The ‘We are Zimbabwe’ (http://www.sokwanele.com/wearezimbabwe/# ) project, launched by the activism group Sokwanele, encourages members of the public to rate the performance of Zimbabwe’s leaders, including politicians and public servants.
According to Sokwanele, the project is so titled “because it is true: WE are Zimbabwe – we the people, all of us – not those who drive the fancy cars and live in the mansions and wield disproportionate amounts of power. Not those who promise us the world then make our lives utterly miserable. Not those who make us fear that our children will have to leave the country if they are ever to have a decent life.”
The group says they hope the project, “will encourage good governance and remind those in power of where the power really lies: in our votes and our right to choose our own leaders. And we hope it will remind them that they were elected to do a specific job, and that if they don't deliver, that we notice their bad work and may withdraw our support.”
The project is in the form of an interactive website, which allows disgruntled Zimbabweans to anonymously submit examples of their frustrations and anger with any facet of Zim life, including injustice, corruption, malpractice and more. These examples are logged online as polls that fellow Zimbabweans can vote on, whether they agree with your frustrations or not. From this data, graphs and charts are formed by Sokwanele to provide a visual representation of how the government, public servants and others are performing.
This ‘name and shame’ process is completely anonymous, and is aimed at trying to help Zimbabweans reclaim their right to hold their leaders to account. Sokwanele also encourages the individuals named in the polls to respond, using either Facebook or Twitter, to set the record straight if needs be.
Phillip Pasirayi, the head of the Centre for Community Development, said such projects are an important tool, because public accountability mechanism are critically lacking in Zimbabwe at the moment.
“Public officials in Zimbabwe by and large serve their personal interests, above the public interest and they are never held accountable to this,” Pasirayi told SW Radio Africa.
He said that this was not the fault of the public, saying “they have been denied a voice for so long.”
He added: “What we need in Zimbabwe now is a proper mechanism to hold our leaders and public servants to account. In advanced democracies, if people do not perform their publicly granted mandate they are removed from their positions. We need this in Zimbabwe.” – SW Radio Africa
Post published in: News