Simba Makoni Is An Overrated Opportunist
The entry of Simba Makoni into the Presidential race has received mixed views. Some see him as the saviour, some see him as a strategy by Mugabe to reduce the MDC vote in the urban areas, while some see him as an opportunist.
His credentials as a saviour are questionable. Simba has been in influential positions both in Zimbabwe and within the region, but has never produced any convincing results. Simba was a minister in Mugabe’s government in 1980, some twenty eight years ago. His stay in government was cut short after he was appointed Executive Secretary for SADC, a very influential position. He never molded SADC into a vibrant body. The circumstances under which he left SADC have never been explained, but rumour has it that he left the regional body as a result of failure to produce any tangible results.
Upon his return from Zimbabwe, Simba was appointed Chief Executive Officer at Zimpapers, a publishing group which runs several pro-government newspapers. His contribution did not improve that company’s fortunes.
Some have described Simba as a wealthy businessman. Very little is known about his business empire. He could be wealthy as reported by some because he was paid handsomely as Chief Executive Officer of SADC, and soon after that joined Government. I have heard unofficial reports from a senior manager at the CBZ, a commercial bank in Zimbabwe, that Simba was involved in buying foreign currency at official rates at the CBZ, and selling the same foreign currency to the same bank during his last ministerial role.
Simba may have won a lot of admiration for “his” decision to devalue the Zimbabwean dollar. I call it “his” decision because it wasn’t his decision. Simba Makoni is not an economist by the way - he was simply communicating advice given by the economists employed in the Ministry of Finance. And what did he do – he betrayed these economists by chickening out of the argument. He failed not only the economists, but the entire nation by being spineless when it mattered most.
Zimbabwe introduced an Economic Structural Adjustment Programme in the mid 1990s. Simba Makoni was there when ESAP was introduced by the late Bernard Chidzero, then in charge of the Ministry of Economic Development. I can’t remember whether Simba was at SADC at that time, but all the same, as head of a regional institution, he was supposed to advise Government of Zimbabwe against ESAP. Among the notable people who advised against ESAP is none other than Morgan Tsvangirai. TTsvangirai’s critics must read “Beyond ESAP” a book published by the ZCTU to understand his vision of the economy and land.
Those who think he [Makoni] has the answer to Zimbabwe’s problems are simply overrating him. He has nothing new to offer. Everything he has said so far, including his economic solutions, has been said already by Morgan Tsvangirai. He appears to be copying from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC. I have just read reports from a press conference at which Simba Makoni talked about his priorities when he gets to power, but he wasn’t as detailed as Morgan Tsvangirai has done on the same issues.
Now let me try to list some of Morgan Tsvangirai’s many achievements.
Morgan galvanized the ZCTU into a modern and vibrant labour organization. Most people may be of the mistaken view that ZCTU was only popular for street protests. I have already referred to Morgan Tsvangirai’s position on ESAP. Through Morgan Tsvangirai’s hard work, ZCTU established what became an enviable regional resource centre for labour issues. This demonstrates Morgan’s vision for information as a tool for decision making.
Because of his leadership abilities, Morgan was elected as Chairperson for the National Constitutional Assembly, where he lead a team of enthusiastic academics, trade unionists, students, workers and the general populace to defeating Mugabe in the constitutional vote of 2000. Mugabe had wanted to impose a constitution that did not reflect the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.
An avid reader, Morgan qualified for a post-Graduate diploma in Governance at the Harvard University. He is one of a few Zimbabwean politicians holding such a qualification.
Simba Makoni’s bid to run for presidency is not his personal idea, but he seems to have been pushed into the race by retired army generals who are beginning to feel the pinch of the ZANU PF manufactured economic decline. As correctly observed by Patrick Laurence in a media story, these Generals are more worried about their waning business fortunes should Mugabe remain president. “His military credentials aside, Mujuru - whose wife, Joyce, is one of Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents - is a fabulously rich businessmen; if Mugabe is allowed to prolong his disastrous rule at the age of 83, Mujuru is a candidate for impoverishment and even retribution”.
Other former army chiefs pushing Makoni into the race are retired army general Vitalis Zvinavashe and retired Major Mbudzi. Towards the 2002 Presidential elections, Vitalis Zvinavashe made a startling statement that he would not support a person with no liberation war credentials. Reading Makoni’s CV, I did not see where mention is made of him having fought in the war of liberation. Probably that was the time in the UK studying, perhaps through sponsorship sourced by ZANU?
There is nothing wrong at all for Simba or anyone else to run for Presidency even if they did not participate in the war of liberation at all, but Simba may only need to beware of the people who are trying to push him to the throne.
Zimbabweans still await a satisfactory explanation from Zvinavashe. Equally, Simba Makoni, as a presidential hopeful, must convince the people of Zimbabwe that these are the kind of people he associates with; that these are the kinds of voices he has listened to decide to run for Presidency.
Makoni’s other greatest undoing are his comments on the skewed delimitation exercise which reorganized the parliamentary constituencies to accommodate the 90 new seats. He celebrated the rigging done by the delimitation committee by restructuring new constituencies in a way that benefited ZANU PF. This he said when he was campaigning in ZANU PF’s primary elections as he had made an agreement with Mugabe that he would stand as a parliamentary candidate in Makoni Central constituency. It must be against this background that I hear civic society in Zimbabwe seems to be distancing itself from him.
Benjamin Chitate
(Source: By email)
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