The ManicaPost
Freedom Mutanda Post Correspondent
In a week’s time, millions of Zimbabweans will celebrate the 39th anniversary of independence; it is a time to reflect on the goals of the Second Chimurenga and to appreciate how far we have gone as a country in implementing people friendly policies whose aim is to uplift people’s standard of living. Devolution has been touted as one of the key deliverables of the Second Republic and it is important to note that the policy is steeped in the liberation ideology of the 1950’s up to the end of the 70’s.
Economic policies religiously followed by the settler government sought to make the African a foreigner in his own country. The Master and Servant Act was meant to subjugate Africans forever. Wherever the black man was domiciled must never be a place where economic activities could take place. Herein is the justification for devolution to put some brakes on the rural-urban migration which resulted in basic social services being choked and eyesores of every kind sprouted in cities.
Zimbabwe’s foremost guerrilla leader, Josiah Magama Tongogara, succinctly put it,”…I would like to see the young people enjoying together in a new Zimbabwe.’’
Getting the elusive one-man-one-vote was not an end in itself for the liberators; economic and social independence is what they wanted. Devolution is the answer to that elusive dream where our young people have access to employment whether they have a degree or they are just general workers.
Devolution, loosely speaking, is the transfer of power to a lower level especially by central government to local or regional administration, according to Wikipedia. Zimbabwe has a central government which superintends over ten provinces most of which are rural and very productive. In the first republic, these provinces survived on the whims and largesse of a government which had its weaknesses and there were murmurs of marginalization here and there from certain pockets of the country.
A traditional leader in Chipinge said every corner of the country was involved in the fighting and subsequent defeat of the settler army. He said it was because the national spirits had seen the tear filled eyes of Zimbabweans and they decided to intervene.
‘’In 1964, members of the recently elected leaders in ZANU visited a Mhondoro and they noted that very few young men and women were eager to engage the enemy as they feared to suffer the same consequences as the 1897 ones. They were told to go and take the blood of a white man after he had been killed. That they did and she promised them that nearly every clan in Zimbabwe would have a young man or woman who would respond to the call to take up arms against the white illegal regime,’’ said the affable traditional leader who claimed at that time, that he was barely out of his teens.
Does devolution bring good things to the people? Yes and no. Our sisters and brothers who died in the war were comforted in the sense that if they were to die, the a huge majority of the new generation would enjoy the gains of independence and one way of doing it is devolution whereby every Zimbabwean, wherever s/he is, would enjoy the benefits of independence.
Refreshingly, after November 18, 2017, the devolution ideas espoused in the Amendment 20 of the Zimbabwe Constitution were pursued with vigour. Hararerising everything pushes everyone to wish he or she was in Harare and in the spirit of independence and devolution, development initiatives are readily accepted when the local people are involved.
Nevertheless, it is inescapable that some quickly jump to the conclusion that tribalism will raise its ugly head when we talk of devolution. Nothing is further from the truth. Please picture the early years of mass nationalism in Zimbabwe. Ethnicity wasn’t the defining feature in choosing leaders because everyone was geared for majority rule. Devolution doesn’t exclude other people of a different ‘province’ in that defined area or enclave.
We can’t have a repeat of the Biafran conflagration in Zimbabwe simply because one has a different dialect or language from the other. Provinces are just physical boundaries but we are a unitary state and that devolution would result in a growth trajectory for all of us.
These conversations we are having concerning the ills and pros of devolution are a result of the protracted war that we had in Zimbabwe where blood was spilled regardless of one’s tribal affiliation. Interestingly, the writer’s cousins born by the same mother fought Ian Smith’s forces from different trenches. One was a ZIPRA cadre and the other was a ZANLA combatant but there was more that united them than divided them.
Each province minus the two Metropolitan provinces (Harare and Bulawayo) has unique natural resources which if harnessed well, will go a long way in uplifting the lives of the local populace; devolution, when it is legislated in provincial councils, make the ‘ethnic’ people walk with a spring in their step.
1980 saw Zimbabweans celebrate but ten years or so later economic windfalls for the indigenous people didn’t come. With the aggressive pursuit of devolution, communities will see a vast improvement of social services such as clinics, schools, roads and telecommunications.
Chimanimani, reeling from the devastating effects of Cyclone Idai, would have had funds set aside for its rehabilitation as devolution gathers momentum and international, regional or national efforts would have come as an additional incentive. The district is endowed with timber plantations, gold, diamonds, horticulture, tourist attractions and farm produce and these resources bring development to everyone in the district when devolution roars to life.
Way back in 1986, Dr Joshua Nkomo, at the burial of Cde Lookout Masuku, the ZIPRA commander, bemoaned the scourge of corruption pervading the country’s body politic. With devolution comes a challenge of corruption.
Self-sacrifice marked the fight for independence; the same ideal should be followed in the pursuit of devolution as the Second Republic consolidates the gains of independence. People’s livelihood is uppermost as the country celebrates its 39th anniversary.
