The impending SADC summit which will be held in Zimbabwe on the 17th of August has generated a tense political environment in which there is suspicion by the government that the general population, democracy activists and opposition parties are planning to mount street protests to express their grievances against the disputed 2023 elections and the shrinking democratic space under Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Zimbabwe is indeed ripe for a popular revolution, however, launching and timing unguided street protests with the SADC summit seems opportunistic and oblivious to the fact that for most young Africans, SADC is just as outdated and inconsequential as the Africa Union.
Zimbabweans must be careful of yet another false revolution as the 1980 political independence and most recently the 2017 coup in which the coup planners manipulated Zimbabweans to legitimate the forced removal of Robert Mugabe from power. These two so-called revolutions brought nothing but misery and pain for many Zimbabweans.
Considering the winds of change blowing across Africa and other parts of the world, opposition party members, pro-democracy activities or a popular revolt would pose a formidable challenge against ZANU PF misrule which includes torturing civilians, and imprisonment of journalists. Furthermore, Emmerson Mnangagwa's new dispensation sanctioned the involvement of the Zimbabwe army in politics through the 2017 coup which they deemed was not a coup, therefore, another coup by brave junior army officers cannot be reasonably excluded.
However, it is important to acknowledge the leadership vacuum across the nation. There is very little possibility that an opposition party leader, activist, or a possible internal ZANU PF rebellion could mount a successful street protest. Therefore, in the unlikely event that unguided leaderless protests take place, it will give rise to a Southern African version of the Arab Spring which resulted in instability instead of a revolution.
Who could lead a successful revolution in Zimbabwe?
In the absence of leadership, as is the case in Zimbabwe, I think ordinary Zimbabweans could. But to do so, they must never repeat the 2017 mistake. To avert this impending disaster, they must never fall victim to personality cults and their empty rhetoric but ideas.
The next question is, what idea is worth dying for?
In my considered view, demanding the return of all the money, wealth, and dignity stolen by political elites before and after independence is an idea worth dying for. Its philosophical underpinnings are sharing and redistribution which has been the core foundation of the political economy of pre-colonial Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole.
This could be achieved through the Zimbabwe People's Charter which I proposed a couple of years ago. It is composed of twenty practical demands aimed at reclaiming the power, money and wealth which was either stolen or unjustly acquired by colonial and post-independence Zimbabwe elites, extractive multinational corporations, and religious leaders but equally important, it proposes reparations for victims of excessive power in all its forms.
Here is a draft copy of the proposed Zimbabwe Charter.
- All Zimbabwe army personnel above the age of 50 years must be retired with immediate effect and not replaced until the size of the army is 50% of what it was in November 2017.
- All A2 farm owners must be residents at their farms and must not be in full-time employment elsewhere.
- The country must debate and set A2 farm sizes to about 150 arable hectares in regions one to three, the first 150ha surrounding the farmhouse must be offered to the owner before the land redistribution.
- All A2 farms that have not been used to full capacity in the past 10 years must be immediately reallocated but with preference given to people with traceable previous commercial farming experience regardless of their race.
- Municipal land exceeding 20ha (owned by individuals or registered companies that employ less than 100 permanent staff) must be forfeited to the city council.
- 99% annual taxation must be charged on the market value of all valuable domestic movable and immovable property that exceeds four municipal houses and four cars.
- Monthly bedroom tax must be charged on all house rooms exceeding 15 unless the property is registered and operating as a business with auditable tax returns.
- All beneficiaries of the war victim's compensation fund must be reassessed by an independent organisation. Funds inappropriately disbursed must be repaid in US dollars or equivalent in both movable and immovable property.
- All property lost through the indigenisation policies or other means other than a fair market exchange must be returned to its original owners by those who either stole it or benefited by other means.
- 99% income tax must be charged on a fraction of salaries or wages that exceed $60 000 per year backdated to 2009. $60 000 is 10 times more than the amount required to support a family of five.
- Constitutional amendment must follow constitutional enactment procedures.
- All (past and present) donations or payments made to churches, faith and traditional healers must be refundable when demanded by the donor/payer at any time.
- Compulsory employment of all skilled and qualified disabled people by all Zimbabwe stock exchange listed companies in proportion to their market capitalisation.
- Multiple directorships of publicly listed companies and other corporations with an annual turnover that exceeds $ 1 million must be banned.
- Traditional leadership -- chiefs and headmen -- must be subject to elections every 10 years.
- All university degrees awarded by unregistered foreign and local universities and honorary degrees awarded by Zimbabwean universities after 2000 must be respectively invalidated and withdrawn.
- The Chihambakwe Commission Gukurahundi report and the Entumbane report written by Justice Enoch Dumbutshena must be publicised to allow victims to decide on appropriate reparation.
- A conditional grant must be paid to people over the age of 65; orphans, unemployed and disabled and all inhabitants of Region Five regardless of citizenship five years after the 1923 general elections.
- Zimbabwe insurance companies must be compelled to comply with the Justice Smith Commission, which established that they owe pensioners $ 4 billion and which they have refused to pay out.
- Displaced Zimbabweans in the diaspora must be allowed to vote
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It is very unlikely that the proposed Zimbabwe People's Charter could be implemented by existing opposition parties or the current president Emmerson Mnangagwa, but if ordinary Zimbabweans manage to find each other by successfully improving on and ratifying the proposed Charter, their future leaders will emerge from that process.
Once accepted and ratified by the people, the Zimbabwe People's Charter would then be enforced through various means which include a peaceful revolution, and elections and since the democratic space has been shrunk, another coup remains a viable option.
The Charter might look simplistic to some but in essence, it puts power in ordinary people's hands by demanding a rightful inheritance, money, wealth, power, and humanity stollen largely by those who colonized us, and by those who claim to have liberated Zimbabwe and its people from colonial rule.
It is possible that I might be abducted, imprisoned, tortured, or killed for this piece but if the idea of taking back our stolen inheritance takes hold, I will welcome my death and suffering a thousand times.
Zimbabwe is ripe for a revolution, by the people for the people.
Dr Mike Chipere is an Anthropologist affiliated with the Human Economy Program housed at the University of Pretoria. He writes here in his capacity.
