30 July 2018 - Whither Chipinge District

Owen Dhliwayo

Through the statutory instrument (SI) 83 of 2018, President Emmerson Dambudzo Munangagwa proclaimed Monday the 30^th of July 2018 as the “day of the election to the office of President, the election of members of the National assembly and election of councillors,” and he also proclaimed that “a nomination court shall sit on the 14^th day of June 2018…” This effectively means that Zimbabwe will go to an election this year and has put to rest some of the doubts in relation to the holding of an election considering that the current administration came into effect on the backdrop of a so called “soft coup” This is a positive development. It’s now game on, as both the local and international community cast their attention on the elections. According to Factsheet L7 Legislative Series (May 2008), statutory instruments are a form of legislation that allow the provisions of an Act of Parliament to be subsequently brought into force without Parliament having to pass a new act.

Chipinge district has 5 Constituencies and 36 wards and 1 senatorial seat up for grabs. The fundamental character of the socio -political and economic narrative in Chipinge district calls for a new kind of politics that is grounded in social purpose and personal commitment. The district is currently bedevilled with issues of poverty, lack of economic opportunities and social injustices. Since independence, elections have been taking place as and when they were due but lacked the impetus to transform the lives of the common people. SI 83 of 2018, made it possible for every eligible citizen to vote in the forthcoming harmonised elections. However, Gandhi warned against social sins that can create a dysfunctional society and these social sins include politics without principles, wealth without work and most importantly education without character. He was pointing out to the crucial relationship between ethics and public life. Chipinge district needs political leadership that can evoke the common bond of diverse people, as the old political bigotry we have become accustomed to is almost completely dysfunctional and have run its course. The district has suffered deep political polarisation and socio-economic underdevelopment.  

Elections in Zimbabwe have been reduced to the selfish struggle for power among competing interests instead of a process of searching for the common good. Social injustice has been witnessed glaringly when Greenfuel established its ethanol plant in Chisumbanje. There are still cases of encroachment into communal lands and the resultant effect of people being displaced from their traditional settings. Land rights of common people are seriously violated, and social injustice is the order of the day. This is taking place under the watchful eye of political players who are too compromised to come to the defense of the defenseless villagers. Again, in the same district, communal villagers in Mutema received an unjust arrangement from Matanuska, a private entity that is into banana farming. The arrangement puts small scale banana farmers in Mutema at an economic disadvantage. All these large-scale investments have failed dismally to transform the lives of the common people as the political players appear to be involved in the shady arrangements to dupe and impoverish local people. For community transformation to be realised, it is imperative to have arrangements that takes the economic arrangements beyond the bottom line of profit to an economic ethic rooted in social purpose and justice.  It is in this vein, that Chipinge district is against the current narrative of the politics of power that has been consistently failing to yield to the politics of community building. The district has witnessed a situation where aspiring MPs engage in endless ideological posturing and seeking to materially gain from the suffering of the common people.

The politicians of the major parties in the district are yet to articulate and demonstrate a desire to confront the underlying crisis. There are real limits to what elections can provide to better the human conditions, but they can make a great different. People in Chipinge district are now in abject poverty than at any time in the last three decades, and the emergence of large scale investments was greeted with hope. The disintegrating economy is a top political issue in this election, but also is the rampant social injustice in local communities. Chipinge district is in dire need community based economic development projects to provide alternatives to the exploitation by the large-scale investments.

This year’s elections need to be guided by the principles of social purpose and personal commitment. Elected representatives are by the nature of the public office, ought to build strong, stable communities and be the voice of the community. Since elections are part of the tenets of democracy, local people have the right to shape the socio-economic and political landscape of their communities. 

PYD is urging every registered voter in Chipinge district to perform a civic duty by casting their votes on the 30^th of July 2018.