One doesn’t know if one is living in a democracy until an election is held, the governing party changes peacefully and one goes to work the following day seamlessly.
Would a President Julius Malema tolerate losing power in 10 years time, once he had clawed his way into office?
Our ruling elite dance with the Zanu-PF regime. They share with it a liberation struggle mentality. Tolerance of a new party coming to power, especially emerging from the union movement like the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe, simply is not on the agenda.
Peter Godwin, author of The Fear, the Last Days of Robert Mugabe and also of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, said this week that he found it inexplicable that the coverage of the carnage and the political intimidation and electoral manipulation on our doorstep was so poorly documented in the South African media.
South African journalists are the most likely to enter Zimbabwe and carry out their work unharmed – unlike other foreign media – yet for some reason, the horror has been largely ignored, apart from the attacks on white farmers.
Perhaps it is because that country’s parallels with South Africa make us all uncomfortable, but be warned: Zimbabwe is ahead of this country.
Its tragic journey into tyranny, leaving most of the population poor, unemployed or in exile, has flagged the route to political and economic failure. We can learn valuable lessons.
Former president Thabo Mbeki was in Zimbabwe after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round of the 2008 presidential election. Mbeki ignored the fact that voting districts that backed the MDC were transformed into torture camps by the Zanu-PF youth.
Ordinary people, especially MDC lower-level office bearers, were beaten within an inch of their lives.
They were then sent back into the communities as “human billboards”, as Godwin put it. It struck fear in the hearts of millions of ordinary – overwhelmingly black – Zimbabweans.
The political elite had, by then, raped the economy simultaneously.
The elites could exchange 59 Zimbabwean dollars for one US dollar while the people had to pay billions. It meant ultimately that all savings, equities and any wealth, including pension funds, of Zimbabweans, were wiped out.
The people hoped that by the time the economy reached rock-bottom, with nothing left to plunder, Zanu-PF would throw in the towel.
The people were left with nothing except, if they were lucky, their house and car. But the discovery of immensely rich diamond fields and the support of China has emboldened our doorstep tyranny. With an election coming up, the MDC faces the predicament of staying out of the poll or facing another stolen election.
Can all these horrible things happen here as well? We face similar threats.
The ANC Youth League is intent on getting its greasy fingers on the country’s natural resources. The courts are being described as racist institutions by the new deputy minister of police.
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe warns that criticism from Cosatu is tantamount to an MDC-like flirtation.
Our Department of Home Affairs wants to send our population of exiled Zimbabweans home to starve.
Before it’s too late, let us cast beady eyes on our own crocodiles.