Excesses Of Indigenisation A Threat To The African Brand

It is now crystal clear that the indigenisation and
Empowerment bill has now fully been assented to by the head
of state meaning that it now constitutes a law of the land.
The construct of the indigenisation law is a paradox to the
broader aspirations of the independence and it is now
certain that the excesses of Zimbabwe's economic rights
movement have conceived anarchism in place of a safe,
secure, free and liberated Zimbabwe.

It is imperative that I mention that company owners are
being victimised and are no longer psychologically secure
after government has vilified and labelled them saboteurs.
It is within this context that the price slash was conceived
to inflict injury on them and much still this law is
designed to totally alienate these people who worked hard,
some for centuries to create huge and valuable assets which
are about to be unconditionally taken up by a cabal of
people. After the masses have endured a harsh legacy of farm
seizures, the enactment of the indigenisation law should
form part of the broader debate about our economic destiny
as a nation.

Despite all these excesses independence was ironically about
advancing the cause of competition and an unhindered
progress without consideration for class, creed, race and
sex. The African brand of Independence was about creating a
fair, humanistic and egalitarian society-thus the law is
historically and racially misplaced to advance the cause of
independence in Zimbabwe. The law is an equivalent of a
legalised expropriation of assets owned by private interests
since it compels that all businesses and companies cede 51%
shareholding to indigenous black interests.

Cede 51% to whom? When we are fully aware that the economic
crisis has demobilised the capacity for the poor to mobilise
resources for participation in equity ownership. This raises
ethical considerations as to who will be the exact
beneficiaries of this legislation? The histrionic cabals of
the Zimbabwean leadership are at it again to amass company
equity adding on top to the seized land. It boggles my mind
why some individuals are comfortable to sit on assets that
are all derived from seizures and can all be properly termed
loot.

Zimbabwe is one of the rare countries where a cabal of
individuals discovers wealth over night without much hard
work and serious planning as happened in the case of the
seizure of farms and the associated farms assets. Are our
poor mothers in the rural areas going to sell off their
chickens and goats so as to pool resources in order to
acquire equity or is it the same histrionic cabal forces
that benefited from the farm seizures that are going to
benefit again? This seems likely considering the economic
dearth of the middle class and the alienation of the
Diaspora who in normal democratic value driven societies are
supposed to be the integral beneficiaries of any true
indigenisation and empowerment programme.

Most successful companies have a strategic fit; which is the
alignment of the mission, vision, goals, strategy,
programmes, policies and objectives in a business. It is
usually the duty of the founders of the company to project
their vision so that it consequently underpins the strategic
fit of the company. Companies are also formed to celebrate
power and self-esteem, which is projected through a personal
model of a strategic fit. How will foreign entrepreneurs in
Zimbabwe enjoy and celebrate the power and self-esteem
component in entrepreneurship when they have mandatory 49%
maximum equity?

It can be postulated that the unconditional takeover of the
51% equity will result in the company derailing from the
founding strategic fit because they will possibly be;
dilution and diversion of the strategic fit giving birth to
confusion because founders will now be controlled by
'Jonis come late' and people with other interests which
are not in alignment with those of founders especially
considering that it will be the same unfitting histrionic
cabals who are strategically positioned to take up most
stakes in private companies.

The law is silent about what will happen to listed entities?
Company's list in order to raise capital and enlist a
diversified ownership; which obviously takes into context
the indigenous black people. How will trade on the local
bourse be regulated and will it have a racial trading
aspect? Trading on the stock exchange is usually on a first
come first to buy or sell basis yet the indigenisation law
is silent about how this racial component will be instituted
in order to achieve the 51% indigenisation target at any
moment.

Mutumwa Mawere a seasoned and an accomplished Zimbabwean
born entrepreneur in his article Does indigenisation
threaten the law of succession argues that;
"In the case of Zimbabwe, where race has now been elevated
to the most significant national question, it is not
evident what will happen to black Zimbabweans married to
whites who may qualify as beneficiaries of indigenisation.
Would their successors who may well be white be eligible to
keep the rights and transfer them in line with succession
laws with no risk of the state seeking to negotiate such
rights on account of race?"

This highlights the deficiencies in the long-term
sustainability of the indigenisation law as a viable and
non-conflicting state intervention. Mawere further goes
in-depth to suggest that "The decisions that are made by
our generation have an enduring impact on the future of our
continent and yet little or no thought is applied to the
unintended consequences of policy instruments that may have
conflicting and multiple objectives"

If Zimbabwe continues to further this path concern is that
the so called indigenous black people will in fact inherit
factory and industrial shells after the founders of the
company will have moved their movable factors of
production-capital flight. The capacity of the companies to
mobilise local and offshore funding will be severely
constrained given the sudden changes in ownership and worse
still banks have already indicated reluctance to fund the
indigenisation programme; this will drive an already injured
economy to an economic hell.

The seizure of white owned farms provides testimony to the
fact that coercive redistribution of wealth is not a
solution for enriching historically disadvantaged indigenous
people. It is clear that entrepreneurship has a
psycho-social element and as such discovering or
re-allocating assets does not guarantee that the assets will
be put to good use or that beneficiaries will improve their
welfare, and consequently like in the case of the disastrous
land reform programme we will only succeeded in destroying
employment, livelihoods and run down an already injured
jewel of Africa. What people need is a stable economic
environment that allows them to work hard for their wealth
not to ululate after being handed over assets.

The presents of an election should inspire the masses who
have endured this current brand of localisation of ownership
of means of production to vote for an aspirant who values
hard work and competition-a contest for the rule of law and
a nationally inclusive independence. Voters should weigh the
obvious merits of hard work versus benefiting from coercive
redistribution of wealth.

I believe most people would agree that indigenisation forms
part of the necessary state interventions designed to
liberalise and democratise the economic world but most would
contend that an indigenisation of a magnitude as high as 51%
will produce unintended consequences and is self-defeating.
My thesis is that an indigenisation of such levels
undermines the African brand; it posits Africans as
practicing reverse racism, seizing and expropriating assets
since the indigenisation law has a racial tone. Investors
will be left to wonder if their assets are really secure in
Africa given that evidence has shown that most occurrences
in postcolonial African states do occur or reappear in other
postcolonial states.

And indeed if the government is serious at all about its
citizen participating in the economy it must privatise some
of the loss making parastatals with indigenous people in
mind but instead this new law seeks to allocate some of the
equity to government possibly to create a very rich and
moral blameworthy government. This is despite the massive
failure of government as an entrepreneur and manager.

After the failure of development aid as a remedy to poverty,
sovereign wealth funds (SWF) and foreign direct investments
(FDI) have emerged as better vehicles for poverty
eradication. Zimbabwe should instead be harnessing and
encouraging foreign investors who are critical in providing
the much needed foreign currency to import critical raw
materials, fuel and electricity for production purposes. In
short to turn-around Zimbabwe's economy we need to go back
to the basics-and indeed it needs not an internationally
acclaimed consultant but simple men in the street.

Hillary Kundishora is a scholar of strategic management. He
can be contacted on hkundishora@yahoo.co.uk and join more
discourse on vision prosperity at
www.zimchaiyo.blogspot.com

Re-Branding Zimbabwe: A Vision For Global Competitiveness

 

Globalisation has opened up the world and re-written the rules of the interactive game between nation-states. It is now certain that Nation-states are winding down or assuming a mini-state and submitting to become region-states, made up of several nation states with unique uniting objectives mostly aimed at amassing economic wealth and power. Consequently sovereignty and patriotism are now irrelevant and no longer fixed to a specific location and people respectively, and there are prospects of the extension of these two to be inclusive of the whole globe.

 

There is now more competition for investment and trade than before especially with the emergence of emerging markets and that the developed world is now entering a post-industrial era. It is now more imperative than before that Africa re-defines its agenda for development in the face of mounting competition and this raises an important crucial and compelling case of the re-branding of African states so that Africa can get its fair share of foreign direct investments, trade (exports and imports) and sovereign wealth funds for the betterment of the quality of life and prosperity of their own people.

 

Africa has lost significant investments opportunities because of negative perceptions on it given the rise of the emerging markets such as India, Singapore and China to name a few. Africa remains plagued by self induced wars and violence, leadership succession problems, corruption, bad and exaggerated publicity, diseases, poverty, economic fundamentals in disarray, and consequently the African brand has been negatively defined by these ills as a highly risk brand. The increasing decline in official development aid, charity and the significant loss of the relevance and confidence in the Washington consensus as a remedy to problems of third world nations has stirred an urgent need to revisit exports, Foreign direct investments (FDI) and of late sovereign wealth funds (SWF) as possible viable avenues to meet Africa's development agendas.

 

The Anholt National Brand Index Special Report-Q (2007) defines a national brand "as how others see the country". It goes in-depth to suggest that globalisation means competition and thus a strong brand provides a competing edge for positioning the country to get a fair share of the world's cake.

 

The report further posits that the level of exports, people, governance, tourism, culture and heritage, immigration and investments measures the brand. In the case of Zimbabwe all the other six indicators are a consequent of the state of governance, and thus governance is more defining for brand Zimbabwe than any other indicator. And it urgently compels that Zimbabwe re-position itself through embracing proper governance in order to build an attraction in the international marketplace, which is a heaven for safe, secure and liberated investments. This will allow other brand measures to achieve a positive status.

 

Though it is not debatable that no country can survive, address colonial injustice and prosper by allowing free rein of the market. In particular for developing countries where there is lack of institutional mechanisms and a mature private sector necessary for the smooth running of a market economy.  It is critical that we build a competitive economy that espouses the values of at least a mixed economy philosophy if we are to secure a resilient and value delivering economy.

 

The regulations as such vary from country to country but as for Zimbabwe, the economy remains an over-regulated economy that does not value the rule of law and natural justice-especially security by all definitions and in its broadest sense. This points to governance systems, processes, structures and the underlying philosophy as damaging to the national brand.

 

The state of the rule of law and natural justice in Zimbabwe leaves a lot to be desired only if one could look back to cite several cases and speculate on more to come if the present trend is to continue. This inevitably raises three fairly recent critical issues on policy bankruptcy and policy inconsistency but directly connected to the rule of law; the seizure and threat on private peoples assets, the denial of people's cash by banks and the price slash operation carried out last year, which has left many businesses empty and struggling.

 

The policy bankruptcy and policy inconsistency continues mainly targeted at private interests notwithstanding the reality that private investment is the engine for economic growth and a development priority to governments the world over. Zimbabwe lacks fair and collaborative market polices to encourage investors and consequently this has led to the dearth of foreign investments and as such like a naughty 'child' we have always dogged the limelight for the wrong reasons.

 

The threat of seizure of mining assets is still pending especially if the results of the forthcoming general election sway in the favour of the ruling party given that we are highly informed by well placed government sources that the bill authorising the expropriation and the forceful take over of equities in mining firms will be resuscitated by the next government after its lapse. The rational of the bill raises other important parallels connected to the seizure of white owned farms and the expropriation of other black owned individual's balance sheets.

 

It authorises indigenous born individuals and government to take over mining assets worth over US $ 20 billion, which for a rapidly shrinking economy such as Zimbabwe seems impossible to accomplish because we are incapable of paying the market value for the equity.  Approximately US $ 11 billion will be required to pay off the market equivalent of the mining assets by government and indigenous born entrepreneurs this points to the fact that proponents of the mining legislation are informed by the same philosophy which inspired the farm seizures and expropriation of other black peoples assets.

 

How then can we succeed in placing Zimbabwe as an attraction for safe and secure investments on the international place when we are busy scheming to undermine property rights? Can we continue to entrust our destiny and those of generations to come to a leadership that does not value or manipulates the rule of law to favour its interests remotely connected to national interests?

 

This calls on Zimbabwe to implement more sustainable business friendly and nationally inclusive policies in order to position itself in the face of stiff global competition. Nations also behave like possible suitors in social life no one wants to engage a suitor who cannot be his/her romantic and emotional curator, and instead the suitor threatens him/her with decimations and as such Zimbabwe has remained isolated from the world of international business.

 

The presents of an election calls on all responsible citizens to vote for aspirants whose vision aspire for Zimbabwe to go back to the basics-embracing the rule of law by valuing and upholding the constitution not to make laws that contradict it i.e. Constitutional Amendment Number 17 that sets aside the re-instatement and contestations of expropriated land by courts of law.

 

Zimbabwe should re-position itself as a hospitable rainbow nation that values investors of all origins, and as a nation that harnesses foreign direct investment and sovereign wealth funds in the face of dwindling foreign aid. And our exports can only sell on the global place provided our producers are given a conducive atmosphere for production. Building a competitive business environment should remain a priority if we are to achieve prosperity and excellent quality of life for our people. And forever our competitive strength remains the K-economy; Zimbabwe's trainable and educated professionals.

 

Hillary Kundishora is a scholar of strategic management. He can be contacted on hkundishora@yahoo.co.uk and join more discourse on other various articles about vision prosperity at www.zimchaiyo.blogspot.com.

 

 

 

"Media Freedom: A Vision For Prosperity" by Hillary Kundishora

(Prof Jonathan Moyo was an enemy of Press Freedom)

The electronic and print in other value driven and politically mature societies, has acted as the free marketplace of ideas, and as such there is a direct and general causal link between economic prosperity and media freedom with the exception of China, but nevertheless the success story of China does not mean to undermine the causal link prevalent in much of the third and first word nations. The existence of this unique relationship consequently raises an important thesis about economic development and it elucidates a secret for development, which has been the magic for economic prosperity in first world economies.

The media has formed an important source of a knowledge structure, which has unfortunately in some instances in history been manipulated to favour the interests of a minority and selfish click. And as such the knowledge structure has formed an important power structure most widely sought through hook and crook and in the case of Zimbabwe all tricks including unorthodox means have been elicited in order to control the media for selfish reasons remotely connected to national interests.

Media freedom in much of colonial Africa was designed by architects of the colonial establishment with a sinister agenda which was however meant to advance the cause of racial apartheid and with the advent of independence, Africa sought to open all the secret cardboards stocked with skeletons for the world to see. Zimbabwe like other postcolonial states also opened up to scrutiny thus widely embracing values of accountability as opposed to privacy.

It is interesting to note that with the leaderships increasing variance from the values that underpinned the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe the postcolonial leadership ironically later made use of the same tools box which they despised and had fought hard against, to some extent there were now selling out the cause of the struggle for personal and selfish interests devoid of national interests. The ruling party has used its political muscle to manipulate, barn and restrict access to information it considers informing to the general public, in case the public will be able make other choices for the betterment of their destiny.

It is in this context that the birth of an over regulated and partisan media industry, and archaic legislations designed to emasculate the media should be viewed as the rise of the devouring demons. Like demons they consume all the good while leaving everything around in a bad state, and Zimbabwe's state media case is in most way similar to a demon afflicted individual. The end of freedom has given birth to a media which militates against the moral value systems on which independence was based upon, the media is now used as a tool to devour the very people it was supposed to develop and assist.

State resources have been poured to the advantage, favouring sectoral interests, partisan and ZANU PF interests in general to the extent that the level of misinformation in Zimbabwe leaves a lot to be desired. Worse still the propaganda continuum is reflective from the lowest ranking officials to the highest office in the land thus the media has been guilty of complicity and not probing issues while acting as a mental inflicting venom which subject people to massive cognitive bias.

It is important that intellectuals and scholars take stock of events in Zimbabwe so that they realise the role the state media has played in undermining the rule of law and natural justice. Instead of acting as a repository and curator of the rule of law and natural justice the press has been used to churn propaganda which if consumed is damaging to the recipients and the very national interests / sovereignty it purports to protect. The Rwandan genocide provides the testimony of how an equally irresponsible media can be so dangerous to the people it is meant to develop, like an weapon the media is a dangerous tool if in the hands of misguided and immoral people who value selfish interests and Rwanda's genocide offers much convincing testimony to this thesis.

If the state media could one day cease to be a tool furthering private interest and pursue a more inclusive approach which is national than sectoral, issues could be debated and scrutinised while it is acting as marketplace for ideas crucial in informing policy formulation and implementation. The state media could then act as a watchdog of national interests-not interests of cronies but interests favouring even vulnerable members of society. In normal democracies through this way the media acts as a more reliable source of information for scholars, researchers and investors thus exhibiting and playing a causal link to economic development.

As the March 29 elections approach the state media has been conspicuous in churning out hate speech which is more sectoral than uniting in the face of crucial elections which are important in locating the compass which will be used in directing the country to prosperity. It is in this context that the role of the media in misinforming voters must not be left unchallenged, instead of responsibly reporting and offering all aspirants of public office equal chance to attract voters as is happening in America where Obama and Clinton are contesting without vilifying one another, the state media is busy presenting only the ruling party as the only peoples viable choice notwithstanding the damage it has caused to the collective aspirations of a people.

Simba Makoni a new and promising baby in opposition politics has of late been linked to the West and like Tsvangirai his predecessor they both have been branded sell-outs and an agents of imperialism, worse still Makoni has publicly been likened to a bull frog and a prostitute, of which prostitutes in the African context are heavily despised as immoral as they fall outside the mainstream of society. And for the state media it is fascinating that they have never bothered to unpack why Makoni has been a darling of ZANU PF for the past years yet today they accuse him of political promiscuity, only because he has refused to enter the books history for the wrong reasons and as such he has parted ways with the party that nurtured him.

In any other democratic country the ruling party will have been grilled as to what new there are offering to the people after presiding over the death of a once vibrant economy but alas there are the worst but being presented as the best in the general election. This raises the role of the state media in my thesis of a causal link between media freedom and economic prosperity and it indicts the state media for misinforming and diverting people from the real issues that must form the foundation for debate and consequently the election of public office bearers into public office. The diminished media freedom is responsible creating an atmosphere conducive for the proliferation of a kleptocracy, which has run down an economy once prosperous.

Like the annihilation of property rights, the level of media freedom is directly related to the decadence and the thesis further calls upon all loving and spiritual connected citizens to work extra hard to create a media which is free and accessible which consequently act as a source of reliable information and a curator of the peoples rights. The presents of an election offer the masses of Zimbabwe a chance of renewal and to choose the path to prosperity or continue the present path of doom, and for those in dire need of economic revival it is also indispensable that there be a free media in order that we achieve a stable economy.

In fact it is crucial that we revert back to valuing the constitution, which is the supreme document that governs and lays out the rule law and freedom of expression as a corner stone for economic prosperity.


Hillary Kundishora is a scholar of strategic management. He can be contacted on hkundishora@yahoo.co.uk and join more discourse on vision prosperity at www.zimchaiyo.blogspot.com.

The 29th Of March 2008 Elections: A Vision For Prosperity

Economic prosperity has been a contentious and elusive issue for in particular black people in much of postcolonial Africa, the emerging nationalist leaders peddled a doctrine that poverty was an invention of the colonial establishment and as such the revolution needed to assert even outdated sovereignty while pleading to patriotic inspired sentiments at all costs.  

 

The nationalist leaders continue to deny ownership of the economic status and economic destiny of their subjects up to this day, more than 50 years after the independence of the first African nation, Ghana. Zimbabwe's case is no exception to the idea that we are underdeveloped because of the colonial past, a past marred by a socio-economic and political apartheid skewed in favour of the white minority.

 

This nationalist thought allowed them; nationalist to rally the masses against the colonial state while paradoxically it also implied that the postcolonial state will be authored by the 'people' thereby transferring liability from the colonial architects to the postcolonial state leadership. The warped understanding of the leadership in authoring the destiny of their own people is an African disease whose symptoms are exhibited by pretending that we are just mere victims of the colonial state or victims of Britain, Australia, USA and New Zealand.

 

In Zimbabwe there is a diametrically opposite understanding between the two sides of the same coin; the colonial leadership and the post colonial leadership with the latter subscribing to the societal value that they needed to develop a racial apartheid exclusively enjoyed by their own people (kith and Kin) centred on acceding to economic freedom and the sanctity of property rights as much as they valued human quality of existence minus the black majority. This understanding has been a pillar of success for the white minority since the birth of the colonial state, even up to day it was liquidated.

 

Unfortunately for our dear leadership in the postcolonial state where there has been religious worshipping of themselves as mere victims than authors of our history, this religious view has given birth to an economic rights movement, which is just a euphemism for anarchism. This anarchist economic philosophy has been responsible for undermining the potential of the people in much of modern day postcolonial Zimbabwe. To prove my thesis it is important that we take the colonial state as a control experiment and Zimbabwe as an experiment, and then like scientists we observe the reaction after adding in a third rare investigated factor, property rights anarchism from the year 1999 up to date.

 

Since the year of the disastrous seizure of white owned farms, the motherland has continued to witness a deep emotive insistence on abrogation of the sanctity of property rights to which economic prosperity was underpinned on (extending even to blacks i.e. the case of the price slash operation, the case Mutumwa Mawere's empire etc).  This raises the question as to who is responsible for authoring the current economic chaos, which is reflected through a causal link to diminished economic freedom and property rights anarchism?

 

A microscopic view of Zimbabwean specimen will reflect the causal link between the annihilation of property rights and the economic decadence. The leadership never ceases to further the path of anarchism buried deep in the economic rights movement, the announcement a months ago by the Ministry of industry and international trade that there have appointed a board for the Zimbabwe Development Corporation (ZDC) tasked with establishing 'peoples shops' and administering companies seized from purported saboteurs of the economy is in its own right a failed policy. It is irrational for government to take up management functions of the economy because it has never been a good entrepreneur since time immemorial, and worse still for a state to manage seized companies its just a euphemism equivalent to a criminal state.

 

Devious creatures such as ZDC, Constitutional amendment number 17 and other statutes are coercive redistributive mechanisms aimed a transferring wealth to cronies and kleptocrats at the expense of genuine private interests. This has left Zimbabwe an isolated island nation that undermines the rule of law and natural justice; this has been so despite the clear view that Zimbabwe lacks the strategic capacity to exist without the world or as an autarky. The rest of the third world is opening up economies to foreign direct investment (FDI) and harnessing globalisation for the prosperity of their own people and it thus leaves the ball in the court of the masses as to whether we should continue to entrust our destiny and those of generations to come to such a myopic leadership which chats a doomed economic philosophy.

 

The 29^th of March 2008 ushers in a defining moment to the people of Zimbabwe to clearly define a vision for their society, a vision to catch up economically with the rest of the world by creating a conducive atmosphere to the conduct of business.   It is up to the people to weigh the visions shown by the presidential aspirants, after all the vision of one of the best two; Tsvangirai or Makoni, I say so because for Mugabe it is virtually impossible to win a ballot, and even if we are to take a random sample in the so called strong holds. Some might find my view difficult to subscribe to or consume, because they will ask does it mean that he will lose? My answer to this golden question is that Mugabe can win the announced results only and not the ballot.

 

Minus the results announced it is important that the people of Zimbabwe go to the polls in their millions to state their economic vision-a vision for prosperity valuing the rule of law and natural justice after enduring a decade of a harsh legacy of economic freedom and property rights annihilation.  It is important that I depart from my property rights discourse to an equally important issue however connected to the rule of law and the March 2008 elections, the statement by Major-general Paradza Zimhondi a prison Chief. Major-general Zimhondi dropped a bomb shell unfortunately magnified and popularised by the anarchist citizen, the Herald of this day the 29^th of February, on a Friday that he will resign to pursue farming at possibly his under-utilised farm along Marondera-Harare road should Tsvangirai/Makoni win the 29^th  of March 2008 ballot. Major Zimhondi as his name suggest is a murderer of the people's vision, instead of acting as a law abiding and professional senior security chief he has taken over the role of militias and other foot soldiers.

 

His statements reflects the shallowness of his mind not matching the level of responsibility assigned to him, if Zimbabwe was a value driven society Major Zimhondi would have resigned to pursue politics full time as he is showing that he is more political than professional, but the Zimbabwe we are living in is lawless society where one can wake up to undermine rule of law and all the pillars of modern society (i.e. elections), and continue to act on behalf of the people at such a strategic position of a security Chief. Zimhondi should be informed that his statements are not only treasonous but also morally bankrupt; it shows that people of Zimbabwe will never be afforded a chance to chat their own destiny. And as such African leaders are simply like what one South African professor in an allegory satirically equate to a father who purchases a cake for his family only to ambush the delivery van before it delivers the cake to his residence.

 

To what extent is independence fake in Zimbabwe? Most people I presume would argue that modern day Zimbabwe is in no way better than Rhodesia thus subscribing to the fact that life under Ian Smith was better than under Robert Mugabe. In public places people are talking about the 29^th of March being an independence day, it is also my view that minus the announced results skewed in a favour of the incumbent (Mugabe. R), the day will go down in history as the day during which the counted ballot papers were shared between Tsvangirai/Makoni. The value of this election like the SADC initiative is not on the announced results but on the shared vision that the people of Zimbabwe will fall over each other in voting for.

 

It is thus an important election minus the results announced because it is going to be the first election for the regime which authored the demise of a jewel of Africa to see for itself without any controversy that indeed their offices are empty as their minds are and they truly lack the peoples mandate to govern, and as such the election will be very important in undermining the confidence of the regime further stretching it to the limit in terms of anxiety and as such change will come through 'strategy in action', a euphemism for independent and convergent actions of people constitutive of an entity. The opposition must stop spreading the gospel according to rigging, as this will undermine the morale of the people who are about to make a giant step to societal socio-economic and political rediscovery.

 

It is this power hungry mind in the opposition which makes them fold their hands only to claim rigging after the elections, vote rigging claims have the same philosophical underpinnings like the African disease of shifting blame to the colonisers.  It is up to Tsvangirai/Makoni to choose to go down in memory as the catalyst for the vision of the people of Zimbabwe by launching an offensive campaign that will leave Mugabe with only the chance to rig the announcement of the results. The current moment is a golden opportunity for the opposition in Zimbabwe to make history whether its Tsvangirai/Makoni by rallying people-that no more abuse beyond March 2008 and indeed the actions of the people of Zimbabwe on this day will leave an indelible mark on Zimbabwe's history.

 

Hillary Kundishora is a scholar of strategic management. He can be contacted on hkundishora@yahoo.co.uk and www.zimchaiyo.blogspot.com.