I will be a better President than Grace

Gandhi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win”.

I have developed my own which goes; “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win, then they pretend they knew all the time you would win and that they love you”. We have seen this playing out with Grace in her bid to be VP of Zanu (PF) next year.

It will not benefit our country to elect Grace to rule us – we need a President who will make sure our economy works and our society becomes normal again. If we do nothing, we will watch in amazement and anger as our country races to the bottom of the pit – God forbid.

I seriously think that if we are to change the political narrative in Zimbabwe we need to act beyond narrow political party interests and realise that we have the power to create a better society by other means. We must use people power to liberate politics and not expect political power to liberate us. That narrative can only change if we make it change, we can’t afford to let apathy and fear stop us.

When I become your President I will not belong to any political party, but only to a broad-based movement that represents all Zimbabweans. I will be a presidential candidate who holds no political baggage or has any political favours to pay back when I occupy that highest office of the land. I will only serve the constitution and, of course, protect the interest of the people at all costs, without fear or favour.

This is the only way we can break predator politics. We must demand high standards from the president and we must also have a strong Parliament that owes no favours to the person who is president. Our MP’s must look only at the interests of the country. And we must have a judiciary that is only appointed based on ethics and competence to deliver fair justice. We must also have a non-partisan professional army and police force, headed by the best among us – regardless of which political party they come from. That will be a challenge.

As your President, I will not have time to play politics. When it comes to ministers, I will only appoint the best of the best and will hire and fire them based only on these things: ethics, competence and loyalty to the constitution – not to me or any political party.

Parliament should have the courage to impeach me without fear if I break the law. The judiciary would make the best decisions that serve Zimbabweans and I would not interfere. Ministers will do their job and retain their positions, not because they belong to a political party or because I owe them favours, but because they are good at what they do.

When you elect me, I will appoint a group of wise men and women from all walks of life, regardless of politics, to advise me. They will counsel me, challenge me and be brutally honest with me in order to keep me humble and effective. They will not fear me or expect favours from me. You see, those who are dependent on you tend to lie to you in order to keep their positions and benefits.

I will fight corruption tooth and nail with no fear or favour and demand total accountability from all who serve our country. I will not want to control radio, television or the internet. I won’t care much what people say and everyone would have the right to freedom of speech and association unhindered by government or the president’s office. I will only need 365 days to put this economy back on a growth trajectory by suspending indigenisation, cutting government employee costs, rationalising agriculture, ensuring we have the rule of law and making sure that the country benefits from all its resource revenues.

The only problem we have is that our political paradigm is so entrenched in our mind sets we can’t imagine better and new ways of doing things. We are stuck with these political structures that are not delivering. All we are doing is changing personalities hoping that we will get different results. We will not. We must change the way we do things if we are to create different results. Of course I know that first, they will ignore me, then they will laugh at me, then they will fight me, then I will win.

The people come first. – Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com