Southern Africa d13j~J])@ffi~ July 1996 ~@lill~TI2l®~lli ~jf~ii©~ July 1996 REPORT Vol. 11 No.4 Contents Editorial: Lean and Mean . 1 Fighting for Control: The Indigenization Debate in Zimbabwe .... 3 ESAP's Fables II . 8 Southern Africa REPORT Gay Bashing in Zimbabwe: is produced quarterly by a collective I- Mugabe's Unholy War 13 of TCLSAC, the Toronto Committee II - Outing the Gay Debate 14 for Links between Southern Africa & Canada 603-1/2 P a rliament St Toronto, Onta rio M 4X 1P9 Who Governs? NGOs in Rural Mozambique . 17 Tel. (416) 967-5562 Email [email protected] t Submissions, suggestions and help in Liberalizing AIDS in Africa: production are welcome and invited The World Bank Role . 21 ISSN 0820-5582 Member: Canadian Magazine Publishers Association Confronting the ANC's Thatcherism . 25 Indexed in: Canadian Index; Canadian Business & Current Affairs All rights reversed Namibia's Wall of Silence 30 Subscriptions Southern Africa Report subscription & TCLSAC membership rates: SUBSCRIPTION: SAR Collective Individual (1 year) $18.00 Institution (1 year) $40.00 Margie Adam, Stephen Allen, Carolyn Bassett, Lois Browne, Marlea Clarke David Cooke MEMBERSHIP: (includes subscription) Kourosh Farrokhzad, David Galbraith, David Lisa Regular . $35.00 Hart~an , Hor~o c ks , David Pottie, John S. Saul, Yasmine Shamsie, Marit Stiles, Unemployed Student . $18.00 Lauren Swenarchuk, Joe Vise, Jonathan Vise, Mary Vise Senior Sustainer . over $100.00 Overseas add $10.00 Cover design by A rt W ork Cover photo by Paul Weinberg - Afrapix/lmpact Visuals Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 569607 ®@n~©~n~n __________________ ________________ _ '"'u "'a. E c: c:"' Q) ~ .0 Q) u"' Lean and Mean In the pantheon of heroes of the played his cards skilfully in the victory out from under the noses decades-long, region-wide war for sharp pre-independence infighting of the British, the South Africans southern African liberation, Robert that characterized the world of the and the settlers during the tense Mugabe has always seemed the Zimbabwean liberation movements. transition period. Moreover, in the leader least easy to like or to At the same time, he and his aftermath of that victory, Mugabe admire. Of course, even his critics colleagues had been equally skilful earned an even greater reputation are forced to admit that he had in finessing ZANU-PF's political for statesmanship, "realistically" Southern Africa REPORT july 1996 1 conceding a great deal to white below, as much on cold-blooded po­ For the moment, then, it is dif­ control of important sectors of the litical calculation - this despite the ficult to feel very positive about the economy for example, while never fact that, as Marc Epprecht suggests quality of the leadership offered the quite acting on his own stated in a companion article, Mugabe's Zimbabwean people by Robert Mu­ preference to institutionalize the tactic may yet backfire on him po­ gabe, or indeed, more broadly, by his narrowly defined one-party state he litically (internationally if not na­ party, ZANU-PF. Rather, a further, apparently had in mind. tionally)- as on conviction (however quite mean-spirited debasing of the bizarre and spiteful). coinage of political discussion seems Nonetheless, from very early on to be his principle current contri­ it was also evident that a vast Small wonder, as well, that M u­ bution to the political scene in his gulf separated Mugabe's sometimes gabe has recently had so little trou­ country. Time alone will tell the full highly vocal leftist rhetoric - an ap­ ble in upping the stakes of racial costs of this approach. parent residue of the heady ideolog­ name-calling when, pushed to ad­ ical wars of liberation struggle days vance the interests of a newly emer­ * * * - from ZANU-PF's actual practice, gent black entrepreneurial class, it Lean and mean? Elsewhere in this as a party and as the vehicle of has seemed politically opportune to issue, Alexander Costy writes of a a new African elite, of enrichissez­ do so. Of course, as Raftopou­ state, in Mozambique, so lean that vous, and the devil take the hind­ los notes, this too could be a dan­ it threatens to disappear altogether most. (This latter is the reading gerous and contradictory political - at least in the important rural of the substance of the nationalist gambit for Mugabe to adopt, since district he recently studied. And achievement in Zimbabwe on which the extent to which a Zimbabwean into the resultant vacuum rush the Brian Raftopoulos builds his anal­ state now firmly in the thrall of the various NGOs whose activity he ysis of the current "indigenization" World Bank and the global system chronicles in his article. For her debate in Zimbabwe in the present can advance such local interests is part, Lauren Dobell writes of a issue, for example). Evident, too, very much in doubt. It is rather ruling party - Swapo in Namibia ­ was both a distinct arrogance of easy, therefore, to dismiss Mugabe's that threatens to turn very mean power (linked to a ruthless drive racially-charged rhetoric - replacing indeed in its fevered reaction to to entrench his own political party so easily his previous invocations of a book that reveals more about ever more firmly and unassailably in socialism and "Marxism-Leninism" its abuses of power as a liberation power), and a certain querulous cul­ - as merely one more ploy to buy movement in exile than it cares to tural nationalism that, for example, political space. have known. brought Mugabe into much closer But is this too sour an inter­ Add to this, for South Africa, sympathy, during the 1980s, with Patrick Bond's heartfelt reflections South Africa's racially-driven Pan­ pretation? Might this attack on "white control" not, instead, rep­ on the contradictions that continue Africanist Congress than with the to stalk efforts to craft a progres­ ANC. resent some sign of a populist re­ vival in Zimbabwe, the projection sive post-apartheid future. Colleen Now, as much more of the sheen of a renewed attempt to advance O'Manique targets the disturbing of liberation has worn away from the interests of ordinary Zimbab­ trend towards "neo-liberalization" the Zimbabwean experience and the weans against those of their histor­ of responses to the AIDS epidemic cruel light of globalization and struc­ ical oppressors? Unfortunately, any in Africa, a continent-wide phe­ tural adjustment, of "guided democ­ such interpretation is difficult to sus­ nomenon that we hope to specify racy" and popular demobilization, tain, given the manner (as docu­ further with case-studies of AIDS in plays across the land, the meaner mented by Richard Saunders in this southern Africa in future issues. side of Mugabe's character stands issue) in which the ZANU govern­ Not that SAR itself is any leaner even more cruelly revealed. What ment has also allowed its embrace of than usual, we hasten to add (even may have looked momentarily like structural adjustment to drive many if we do continue to be rather too statesmanship was often, one now more Zimbabweans closer to the wall thin on financial resources!) - you're suspects, little more than low cun­ of poverty. In the process, and with­ getting your customary 36 pages. ning, and the cruelty that launched out much apology from the political As for "mean": no, we're trying the bloody Fifth Brigade assault on powers-that-be, an ever leaner state to keep our equanimity, and even Matabeleland in the 1980s has come has been stripped of many of the something of our sense of humour, to seem to many observers the truer functions - in the spheres of pop­ in a global situation that, North measure of the man. Case in point: ular education and health services, and South, is none too encouraging. the viciousness of his recent attack in particular - that once marked the We look forward to our twelfth year on gays in Zimbabwe, an attack most positive achievements of Zim­ of publication after a brief summer premised, as Iden Wetherell argues babwe's post-colonial period. hiatus. See you then. 2 july 1996 Southern Afri ca REPORT -----------------~nmm@~@ww® ________________ _ Fighting for Control: The lndigenization Debate in Zimbabwe BY BRIAN RAFTOPOULOS Masiyiwa submitted papers to the demonstrates the distance between such elite resistance, and the in­ Brian Raftopoulos is Acting Director, Supreme Court seeking to declare ability of opposition parties to con­ Institute of Development Studies, Un i­ the Presidential Powers unconstitu­ struct a broader oppositional alter­ versity of Zimbabwe tional. native. In the midst of all this judi­ In this battle with the state The "indigenization debate" has Strive Masiyiwa has not received cial activity, the absence of the lobby been a major theme of political any support from the indigenization groups would appear to be indica­ tive of the state of the indigenization discourse in Zimbabwe for some lobbies which have, until now, time. But more recently, Zim­ been at the forefront of debate debate in Zimbabwe today. This de- · babwean President Robert Mugabe and discussion around this issue. bate has reached a crisis point, char­ acterized by conflicting groups, and has increased his rhetorical attacks It would seem that the lobby ruled over by a state that is unclear on multinationals and white busi­ groups are more concerned with about what its indigenization strat­ ness. Mugabe's accusations that not jeopardizing their close relations egy should consist of. How did Zim­ white and foreign capital have been with the state. The state itself is babwe get to such a point? Indeed, blocking black advancement in the clearly not prepared to tolerate such what is the "indigenization debate" economy certainly rings true but as attempts to develop autonomous and who are these "lobby groups," always, his threats have been short power bases in the private sector.