This culture of fear that has pervaded our society for so long now is the product of myopic and self-interested Zimbabwean politics.
It started off with some politicians, taking a cue from the colonial model, instilling fear in perceived enemies as a method of self-preservation. Those fear mongers then became big, so big in the head that those who had sent them became startled as well.
Consider the security sector. Right from the early days of independence, especially during Gukurahundi, politicians in power used the army, police, and central intelligence to suppress a group of people who were seen as rebels, together with thousands of innocent civilians whom government imagined were aiding the dissidents.
This way, the security sector tasted power and, over the years, those at the helm used their newly found thrones to dabble in all sorts of corrupt activities to enrich themselves. Top securocrats, by virtue of the wealth they have acquired over the last three decades, have become a very powerful lot.
Needless to say, they have the guns – and files of who is doing what and how, and the maps of State House and Munhumutapa. That puts the politicians in a messy situation because they cannot easily deal with the securocrats. That is why, despite their calls for peace, co-existence and adherence to the laws of the country, the security sector still has the audacity to act contrary to what they are exhorted to do by the politicians.
Yet the matrix goes beyond that. The securocrats, because of their dirty hands and screaming skeletons, are quaking in their combat boots. They are afraid of the past, present and future. They are afraid of the politicians that gave them power, and they are afraid of politicians who are likely to take that away. Their past is dirty, their present uncertain and their future doomed. They therefore use more fear to bastion imagined hope about a safe future.
In that regard, the securocrats would be the last ones to accept free and fair conditions for this year’s general elections. After all, their ill-gotten largesse will be forfeited and most of them will end up in sorry prison garb, here or at The Hague. But I’m not concerned about that sort of fear, because they brought the goblin home and it is purely their affair how to get rid of it.
What is most painful and problematic is that the judiciary is also afraid. Most of the top magistrates and judges are there on the basis of partisan manipulation. I am not saying they lack the professional merit – it is just that they are so beholden to the politicians, and to some extent to the securocrats, they have to peep over their shoulders before making a ruling. Failure to toe the political line makes them extremely vulnerable. Do you remember the case of former Judge, Benjamin Paradza, who in 2006 had to flee to South Africa in a truck because he had made politically incorrect judgments? It didn’t matter that he was a war veteran.
Current magistrates and judges remember, of course, what happened to justices Anthony Gubbay, Fergus Blackie, James Devittie and George Smith. These are “shining examples” of what can happen to them if they step out of line.
Now, to make matters worse, lawyers have also become a frightened group. They get detained for representing clients. Andrew Makoni, Beatrice Mtetwa and Thabani Mpofu make good case studies. Advocates get thoroughly beaten for doing their job and are therefore afraid of taking on “political cases”. This would definitely reduce all of us to a quivering lump. There is nothing as scary as having to step into the dock to be faced by a quivering magistrate and all in the absence of your lawyer who is doing time at Chikurubi on trumped up charges.
Journalists, too, are now forced to spend time hiding at a relative’s place rather than doing their job of informing, educating and entertaining, because the politicians, police and securocrats are afraid of their profession. They can’t countenance the possibility of having to face a sweating judge and without legal representation for writing that President Robert Mugabe dozed during a cabinet meeting, because that would be “treating the President with contempt”.
MPs have not been spared the fear culture. Sometime last year, I was chatting to an MP who belongs to the parliamentary committee on defence and security, just after they had summoned police chief Augustine Chihuri for a hearing. He told me he couldn’t ask all the questions he wanted for fear of being followed after the hearing! Contrast that with the recent Marikana hearing in South Africa when the National Police Commissioner, Riya Phiyega, was quizzed over last year’s mine killings and the atmosphere was so free! When judges, lawyers, law-makers and journalists stop functioning properly, the general public are most at risk. There is no guarantee that they will get justice in the courts, and they will not know what is happening. – For feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com
Post published in: Analysis