Democracy, it’s been said, is government of the people, by the people, for the people. If that’s true, what do we say to the people of Zimbabwe, who have dutifully fulfilled their civic duty by voting, and yet have seen their lives going backwards with every election?
Based on Zimbabwe’s history since independence in 1980, the outcome of the latest elections, of which President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner, would have surprised few.
It was a familiar script. Of yet another election with a disputed outcome. The opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), having rejected the result, on Friday called for nationwide protests, as well as a polls re-run.
They might be easy to dismiss as sore losers. But these were not polls that got a ringing endorsement from outside observers. The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) mission, representing Zimbabwe’s closest neighbours, was among observer groups which found fault with the running of the elections.
It said aspects of the elections fell short of “the requirements of the constitution of Zimbabwe, the electoral act and the Sadc principles and guidelines governing democratic elections".
But back home President Cyril Ramaphosa was among the first leaders to congratulate Mnangagwa. The Presidency said the government had “taken note of the preliminary pronouncements” by election observers.
In many parts of the continent, politicians and their parties have reduced citizens to mere voting fodder
All said, if you were a Zimbabwean voter, having participated in what was purported to be a democratic process, you’d be sitting with much of a muchness, with the cycle having repeated itself as it has done for the last 43 years. That’s even if Mnangagwa’s win were not disputed.
The grim reality is that, with the continuation of Zanu-PF stewardship of the country, your life is unlikely to change for the better. It means the same desperate conditions that have driven many Zimbabweans abroad, including the country’s best and brightest, will continue.
Among other ills are three-digit inflation and sky-high unemployment. Not to mention collapsed public services.
At this point, our Zimbabwean voter would be justified to question the point of the whole election exercise, which is the cornerstone of democracy. They could be excused for wondering how democracy, considered the best political system, can yield outcomes that are inimical to the welfare of voters and the public generally.
These are questions that relate to Zimbabwe. But they may as well apply to much of our continent, where disputed elections are, with rare exceptions, par for the course. In Zimbabwe, as in too many similar cases elsewhere in Africa, regular elections and repeated voting have not translated into the betterment of citizens’ quality of life. The trouble with elections is that, as shown in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, they can be stolen or have their outcome perverted by those in power.
In many parts of the continent, politicians and their parties have reduced citizens to mere voting fodder, to be rewarded with a free T-shirt and perhaps a welcome meal for a hungry stomach.
It should perhaps not surprise us if jaded citizens become cynical about democracy as a system of government. Or if they are seduced by the false dawn of military coups whose leaders promise to set everything right, like ending corruption or halting unpatriotic activities by civilian rulers.
Last week’s coup in Gabon, following a disputed election won by former president Ali Bongo, who was bidding for a third term in office, and whose family had ruled Gabon since 1967, is a case in point. The popular support for the coup leaders in Niger is another.
In Zimbabwe itself, who can forget the heady street scenes six years ago as citizens celebrated the army’s removal of president Robert Mugabe, who, despite running out of ideas to reverse the country’s downward spiral, was bent on clinging to power? Events since have proved that the hopeful excitement was woefully misplaced. In practice and outcomes, Mnangagwa has proved merely to be the opposite side of the same Zanu-PF coin.
In much of the continent, the advent of democracy has delivered little by way of bettering the lives of citizens and lifting them out of poverty. Therefore, citizens would be justified to question the maxim of democracy being “for the people”.
What would we say to the people of Zimbabwe, indeed of the many other countries on the continent, if they charged that their participation in elections seems to serve merely to give legitimacy to a system that is skewed for the benefit of the elite few, the rulers and their cronies, at the expense of the needs of the majority?
It should perhaps not surprise us if jaded citizens become cynical about democracy as a system of government
Additionally, would we fault African citizens if they questioned the appropriateness of our choice of democratic model which, as things stand, rests on regular elections (shown not to guarantee the expression of popular will) and having as many political parties as possible, but whose preoccupation is not to serve the people and to improve their lives, but a self-serving quest for power?
Having voted for the umpteenth time and getting the same debilitating result, Zimbabweans would be entitled to ask: what more is expected of us to make this democracy work for our country, so that there is development, job opportunities and good, old-fashioned hope?
With the benefit of hindsight, it should be evident that the Zimbabwean problem, which remains a source of instability in our region, is not going to solve itself. And under the present dispensation, any number of fresh elections will not turn the country’s fortunes around.
Which brings us to the role of Sadc, including South Africa, which has so far deemed it enough to simply “observe” the goings-on in Zimbabwe. Surely, a more productive intervention would be to seek ways to break the deadlock across the Limpopo? One suggestion has been to convene a dialogue of all stakeholders in that country, facilitated by the likes of Sadc. Given what’s at stake for Zimbabwe and the region, it is an idea worth pursuing.
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