Zimbabweans watched helplessly for years as President Robert Mugabe consolidated his power in government and personalized his Zanu PF party. They watched the once estimable liberation movement, Zanu PF, become a cult that came to be referred to as “Zanuism”.
Under this cult, leaders owed their existence to political patronage and personal loyalty to the President.
The master surrounded himself with “yes men” ÔÇô and some women, who over the years have used the state to amass wealth. They were the people who, through the years, would continue to support the master in return for him protecting their businesses.
Zanu PF created a make belief that personalities are more important than institutions, laws and even constitutions ÔÇô this also includes the party constitution.
Over the recent years analysts in Zimbabwe have described Zanu PF as a way of life, a culture even.
Even Zanu PF’s top leadership acknowledges that there is a culture, which demands blind followers who do not challenge their authority.
The two pillars for Zanu PF’s survival have over the years been patronage and fear.
Zanu PF has used violence and fear of violence to keep people quiet. There is also fear of being an outcast and losing patronage ÔÇô hence the need to behave oneself if only to remain in government and close to Mugabe.
For many years, Zimbabweans remained in denial, oblivious of what Mugabe had become. They failed to see how the master and his cronies’ indulgence was plunging the country into a national catastrophe.
Some Batswana might then ask what has Zimbabwe and its political crisis got to do with their country?
My response, as a Zimbabwean journalist who has been in Gaborone for two weeks on an exchange programme with the The Sunday Standard, is “a lot”.
There are uncanny similarities between Mugabe and President Ian Khama but their only difference is the time it took each to show their dictatorial tendencies. While it took Zimbabweans and the rest of the world many years ÔÇô about 20 years – to take note of what Mugabe had become, Khama has done it in just over two years.
Talking to ordinary people, journalists, politicians and analysts here, one gets a sense of an entrenched fear to criticise or talk freely about Khama.
A constitutional reform activist, who asked not to be named, said: “I have sensed a worsening of the fear. The people are afraid to criticize their government and this is going as far as the NGO sector, which is cowering and apologetic.”
“Because of the alleged state sanctioned killings here, a phenomena which seems to be emerging, Batswana fear that if it continues, Khama due to his military background, could turn out to be one of the worst leaders SADC has seen.”
Spokesperson of the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Advocate Sidney Pilane, said there was a general belief that the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) tapped people’s phones and listened in to their conversations with a view of dealing with dissenting voices.
Khama set up the DIS, which operates in the same lines as the feared Central Intelligence Organisation in Zimbabwe. The agency is run by one Isaac Kgosi, a powerful and feared personal friend of Khama from their military days. Kgosi, who sometimes doubles as Khama’s body guard, has also worked as his master’s private secretary.
“There is that fear in people that there are not sure who they are talking to and they are no longer free to talk on their phones because they feel that the DISS is listening in and tapping their conversation,” Pilane said.
University of Botswana lecturer Professor Kenneth Dipholo said because of Khama’s emphasis on discipline, people are afraid to comment or criticize the government.
“There is too much emphasis on discipline and so at the end of the day people are afraid to comment as this might be misconstrued as indiscipline. There are also fears that the DIS is operating at the instruction of the President and might be working in a manner so as to deal with political opponents,” he said.
Besides instilling fear in the people and trying to turn the country into a “disciplined” nation, Batswana strongly feel that he is turning out to be a dictator.
But why are many Batswana now worried about what has become of the once popular leader and son of their great founding father, Sir Seretse Khama? They are now wondering what the situation would be like in another three years when Khama’s five-year term ends.
Mugabe has excessive powers, yet he is still asking for more. But unlike his predecessors Sir Ketumile Masire and Festus Mogae, who preferred to consult cabinet and other stakeholders before making decisions, analysts and opposition parties here said the current President has chosen to use his constitutional powers to make unilateral appointments and decisions.
So, like Mugabe, Khama has surrounded himself with friends in Cabinet, government and the party’s top leadership ÔÇô these cronies, as we have come to describe Mugabe’s close allies, owe their livelihood to Khama.
Like what Zimbabwe’s former information minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said in 2006 after he had left Zanu: “The rot in Zanu PF smells in government where the cabinet has become no better than a status club in which ministerial positions have no strategic policy value as they have become instruments of patronage to gain personal access to national resources and the illusion of power and influence.”
Signs are already showing in Botswana, where Khama has appointed people loyal to him, including those in the military, to top government posts. This has trickled down to top party posts, which are now being held by non-elected members, who were handpicked by Khama.
Pilane, who worked in government as chief legal advisor to Mogae, said the opposition parties, press and a number of people from the ruling BMD were always wary of Khama’s dictatorial tendencies from the time he was Vice President.
He said they watched Khama’s worsening dictatorship hence the break away from BDP by people who felt that if unchallenged he could end up like Mugabe.
Pilane said Khama has failed to shed off the military leadership style to become a democratic leader.
“He (Khama) had always displayed tendencies but they were not serious. I was always suspicious right from the time he was Vice President and I watched him closely for six and a half years but some of us thought he would shed off his military leadership style,” he said.
Pilane pointed out that: “Khama operates like a military commander ÔÇô he makes the decisions and everyone exists to carry out his decisions and consultation is a waste of time. He issues directives and his ministers are there to carry them out. He says ‘I am the leader and you must support and do as I say.’”
He said fortunately for Botswana, it had Zimbabwe as an example of what could happen if a leader is allowed to manifest into a dictator.
“We haven’t reached the stage of Zimbabwe and we never will. We will not permit it. Last year we could see the beginning of a Zimbabwe in the making. We decided to stop it by breaking away,” he said.
“The mistake Zimbabwe made was entirely done innocently. We are lucky that we had the Zimbabwean experience and we were able to open our eyes because we were able to see Mugabe turn from a hero into a despot. If it weren’t for Zimbabwe we would never have known that we needed to stop Khama.”
