MALAIKA MAHLATSI | What will the true legacy of GNU be?

In the early 2000s, the Zanu-PF government in our neighbouring country, Zimbabwe, introduced a land expropriation programme that had a devastating impact on the economy and the very future of Zimbabwe. Many who tell the story about the “land invasions” focus on the violence that characterised the process – violence that led to the fleeing of predominantly white farmers.

They also tell the story of the corruption that ensued, where the political elite appropriated millions of hectares of land for themselves. Highly connected politicians, in a quest for personal accumulation, not only took more farms for themselves but also took the most arable of these.

This is one part of the story. But the other part of the story is that in 1979, following decades of protracted armed struggle in what is known as the Rhodesian Bush War, or the Second Chimurenga, different parties, including national liberation movements and the colonial regime of Ian Smith, sat down to negotiate the transition to independence.

At the conclusion of these, the Lancaster House Agreement was signed, nullifying British colonial authority. Among the commitments of the agreement was the equitable redistribution of land to the Zimbabwean people, who had been violently dispossessed of it by British colonialists.

This redistribution process was to happen within 20 years. Zimbabwe declared its independence in 1980. But by 2000, the land redistribution had not happened. White farmers still owned and controlled the majority of agricultural and commercial land. Black Zimbabweans remained at the margins, landless and disenfranchised. It was in this context that the violent land expropriation process was born.

The aftermath of the land expropriation was horrific. Zimbabwe became a pariah – sanctioned by major economies including the European Union (EU) and the United States. In Africa, few countries stood with Zimbabwe. Its economy was reduced to nothing and its people scattered all over the world.

The Zanu-PF regime became even more autocratic – institutionalising violence and undermining human rights. Elections became theatres of violence, with opposition leaders and supporters being subjected to extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and disappearances and intimidation.

Zanu-PF policies also became increasingly unreasonable. In 2009, following violent elections, a government of national unity (GNU) was established between the Zanu-PF and opposition parties, including the MDC-T, whose leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, became the prime minister. The cabinet and parliament were comprised of a significant number of opposition members.

Within weeks of the GNU, the economic situation in Zimbabwe improved dramatically. Shops that once housed empty shelves suddenly had food. Clinics and hospitals that had no medication and equipment slowly began to be functional. Countries that had wanted nothing to do with Zimbabwe began to warm up to the country. Ironically, all this happened despite there being no fundamental policy changes. Just the inclusion of opposition leaders in government was enough to give confidence in a new dawn. This was not to be, and just four years after the end of the GNU, Zimbabwe would experience a coup d’état, removing its long-serving president, Robert Mugabe.

In SA, just a few days into the announcement of the establishment of a GNU, the rand strengthened against major currencies. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which had been battered by poor performance and companies opting out, was suddenly seeing positive results and exceptional performance in the shares of listed companies.

The markets, we are being told, are responding positively to the GNU. Curiously, this GNU has not brought about any results. There is no change in policy and we still have no cabinet. What, then, informs this confidence?

Is it, perhaps, the entrenched belief that the DA (i.e. white leadership) is competent? As Zimbabweans found out in 2017 when army vehicles drove through the streets of Harare and surrounded the president’s residence in Borrowdale, we may only find out in a few years to come what the true legacy of the GNU was.