Following the power-sharing agreement between the two factions of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zanu-PF, the Mail & Guardian spoke to commentators, analysts, activists, business people and NGOs about their expectations and fears.
Callisto Jokonya
President of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
There is now a clear understanding between the politicians; they are walking towards the same goal. We think the deal will bring peace and oneness to the country. The foundation for our onward march has been established and, as business, we are grateful.
Business is about global trading and global relationships. We have to emphasise our relationships with the outside world. We hope this deal means the outside world will look at us differently, in a positive way. We have been given an opportunity to start afresh. We expect the deal to bring in new investors and visitors. Hopefully we will be able to go into partnerships with international investors. We hope international lines of credit will be opened and we hope the country will be able to access donor finance. This will address the shocking levels of poverty here.
We hope to be able to attract our people who live abroad. We have lost more than two million skilled people and this explains why our businesses have been operating at below capacity. We won’t just invite them to come back, but we will create the conditions necessary for them to return. They want to come back; some of them have been phoning us.
We will push for the right policies and we will be able to pay competitive salaries. We hope the two principals are fully committed to this agreement. It has taken them this long to come to an agreement, so we hope they are serious. We also need to address the pain our people experienced and institute a healing process in which we forgive each other as a nation.
Business should take leadership and tell the government what to do. It should be able to respectfully tell government what works and what doesn’t. We shouldn’t wait for government to tell us what to do. We should tell them, we should move away from the culture of fear; this has happened in the past. We shouldn’t shy away from telling government the truth.
Amanda Atwood
Civil rights activist based in Zimbabwe
I’ll start by asking Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to gather as many members of our police force as possible in our biggest stadium. I want citizens to join them and I want the leaders of this country to encourage a change of behaviour. [We will demand] an end to corruption and bribery in the force, an end to demanding free rides on public transport, and most importantly, an end to the excessive abuse of power that members of the police force use to subjugate fellow Zimbabweans.
Next on my wish list is a vibrant collaboration between civil society organisations, bringing us the biggest peace march that Zimbabwe has ever seen. I’d like this to happen so that Zimbabweans can reclaim their streets and laugh in the face of that big stick of fear that has been wielded over us for so long. Besides which, we need to test this current cosmetic embracing of democracy that Zanu-PF is crowing about.
Top of my wish list is that our politicians commit to a national truth and reconciliation process. And we need this to happen soon. Even if the money starts rolling in, it will not erase the deep pain of the abuses committed under the Mugabe regime. The future of our country is as much rooted in justice and accountability as [it is in] economic recovery. Both will be hard to achieve but one cannot happen without the other. Unless this deal includes bringing the perpetrators to book, it won’t sit very well at all.
Misa-Zimbabwe
Media-freedom lobby
We appeal to the incoming inclusive government to prioritise the transformation of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) from a state broadcaster into a truly independent public service broadcaster that serves the citizens impartially.
ZBC should be run by an independent board representative of civil society, the media, churches, labour and the business community, among others. This will cushion the institution from falling into the helms of political and economic interests that compromise its public service mandate.
We call for an immediate cessation of the arrest, harassment and torture of all journalists and media houses reporting on Zimbabwe [and] the granting of permission to all media houses (both foreign and local) to cover the political situation as it unfolds.
We also call for the suspension and subsequent repealing of all repressive media legislation; in particular, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Public Order and Security Act, the Broadcasting Services Act and the Interception of Communications Act.
Ian Scoones
Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Britain, and member of the Livelihoods after Land Reform in Southern Africa team
The long-awaited political agreement in Zimbabwe is to be welcomed. After years of political impasse and economic instability, there is a potential for a new start. But an informed debate on the future is urgently needed.
There has certainly been substantial damage done to the basic infrastructure of commercial agriculture. There has also been significant new investment — almost all of it private, individual efforts. New settlers have cleared land, built homes, purchased farm equipment and invested in livestock.
Revitalising agriculture will be a major priority for the new government, and any strategy must recognise the particular challenges of smallholder, mixed farming. New support must be careful not to undermine the diversified entrepreneurialism that has emerged in recent years.
Let us hope that the new government — with support from the donor community — will take notice of these realities on the ground. Much needs to be done: economic and political stability, combined with focused investment in agriculture, is urgently needed. With sensitive support, a positive spiral can emerge which builds on the redistributive gains of land reform and the real potentials of small-scale agriculture to be the motor of economic growth and regeneration.
Read Scoones’s full report here