Two years ago, referring to the fact that the boardrooms of Zimbabwe’s state-owned organisations were stuffed with ex-military men, a representative from the Movement for Democratic Change said: “The best place for our gallant sons and daughters who serve as soldiers is in military barracks not the boardroom of a civic national body.”
But Zimbabwe’s military is taking on an ever-increasing role in civilian life to shore up President Robert Mugabe’s rule.
Last week army Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba told the Independent newspaper that Mugabe should rule for life and that the army could not be separated from Zanu-PF.
“Why do you want to force him to go? Has anyone changed his father just because he is old? He is the leader of our revolutionary struggle and the struggle is still on,” he said.
The remarks have raised temperatures within the coalition government, already haggling bitterly over MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s bid to reform a military loyal to Mugabe.
Nyikayaramba’s stance indicates the strength of the ties between the military top brass and Mugabe — ties rooted in the liberation struggle and sealed by patronage. At a time when those closest to Mugabe are fretting over his health and the future of their party, his generals increasingly appear to be his surest pillars of strength.
Zimbabwe’s military has participated in regional peace missions since the 1980s and, despite the international isolation of senior figures, Zimbabwean forces remain respected members of United Nations missions worldwide.
But a major turning point came in 2002, on the eve of the presidential election, when generals appeared on television to declare they would never recognise a leader who had not participated in the struggle.
This drove a wedge between the army and the opposition, a divide not helped by the support the MDC received from white farmers and Western powers. The top brass of the military is made up of former struggle fighters and the presence in the MDC leadership of former members of Rhodesian security forces only increased the generals’ suspicion of Tsvangirai.
Having branded the MDC a white stooge, Mugabe sealed the loyalty of the military upper crust by padding their nests with land and business deals. Military officers were given top positions at state enterprises, including the national rail company, the state beef exporter, the state grain buyer, the parks and wildlife authority, the state media and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The military even led an agricultural scheme that sought to revive production on former white-owned farms.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the defence minister, defended the role of the military in civilian life.
“Are they not citizens of this country? Where they get employment after they leave the army is not our business. If other people can be heads of parastatals, why can’t they?” he asked. But it is the army’s growing involvement in politics that the MDC hopes to end.
Its proposals for security reform include:
- Training of security forces in human rights and international humanitarian law “so that there is greater understanding and full appreciation of their roles and duties in a multiparty democratic system”;
- Punishing those who break these laws; and
- Heads of the security forces must make a public statement that they will “unequivocally uphold the Constitution and respect the rule of law in the lead-up to and following the elections or referendum”.
The MDC also wants to retire police chief Augustine Chihuri and defence forces commander Constantine Chiwenga, the most senior general, who once declared he would never accept a “made in London” government.
Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC spokesperson, said: “The security forces are interfering in the politics of this land. They do not have respect for the choices of the people of Zimbabwe. They must be reformed.”
But Mugabe maintains this is “all nonsense”. To him, and many within his party, the military is much more than a security force — it is a political attachment of his party. “They are a force that has a history, a political history. We worked with them when they were still guerrillas,” Mugabe told the state media last week.
According to Nyikayaramba, the army saw itself as a military wing of Zanu-PF. “I am in Zanu-PF and Zanu-PF is in me and you can’t change that.”
Tsvangirai’s party has spent years trying to build alliances with “moderates” in the military, but even senior MDC officials now admit this is not working — they suspect that this engagement led only to party information being fed to the security forces.