arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Zimbabwe 2002
Real social change – or lies, violence, and privilege?

Zimbabwe faces a presidential election on 9 and 10 March 2002 which is of critical concern for the world civil society movement and for all militants working for the realisation of the other world that is possible.

The pre-election period has been characterised by an extreme intolerance of opposition and critical voices by the ruling party; violence, harassment and intimidation of political opponents – essentially, a terror strategy - in which scores of people have been killed; attempts to coerce people into membership of the ruling party by demands for party cards at illegal roadblocks and the restriction of civic and voter education; and draconian security and media legislation to limit political campaigning by the opposition. The substantive and real land reform issue has been manipulated to appear as an issue of race and of Zimbabwe's contention with Britain, and has been carried out in a chaotic and corrupt manner and which has significantly contributed to a serious (40% +) fall in food production since 1999.

Confronting forces in the election are
- an aging and discredited ruling party, ZANU(PF), in power since 1980, its leaders drawn from the nationalist struggle of the 1970s, and with the commandist and military traditions of that struggle informing their current practice; and
- a broad coalition of social forces under the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a political force led by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

Key issues in the coming election will be:
- the restoration of the rule of law, under a people's power dispensation and constitution, with an independent and ethical judiciary and professional, efficient and socially responsable armed and security services;
- the revival and reinvigoration of an economy that has been undermined by global economic factors (structural adjustment from 1990) and by a corrupt and self-serving elite;
- the establishment of a orderly and transparent but radical agrarian reform strategy
- the demilitarisation of Zimbabwe and its disengagement from military adventurism, for example in its longstanding, expensive and corrupt engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- the establishment of freedom for peoples and civil society organisations to organise and associate and to carry out their programmes
- a true analysis and understanding of the politics of liberation, moving away from the era of national liberation movements to the era of peoples and social movements.

Historical background

The liberation war of Zimbabwe (1967-1979) was a struggle against minority (white) rule, in which the non-democratic and repressive policies privileged a racial minority (never more than 4% of the population) with dominant land ownership, control of wealth and social resources. An armed liberation struggle eventually led to a negotiated agreement at Lancaster House in 1979, which led to elections and independence in April 1980.

A decade of social progress followed, with economic growth ranging between 5 and 10 % during much of the decade. Unused or underused capacity was made productive, and by 1990 27% of the GDP was provided by manufacturing; a largescale industrial agriculture provided the base of this industry, and a significant mining sector was also active. Nonetheless, social transformation was more problematic:
- military repression put down protest and terrorised the rural population in Matebeleland in the mid1980s, resulting in some 8000 recorded deaths directly caused by the repression;
- trade union action was harassed in practice and restricted by legal regulations;
- land reform moved very slowly, and was subject to a first wave of corruption in which ruling party elite served their own interests first
- political opposition to the ruling party was attacked by youth militants in the 1985 and 1990 elections;
- a concentration of power in the hands of the presidency occurred after the constitutional change of 1987; the Executive State President, Mugabe, was also President and First Secretary of the ruling party

The last decade saw the failure of government to take decisive steps in land reform, the introduction with the complicity of the ruling elite of a structural adjustment programme that saw industrial production drop to 19 % by 1998, and which continues to involve a corrupt and destructive privatization; a huge expenditure in 1997 to angry veterans of the war of liberation (9% of annual budget) and the economically costly war involvement in the Congo of one third of Zimbabwe's large army.. largely to provide security for enterprises of Zimbabwean military and political elite.

The context of the present election

The authoritarian, paternalist, arbitrary, monopolist, intolerant style of the ruling party has resulted in an atmosphere of repression, fear and resistance in the political domain. The unaccountability and the refusal to accept the rule of law practiced by the ruling elite (under wide-ranging Presidential Powers similar to a formal state of emergency) resulted in a large-scale and broadly inclusive civil society campaign, called the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) which mobilised support for the creation of a new peoples constitution, and which managed to defeat the Government's inadequate proposals to tinker with the constitution in a referendum in February 2000.

Following more than a decade of increasingly negative relations between social movements and civil society organisations with the ruling party, the Movement for Democratic Change was launched in late 1999 with the central role being played by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. It contested the June 2000 parliamentary elections, winning 57 out of 120 elected seats, despite undoubted electoral fraud. (In the previous parliament 3 seats were held by opposition parties).

Land:
Following its defeat in the referendum in early 2000, the ruling party launched a land invasion or occupation strategy of the industrial scale farms owned principally by white Zimbabweans. A combination of party militants, some war veterans, urban and rural unemployed youth, and poor peasants were encouraged and supported (by political exhortation and nationalist (and racist) rhetoric, transport provision, partisan police presence) to occupy large farms and to divide them up. This policy, called the fast-track land distribution policy, was also response to a 1998 conference on land reform which st conditions of orderliness and transparency for international support for land; but principally it has to be seen as populist attempt to garner or consolidate support among the rural population, and also as a means to coerce and threaten potential political opponents. The failure of the ruling party to support new "settlers" with inputs for production may mean that this policy will backfire.

No-one denies that land reform is seriously and urgently needed. But the chaotic, violent and corrupt process currently underway is not the way forward, and is not based on peoples organisations and peoples interests.

Economy
The collapse of Zimbabwe's economy, involving runaway inflation (currently 112%), a major foreign currency crisis (and parallel market at 6 times the official rate), the ballooning of the state's debts both domestic and international, and its defaulting on the repayments to the World Bank in early 2001, a crisis of industrial and agricultural production which has led to a massive increase in unemployment and underemployment, a food supply shortfall for the first time since independence due to the disruption of agriculture during 2000 and 2001 indicates the bankrupcy and incompetence of the current government. The buying power of the Zimbabwe currency has been hugely eroded, resulting in great hardships for those who remain in employment. The opposition party MDC, a broad coalition with a largely social democrat position has made it clear that stimulating growth and redistribution will be among its key initial activities.

Social:
Partly as a result of structural adjustment but also due to the budget pressures caused by the Congo War, the education and health sectors, and the social welfare system have been undermined and demoralised; there has been a significant brain drain from these and other professional sectors to neighbouring countries and also to countries of the north (for examples, Zimbabwean nurses are particularly in demand in the UK, where it is reported that more than 20 000 currently are employed. Criminality has seen a significant rise, as the police have been demoralised by being politically manipulated, and where a form of political cleansing has taken place, in which opponents (or suspected opponents) of the ruling party are removed from office. This political cleansing also operates in the civil service and in local authorities and municipalities, where perceived opponents are removed or harassed.

Violence and fear
The coercion of rural people, and their instrumentalisation as support for a ruling clique, has exacerbated the intolerance of opposition practiced by the ruling party since its arrival in power in 1980. New forms of coercion include a state sponsored training of youth to form a national youth militia, who have recently become involved in illegal roadblocks to control and search rural travellers; one requirement demanded is the ruling party card. Even rural transport has become hazardous for rural people. Likewise, the new Public Order and Security Act, which requires all public meetings (of more than 3 people!) to be notified to the police, criminalises civil disobedience, places extreme restrictions on public protests, has a broad and disturbing category of breaching the peace, and provides for detention without judicial rights for up to 7 days. Thus, political meetings and rallies will be severely restricted, especially in this coming pre-electoral period.

Media strategy and lies
A key means of repression has been the attempts to control and manipulate the media. Electronic media is monopolised by the state and de facto by the ruling party – both television and radio may not be operated by any organisation or company without the permission of the Minister of Information. A new media law, passed into law yesterday (31 January 2002) requires all journalists to be licenced by the Minister of Information, restricts external media personnel, criminalises much political commentary. It is widely seen as a means of suppressing independent expression in the run-up to the forthcoming election.
The current use of the radio and television, and of the government owned print media, consists of denigration and baseless allegations about the imperialist basis and connection of the trade-union led opposition.

Electoral rules
Disenfranchisement of many potential voters, and the refusal to allow civil society monitors and observers, and to ban the civil society organisations from carrying out civic and voter education, will further distort the preparations for the forthcoming elections, and will further reduce the possibility that they can be seen as free and fair, and an accurate expression of the people's will.

Labour law
The Government is also introducing amendments to Labour law which in particular will greatly reduce the possibilities and rights to strike action by organised workers. The government and ruling party have also sponsored parallel unions and federations to attempt to undermine and de-legitimise the independent and established unions (including in the student sector).

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee (a broad coalition of more than 200 civil society organisations) recently made the following points relating to the way forward for returning Zimbabwe to the path of democratic and popular development :

The immediate return to respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law, being the essential elements, include:
· The immediate cessation of all organised violence and torture;
· The immediate disbanding of all militia and in particular youth militia;
· The application of the rule of law without political favour;
· The restoration of non-partisan enforcement of the law by the police;
· The prosecution of all those involved in human rights violations;
· The repeal of all draconian legislation, including the Public Order and Security Act, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and the "Harmonised" Labour Act.
· The suspension of the use by the President of his powers under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act;
· The establishment of an independent electoral commission;
· The acceptance that civil society organisations can carry out voter education;
· The conduct of the Presidential Election under a common roll instead of under a system of constituency based voting;
· The allowance of postal voting by all Zimbabwean citizens outside Zimbabwe;
· The barring of the use by the President of the sweeping powers granted to him under section 158 of the Electoral Act to interfere with the electoral process.

In relation to the forthcoming Presidential elections, the Crisis Committee recommends that the Zimbabwe Government adhere to the election standards adopted by the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) Parliamentary Forum in March 2001, simplified by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network in December 2001.

The Zimbabwe Government must undertake to allow the observation of the upcoming elections in March 2002 by representatives of other countries, regional and international bodies and local and international civic organisations and that such observers should be permitted to commence their observation immediately should they wish to do so.

Unless these measures are taken human rights will continue to be extensively violated. No free and fair elections can take place if there is a continuation of political violence and blatant manipulation of the electoral process.

International solidarity
International civil society can play a key role in assisting Zimbabwe in the following ways:
- establishing contacts with civil society organisations in Zimbabwe (see below) so as to provide solidarity and support
- lobbying their own governments, and relevant international organisations, to be actively involved in raising concerns about Zimbabwe in international fora, especially in the human rights, legal, media and labour sectors