans, we must always be grateful that China supported our liberation struggle by providing us with military training and aid.
However, we cannot allow Chinese to loot our natural resources, destroy our environment, displace local communities, and abuse our people because China helped us in the liberation struggle.
We must also understand that China did not help us purely and exclusively out of love for us.
It was primarily out of the need to negotiate and influence the geopolitical and ideological conflict between the communist Eastern Bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist Western Bloc, led by the United States.
In today’s Zimbabwe, the new parliament was built by the Chinese, China has funded a host of other projects, and at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese companies donated masks, protective clothing, and goggles to Angel of Hope Foundation, a charity run by the president’s wife, Mrs Auxilia Mnangagwa.
All this is not done out of love for Zimbabwe, but out of the desire to corrupt and buy the hearts of Zimbabwe’s ruling elites so that Chinese can have a passport to Zimbabwe’s natural resources.
It is, as Alex Magaisa called it, bribery in the name of charity. If Vice President Chiwenga happens to become Zimbabwe’s next president, he should bring the Chinese to order. We know that he received life-saving treatment in China during the difficult times that he faced a mysterious illness and that upon his return, he was received at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by Chinese deputy ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Zhao Baogang.
This suggests that General Chiwenga has strong ties with China, something which may undermine his commitment to bring the marauding Chinese to order. The bottom line is that as a nation, we cannot allow the Chinese to continue doing what they are doing.
There are many disturbing videos of Chinese who are looting our resources, destroying our natural environment, displacing local communities, and abusing our people in the name of “investment”.
There is a public outcry concerning this problem, but the response from both the Chinese and the Zimbabwean government has been condescending and disdainful.
Let me give an example. On 20 January 2022, civil society organizations in Zimbabwe released a joint statement titled “Civil Society Statement on Chinese Investments in Zimbabwe” in which they rightfully stated that:
“We, the Zimbabwe Civil Society groups, united in our common objective of defending our communities and national heritage against investment projects that disempower and impoverish our people, seek to register our deep concern with the behavior of Chinese business operations in Zimbabwe.
“Our joint statement is not meant to defame China or trigger xenophobic resentment towards Chinese nationals in Zimbabwe. On the contrary, we seek fair and mutually beneficial relations between the two countries.
“We have, however, noted with deep concern the threats of displacements and mining projects in ecologically sensitive places around the country without any due regard for the concerns of the local people”.
As you can see for yourself, this is a well-intended and respectful statement. No one in their right mind would say that these civil society organizations were sent by Western imperialists to advance Imperial interests in Zimbabwe.
On 24 January 2022, the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe responded with a statement that was published in the Herald in which, among other vitriols, it stated that “Were it not for China’s funding support and the work of Chinese companies in ICT and power generation, even the statement in question would perhaps have to be scribbled down on a piece of paper, in a candle-lit room, and never find its way onto a functioning Internet”.
As you can see, this disdainful statement is not an insult to the civil society organizations that wrote the aforesaid statement, but to Zimbabwe itself and it is shuddering to imagine that it was published in the Herald, a state-owned newspaper.
During his recent press statement, Christopher Mutsvangwa severely condemned Farai Maguwu for condemning the damage that Chinese are causing to this country, asking him to bring his own investors to Zimbabwe who can do better than the Chinese.
This is the reason why the Chinese are disdainful in their treatment of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. I do not blame them because they have the protection of corrupt politicians who are working with them to loot the resources of this country.
General Chiwenga, should you become Zimbabwe’s next President, this nonsense must stop. I am not saying that Chinese must be prohibited from investing in Zimbabwe.
I am simply saying that they must be prohibited from looting our resources, damaging our natural environment, and displacing and abusing our people. If you cannot understand this, then you have no business becoming Zimbabwe’s next president.
It is tragic that our national institutions, including the police and the army, are now being used to protect the Chinese who are plundering our resources, destroying our environment, displacing our villagers, and abusing our citizens.
If you fought the liberation struggle, but today, you are using state institutions, including the police and the army, to protect the Chinese who are plundering our resources, destroying our environment, displacing our villagers, and abusing our citizens, you are a shame incarnate, and you deserve no respect from anyone.
Priority number 15: Protecting the land rights of rural communities and giving them access to local and international markets
There are two critical observations I made through my visits to rural areas. The first observation is that rural areas have massive economic potential to transform Zimbabwe, but we are still chained by the colonial mindset which views them as inherently wretched.
As a nation, we can never achieve our developmental goals without integrating the rural economy into the national and particularly the regional and international economies. Rural communities have resources that are wasted because of lack of knowledge and access to markets.
The second observation is that rural communities do not have land security. Many of them are often intimidated by traditional leaders, ZANU-PF politicians, businesspersons, and Chinese “investors”, with threats of eviction always hovering above their heads.
This makes it difficult for them to establish long-term investments. I am not sure if giving title deeds to rural communities is the way to go, but there is an urgent need to come up with mechanisms of protecting the land rights of rural communities.
A committee must be put in place to explore what those mechanisms should be.
Dr Moses Tofa is a Research Leader, political analyst, and self-critical Pan-Africanist. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Johannesburg and a PhD in Conflict Studies from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He is an Investigator at the University of Andes, Colombia. He is an aspiring opposition politician who founded the Zimbabwe Opposition Monitoring and Support Group. He writes in his capacity. He can be reached at [email protected], Twitter handle: @DrDrMTofa.
