Last month’s announcement that Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was suspending his cooperation with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party threatened the country’s fragile unity government. International observers chastised the Prime Minister’s actions as risky and shortsighted given the huge struggle to achieve the tenuous coalition government in 2009. Tsvangirai assured domestic constituents and the international community that his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was not withdrawing from the unity government but rather protesting the trial of a key MDC figure, Roy Bennett, Tsvangirai’s designate for Deputy Minister of Agriculture, who had been detained for weeks on arms trafficking charges linked to a plot to violently overthrow the Zanu-PF regime. Since Tsvangirai’s October 16 announcement, Mr. Bennett has been released from custody and MDC Ministers have resumed attending cabinet meetings with their Zanu-PF colleagues.
Yet, Tsvangirai’s bold gesture reveals the complexity of the current balancing act in Zimbabwe. Many of us would like to see Robert Mugabe tried in The Hague and made to pay dearly for the brutality and impunity of his regime. However, this may not be the most efficient way to address the persistent crisis in Zimbabwe. This message of compromise and reconciliation was most eloquently articulated by MDC Minister Ms. Sekai Holland during an informal meeting with Africa-focused advocacy groups this week in Washington, D.C. One of Zimbabwe’s greatest human rights leaders and a long time supporter of the MDC, Ms. Holland currently heads the Ministry for National Healing, Reconciliation & Integration. This may seem a strange title for a government ministry because few of its qualifiers seem to correspond to attainable goals, particularly given the political climate in Zimbabwe. Yet if there is anyone who could take on this enormous task it is Ms. Holland, who prior to the Unity Government held the position of Secretary for Policy, Research, and Ideology, and was responsible for drafting many of the foundational party documents which continue to inform MDC policy.
During her talk, Ms. Holland spoke at length about the need to “dismantle the instruments of violence” and strengthen peace mechanisms in order to prevent the recurrence of the violent episodes that have characterized Zimbabwe’s political scene for the past half-century. In this regard Ms. Holland called on stakeholders in the Zimbabwe peace process to look beyond the normative concerns of honesty and fairness and consider the urgent need to expedite the recovery and reconstruction process so that Zimbabweans can recover their dignity and put their lives back together. Although these comments may seem callous given the extent of criminality and deprivation meted out on the Zimbabwean people over the past 50 years, Ms. Holland is well placed to speak on behalf of the 1 million plus torture survivors in her country.
In March 2007 Ms. Holland made international headlines when she was brutality attacked and detained by the Zimbabwean police. At the age of 64, she was beaten and tortured by Zanu-PF loyalists and imprisoned along with other MDC supporters for several days in Zimbabwe before she was able to leave for South Africa and seek medical treatment. Despite her horrendous experience, she remains active in the MDC. Questioned about the weaknesses of the Global Political Agreement between the MDC and the Zanu-PF, Ms. Holland recognized that the document was lacking, but praised its existence as a foundation from which to pursue further negotiations. Many of the Africa focused advocacy groups and in attendance questioned Ms. Holland about the quality of the agreement, which includes several presidential prerogatives that are contrary to the power-sharing nature of the coalition government. In response, Ms. Holland noted that the GPA document was drafted in haste and with limited consultation with relevant stakeholders, including women, judicial representatives, security sector professionals and youth organizations. These shortcomings raised doubts about the integrity of the document when it was presented to MDC leadership. According to Ms. Holland, Tsvangirai rallied support for the document by likening Zimbabwe to the child in the biblical story of King Solomon. Just as a child should not be split in two to satisfy two different women claiming to be its mother, Zimbabwe need not suffer disunity for the sake of one party claiming full power or monopoly on the truth. In the Old Testament story, when King Solomon suggests splitting the child, the real mother protests, revealing that she loves the child best because she is the most concerned with its wellbeing rather than her personal satisfaction of being recognized as its mother. In the same way, the MDC leadership was won over by the greater goal of reuniting Zimbabwe and forging ahead with negotiations rather than submitting Zimbabweans to additional weeks and perhaps months of hostilities.
Since the signing of the Global Political Agreement in early 2009, livelihoods have improved for many Zimbabweans, organized violence and torture has subsided, and the country’s exponential inflation has slowed enough for ordinary Zimbabweans to begin putting their lives back together. Thus, when MDC spokespeople toured the countryside in early October to debate the costs and benefits of continuing to work with an uncooperative and ‘dishonest’ Zanu-PF, the resounding answer was yes. Ordinary Zimbabweans who paid the most dearly in the violent period surrounding the 2008 election, as well as the episodic violence that has plagued Zimbabwean politics since the 1980’s, were not eager to destabilize the fragile peace accomplished through the Government of National Unity. Accordingly, MDC leaders will continue to work with the Zanu-PF in preparations for run-off elections scheduled for 2010.
Although there is still a long road ahead for Zimbabwe, Ms. Holland’s remarks helped put the current situation into perspective, providing context for Tsvangirai’s gesture and reaffirming Zimbabweans commitment to making the coalition government work.
