Zimbabwe likely to follow Rwanda or Ethiopian model, says local political scientist

By Wallace Mawire [caption id="attachment_42026" align="alignleft" width="1000"] Dr Ibbo Mandaza[/caption] Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Executive Director and Zimbabwean political scientist, Dr Ibbo Mandaza has told participants today at an AMH conservations on the topic taking Zimbabwe forward-a new Zimbabwe in Harare that the country is likely to follow the Rwanda or Ethiopian development model in its new transition process following the recent resignation of President Robert Mugabe. Asked by the Pan African Visions (PAV) to elaborate on his statement, Dr Mandaza said that although these African states have made tremendous economic progress, they have done so with little regards for creating democratic spaces within their societies. “These African countries have indeed put more emphasis on economic development and have deployed economic strategists but that is not enough without much democratic space. In Rwanda, Kagame has been ruthless silencing opponents and you also recall the citizens who were killed by the Ethiopian government a few years back,” Dr Mandaza said. His presentation was on nationalism and the road map for a new Zimbabwe. He said that the nationalist project especially in southern Africa had run its full course and was now a spent force. He cited examples of ZANU (PF) in Zimbabwe, SWAPO in Namibia and the ANC in South Africa. According to Mandaza, the freedom movements in the southern African region had failed on the economic agenda transformation. “The problem with the liberation movements is that they want to stay in power for ever without creating any meaningful democratic spaces for citizens,” Mandaza said. In Zimbabwe, he added that the failure of the state had expresses itself in the unceremonious end of the Mugabe regime. Mandaza says that the Zimbabwean state had not been democratic to facilitate separation of powers. He said this should be reflected by an independent judiciary, active legislature and a functional executive with limited powers with interests of citizens at heart. According to Mandaza, since the adoption of the new constitution in Zimbabwe in 2013, it has not been fully implemented and is incomplete. He said that it was imperative for Zimbabwean citizens to insist on the return to constitutionalism and democratic governance through an active legislature and vibrant judiciary system. Mandaza says that is such mechanisms are put in place, they would quickly transform the country into a functional democratic developmental state which the citizens have been yearning for, for the past 37 years. Ibbo Mandaza is a politician, academic and businessman who is also the director of a local think-tank Sapes Trust. SAPES Trust, whose headquarters is in Harare, Zimbabwe, is a regional (Southern Africa) Non-Governmental Network which was established in 1987 as a project of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS). The impelling forces behind the formation of SAPES were the spirit of Pan Africanism, African liberation, particularly in the 1980s, and the intellectual discourses on regional integration in Southern Africa. The Trust seeks to nurture social science research, teaching, policy dialogue, networking and publications in the Southern African region and beyond, through specific programmes, but with the deliberate intent to impact on policy and assist in the sustainable development of the region.