Zimbabwe: Picking Up the Pieces

309 Pages·2011·5.605 MB·English

by  Hany Besada (eds.)

Zimbabwe
Z
IMBABWE
P U P
ICKING P THE IECES
Edited by
HANY BESADA
Palgrave
macmillan
ZIMBABWE
Copyright © Hany Besada, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-11019-9
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29253-0 ISBN 978-0-230-11643-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230116436
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zimbabwe : picking up the pieces / edited by Hany Besada.
p. cm.
1. Zimbabwe—Politics and government—1980– 2. Zimbabwe—
Economic conditions—1980– I. Besada, Hany.
JQ2925.Z545 2011
330.96891—dc22 2010025622
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: January 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Foreword: Reflections on the Prerequisites for a Sustainable
Reconstruction in Zimbabwe
Adam Habib xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Contributor Biographies xix
1 Zimbabwe’s Recovery Path: A Conceptual Framework 1
Hany Besada and Jason LaChapelle
Part I Peace Building and Strengthening Institutions
for Good Governance
2 ZANU-PF and MDC Power-Sharing: Zimbabwe Still at a Crossroads? 13
Siphamandla Zondi
3 Reform of the Security Sector in Zimbabwe: Challenges and
Opportunities 37
Karolina Werner and Knox Chitiyo
4 Zimbabwe’s Media: Between Party-State Politics and Press
Freedom under Mugabe’s Rule 55
David Moore
Part II Economic Recovery Strategies for Sustainable Development
5 A Macroeconomic Policy Framework for
Economic Stabilization in Zimbabwe 83
John Robertson
6 Zimbabwe’s Hyperinflation: Can Dollarization Be the Cure? 107
Albert Makochekanwa and Prosper Kambarami
7 Agrarian Reform and Prospects for Recovery 129
Sam Moyo
vi Contents
8 Addressing Food Security: A View from Multilateral Institutions 157
Simon Pazvakavambwa
9 P ublic-Private Partnerships in the Provision of Infrastructure
to Redress the Human Resource Shortages in Zimbabwe 181
Helen Moatshe
Part III Foreign Direct Investment and Donor Engagement
for Socioeconomic Reconstruction
10 Multinationals and Foreign Investment in Zimbabwe:
A Development and Human Rights Perspective 203
Dianna Games
11 South African Corporate Expansion into Zimbabwe:
Weathering the Storm and Reaping the Benefits 229
Sanusha Naidu
12 Donors and the Crisis in Zimbabwe: Experiences and Lessons Learned 247
Holger Bernt Hansen
13 S outh Africa’s Role in Providing Development Assistance
to Zimbabwe: Policy Options and Strategies 269
Steven Gruzd, George Katito, and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos
Index 291
Figures
2.1 The MoU between ZANU-PF and two formations of the MDC 24
2.2 Members of the JMIC 32
5.1 Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 17) Act, 2005 86
5.2 Manufacturing: annual indices of all groups 89
7.1 Subsectoral maize production trends (1980–2009) in Zimbabwe 132
9.1 Proposed medium to long term priorities per sector for Zimbabwe 190
11.1 China’s total imports from Zimbabwe, 1995–2009 (US$ million) 239
11.2 China’s total exports from Zimbabwe, 1995–2009 (US$ million) 239
Tables
5.1 Zimbabwe’s exchange rate changes in 2008 84
5.2 Africa’s top fifteen countries, 1989 87
6.1 Zimbabwe’s economic performance 109
6.2 Zimbabwe’s readiness for dollarization 124
7.1 Pre-fast track land reform perceptions (1980–1999) 131
7.2 National land distribution pattern (1980–2010) 133
7.3 Policy matrix: factors affecting agricultural production 137
7.4 C ommon perceptions on prerequisites of
agrarian recovery versus reality 145
8.1 Crop productivity trends, 2000–2007 161
9.1 Estimated migrant population, 2001–2007 185
9.2 Siyenza Manje successes 187
9.3 Total number of deployees from the SADC region by country 187
10.1 Investment in Zimbabwe 217
11.1 South Africa-Zimbabwe trade, 2002–2007 (in million rands) 233
11.2 S outh Africa-Zimbabwe trade balance,
2002–2007 (in million rands) 234
11.3 South African exports by continent, 2006–2009 (in million rands) 237
11.4 South African imports by continent, 2006–2009 (in million rands) 238
Foreword: Reflections on the Prerequisites
for a Sustainable Reconstruction
in Zimbabwe
Adam Habib
It is very rare to witness a conversation about the current problems of Zimbabwe,
and the solutions thereof, without it degenerating into emotional rhetoric laden with
insults. Zimbabwe raises difficult questions about identities, the nature of public
discourse, and the manipulation of a rights discourse by political elites both within
and outside the country. Implicit in this debate are assumptions about race and
how this speaks to national and continental identities. Also, the public debate on
Zimbabwe is severely polarized, with opposition parties and critics accusing the
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) of violating the
rights of citizens and even murder, while the state’s supporters openly argue that the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and human rights activists are pawns
of imperialist powers intent on regime change. As if this is not enough, political
elites in Zimbabwe, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and
in Western countries manipulate the rights discourse by highlighting issues that
support their argument and downplaying other elements that contradict it—fur-
ther polarizing the discourse on Zimbabwe and bringing to the fore the highest
aspirations and deepest fears about the country’s future.
Given this, the hosting of a workshop with such diversified participation—
without it degenerating into emotional squabble—should be viewed as a victory
in its own right. The production of a book recording the views of the participants,
and the debates among them, is testimony to the commitment of the authors and, it
is hoped, to a maturing of the debate on Zimbabwe. With the ideologically diverse
nature of the participants, it would be impossible to have produced a unanimously
endorsed, coherent set of recommendations. The pages that follow instead reflect a
more heterogeneous and diverse set of recommendations advocated by the partici-
pants of the workshop. Their value lies in the provocative thinking about Zimbabwe
and its future. Nevertheless, in the debate and the reflections that are likely to follow
the publication of this book, five essential lessons should be borne in mind.
First, as does seem to be recognized by the vast majority of the authors,
Zimbabwe’s path to reconstruction has to begin from a political settlement that has
xii Foreword
at its core what Garth le Pere describes in the Afterword as “the normative impera-
tives of transitional justice, national healing and reconciliation.” This solution, also
described by the African scholar Mahmood Mamdani as “survivor’s justice” in his
Saviours and Survivors, is increasingly presented as a considered historical lesson
from the South African transition from apartheid, and is, therefore, an African re-
sponse to the historical dilemma bequeathed to the continent by colonialism and
the nature of postindependence political conflict. Yet, while the necessity of such a
conceptual framework for political negotiations in Zimbabwe cannot be disputed, it
must be underscored that justice should only be tempered with if peace and progress
are to be its beneficiaries. This is the principal lesson of the South African experi-
ence. South Africa can only truly be invoked if progress toward peace is recorded.
Without peace and progress, there is no legitimacy to the tempering of justice.
It is also worth bearing in mind that the lessons from the South African expe-
rience do not preclude the notion of consequences for past injustices. Transitional
justice in South Africa ensured that there were no legal prosecutions, but apartheid’s
political elites did pay penalties for their past actions. While they may not have
been legally charged, they were cast into the political wilderness in the democratic
era with even their previous supporters disassociating themselves from their polit-
ical actions. Most of apartheid’s political elites were ostracized through mainstream
political opinion, and many died as lonely, dejected individuals. There were conse-
quences, even if they were not legal, and this is necessary if autocrats of the future
are to be measured in their subjugation of citizen’s rights.
Second, it is worth bearing in mind that the reason that Zimbabwe is in its cur-
rent predicament is because pragmatism prevailed over principle with the sacrifice of
socioeconomic justice at the dawn of its independence. The land question was sacri-
ficed in the Lancaster House negotiations, where its resolution was postponed until
a future date so as not to rock the political boat. In the desire to effect political com-
promise, political and economic elites, national and foreign, were willing to sacri-
fice equitable development. This has also been the advice of mainstream, American
political science, which has over the last three decades produced a body of empirical
case studies on democratization that emphasize the importance of procedural rather
than substantive democracy. From O’Donnell’s, Schmitter’s and Whitehead’s classic
1986 four volume Transitions to Democracy to Samuel Huntington’s 1991 The Third
Wave, the advice to would-be democratizers has been simple: stay away from issues
of economic justice for they will merely complicate the agenda of the transition.
Such issues, they advised, weakened support for democratization from reformers
within the regime, foreign governments, and other transnational actors. The choice
they offered was one between formal democracy and authoritarian rule. Their ad-
vice was to take formal democracy rather than have nothing at all. The net effect of
this choice in Zimbabwe is, two decades after the dawn of independence, an ineq-
uitable settlement manipulated by political elites, and Robert Mugabe in particular,
to remain in power. The lack of substantive equality in the political settlement was
reflected in the inequitable ownership of land in the country and compromised the
sustainability of procedural democracy.
This is a lesson that must be remembered in the path toward reconstruction in
Zimbabwe. Essentially, it underscores the need not to review the land redistribution