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Political Parties and Governance in Zimbabwe

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Political Parties and Governance in Zimbabwe EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 18, March 2004 Introduction No modern democratic state exists without political parties. If one takes a critical look Realising effective and sustainable at democratic governance in Africa, two democratic governance in Southern factors become apparent on the political Africa and beyond. front. Firstly, in many parts of the continent, democracy is slowly becoming the only form of governance in places such as Botswana, Mali, Ghana, and South Africa. The citizens of these countries are Political Parties and Governance experiencing political freedom, inter and in Zimbabwe intra party competition, press freedom, civil liberties, and the growth of civil society. Conversely, in other parts of the continent, where old established practices and the hard-won principle of democracy attained through a bitter armed struggle, By are now being eroded. Zimbabwe, in the W ole Olaleye recent past, has been characterised by conflict, posing particular challenges of governance. A more nuanced perspective on the crisis of democratic governance in Zimbabwe suggests that the incumbent party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) as the ruling party, has exploited all the instruments of governance to deny the opposition – Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) any opportunity of winning power. The invariable outcome of this process has resulted in a crisis of legitimacy and general catastrophic governance systems that demonstrate an impasse for democratic consolidation. The ISSN: 1811-7422 rule of law has not been upheld by the supposedly independent but partisan ISBN: 1-919814-62-0 judiciary. This situation has created a © EISA, 2004 political polarisation within the society. A politics of ‘us’ and ‘them’ became the mode of political engagement and contestation. If political parties are to contribute to finding a lasting solution to the impasse in Zimbabwe, they will have to do it democratically. - 1 - EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 18, March 2004 Makumbe enumerated some of the ways in state has all the trappings of a Weberian which democracy has been arrested in rational-legal system, with a clear Zimbabwe after two decades of distinction between the public and the democratic gains: private realm, with the written laws and a constitutional order…this official order is Breakdown of the rule of law often subverted by a patrimonial logic, in resulting in many cases of human which office holders almost systematically rights abuse and denial of access to appropriate public resources for their own justice for the victims; promotion of uses and political authority is largely the political culture of fear and the based on clientelist practices, including negation of the democratic ethic, patronage, various forms of rent-seeking which have in turn resulted in and prebendalism.”2 At the centre of this increased level of apathy on the part crisis, is the government of Zimbabwe of the majority of the people; African Nation Party-Patriotic Front humanitarian disasters of various (ZANU-PF), which has been ruling the kinds, such as displacement of more country since Zimbabwe attained than six thousand people from their independence in 1980. Any analysis of the rural home during the 2000 election Zimbabwe crisis will have to place at its campaign, and well over 70 000 centre, the critical role and extent to which during and after the presidential political parties contribute to reversing the election in 2002;A collapse of social gains of democracy as political institutions sector with health and education with aggregative function of assembling institutions failing to measure up to and promoting policy platforms for voters the expected standards of service through internal party practices. This delivery; a chronic shortage of paper argues that the democratisation foreign currency, fuel and many process in Zimbabwe has been halted by other imports that are necessary for the inability of ZANU-PF to transform the manufacturing industry, the itself from a liberation political movement mining industry, commerce and to a functional, democratic political party. agriculture; capital flight, The adherence of ZANU-PF to socialist withdrawal of official development party organisational structures and assistance and the dying up of management procedures stifled the foreign investment resulting in rapid development of credible and strong shrinking of the economy; and political opposition in the history of multi- soaring unemployment currently partyism in Zimbabwe. estimated to be higher than 70%, which contributes to an already Political Parties and Democratic unfortunate and unacceptable level Governance of poverty with some 80% of the population living below the poverty Democratic governance in Zimbabwe 1 datum line. would be impossible in the absence of competitive political parties. However, the The factor responsible for the arrest of contribution of parties to democratic democracy in Africa according to Nicolas development remains somewhat van de Walle (2000) is the extent to which unqualified in practice. In academic neopatrimonial politics dominate African circles, political parties are generally politics since the period of independence. perceived as: “weak links in the chain of The term neopatrimonialism refers to the elements that together make for a co-existence of patrimonial practices with democratic state, or to even have helped modern bureaucracy - “Outwardly the undermine democracy through the - 2 - EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 18, March 2004 irresponsible and self-interested action of • United People’s Association of their leaders.”3 Van de Walle and Butler Matabeleland (UPAM), led by Dr F. further argue, “African political parties are Bertrand plagued by weak organisation, low levels • Zimbabwe Union of Democrats of institutionalisation, and weak links to (ZUD), led by a woman – Margaret 8 the society that they are supposed to Dongo 4 represent.” Fomunyoh, in his overview of • Zimbabwe African People’s Union twenty Francophone countries found weak (ZANU) – Ndonga, led by veteran political parties’ as one of the chief nationalist, Ndabaningi Sithole hurdles holding back the process of Forum Party of Zimbabwe FPZ), 5 • democratic consolidation. Political parties formed in1993 by a former Zimbabwe defined as distinctive forms of Supreme Court judge, Enoch organisations designed to acquire and Dumbutshena exercise political power, to articulate and • Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) aggregate different views of interest, • Zimbabwe Integrated Party (ZIP) operate as a system for selecting cabinet founded in 1996 by a Mathematics members, and for organising individuals Professor, Henri Dzinotyiwei in relation to policy formulation and • Movement for Democratic Change implementation of public policy, and (MDC), formed in 1999 under the serving as mediators between individuals 6 leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai. and their government . It is a widely accepted truism among political analysts The political landscape is currently that democratic consolidation will be dominated mainly by the Zimbabwe impossible without a strong political party 7 African Nation Party-Patriotic Front system. (ZANU-PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The focus of Party politics are alive in Zimbabwe. the analysis in this paper is directed These, over the years, have included the mainly to these two parties. Together, following : these two political parties represent the main political parties developing party • Zimbabwe African National Union leadership and governance in Zimbabwe (ZANU), dominated mainly by the through party ideology, policies and goals, majority Shona ethnic group and led programmes and manifesto; bridging the by Robert Mugabe links between the people and government • Zimbabwe African Peoples Union by advocating collectively for groups (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo with interest, needs, and views; and responsible strong followers from the Ndebele for political socialisation and political ethnic minority recruitment of leadership through party • United Africa Council (UANC), led structures – Women’s and Youth Wings. by Bishop Abel Muzorewa The two parties also represent the ruling • Rhodesia Front (RF), led by Ian Smith party that takes on the governing role and • Zimbabwe Democratic Party (ZDP), the party that operates within ambit of led by James Chikerema government. The MDC emerged strongly • National Front of Zimbabwe (NFZ), as a party in active politics, and not merely under the leadership of Mr. P.F. as a party seemingly responsible for Mandaza contesting the elections without any real • National Democratic Union (NDU), interest in being part of or being the led by Mr. H. Chiota governing party. • United National Federal Party (UNFP), led by Chief K. Ndjweni - 3 - EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 18, March 2004 Depending on the theory of democratic democracy being consolidated and how do consolidation adopted in assessing the political parties’ behave in this process? political process in Zimbabwe, it could be Thus, the critical role of political parties argued that democratic consolidation is on cannot be salient in comprehending the the right track because of its record of necessary ingredient necessary for the accomplishment in conducting regular consolidation of democracy in Zimbabwe. multiparty elections since independence. It will be argued in this paper that the One thing is certain: using this kind of democratic process that began when indicator is problematic, especially if Zimbabwe obtained independence
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