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Reason Wafawarova On Thursday

Anyone that joins a faction risks surrendering principles, integrity and personal opinion for the endorsement and ratification of candidates and policies prescribed by the power hierarchy running that particular faction.

It is not that easy to find a neutral definition of factionalism, especially given that by its very nature factional culture tends to be pestiferous.
However, one may try a neutral definition like this one from James Madison:

“A faction within a political party is a set of members who regularly vote together to carry decisions regarding party policy and rules; and regularly votes for candidates on the faction’s tickets (i.e. a list or slate of candidates) in elections within the party.”

Anyone that joins a faction risks surrendering principles, integrity and personal opinion for the endorsement and ratification of candidates and policies prescribed by the power hierarchy running that particular faction.

Often expediency takes precedence over nobility, rationality or principle. Sound judgement sometimes gets relegated to triviality as faction members pursue and advance for themselves disreputable avenues to power and privileges.

Even by the lenient standards of a neutral definition, factionalism is generally a bad thing, and it is not easy to give any justification for it.
Firstly, factional culture is inherently objectionable from a strict viewpoint of ethics.

Common decency and ordinary respect for fellow human beings means that their ideas should be listened to fair-mindedly, and that when they stand for public office or any party position they should be considered or rated on their merits, not passed over for some less meritorious person who happens to belong to a faction which for one reason or the other may be having more members than those outside it.

The essence of democracy is moral legitimacy, not mere numbers. Democracy cannot be the mere counting of heads, with no regard whatsoever for what is contained in those heads. When democracy is reduced to a primitive game of just getting the numbers, there is no logical reason why the defeated minority should be obliged to treat the decision of the winning majority with respect.

A majority vote secured on the backdrop of vote-buying, intimidation or coercion deserves no legitimacy, and that is from, however, many the number of angles one might choose to look at things, even when such a result is allowed to stand by a superior body like ZANU-PF’s Politburo, or even by a court of law.
Secondly, factionalism excludes non-factionists from effective organisation of the party.

When one faction becomes so huge that it dominates the entire structures of the party, there is virtually no point in participation by anyone who is not a member of that faction.

There is no point belonging to a party where one’s motions are always baselessly ruled out of order, or are always met with a motion to pass to the next business.
It defeats the whole principle of party politics if one’s proposals are always rejected or dismissed without any serious discussion; and when one is alienated in this way, the whole point of belonging to a party is rendered useless.

At the height of factionalism, non-factionists often realise that they might as well not be there, and they can either recline into inactivity, or totally withdraw their membership, that way allowing factionalism to push the party further and further away from the general populace, way out of touch with reality at the grassroots.

Under normal circumstances, a head of state returning from a sententious state visit as was President Mugabe’s recent tour of China, must be inundated with development oriented questions from a news-hungry media, not confronted with warring party activists who seem to believe song and dance can successfully run a country.

Undemocratic party practices within ZANU-PF today can squarely be blamed on factions and factionalism, and any pretence otherwise must be dismissed for the puerility it is.

Ordinarily there is nothing wrong or undemocratic about like-minded people voting together to maximise their chances of success. Indeed, that is the whole principle of party politics.

However, like-mindedness must be based on principles and shared nobilities in belief, not on shared venality. The vendibility around which ZANU-PF factional members unite is breathtakingly juvenile, and sometimes it is a mockery of history to count some of the people involved among the heroes that fought for the liberation of our country.

When factional interests are put ahead of the core values of the party, or even ahead of national interests, there is no second-guessing that the party rots.
We saw ZANU-PF nearly imploding in 2008, and the factional members who chose to go for the demise of the party in pursuit of their own selfish narrow interests are well-known, not only within ZANU-PF, but also to the entirety of the Zimbabwean society.

Their slogan “Bhora musango” was a spoiler rant that was designed to bring down President Mugabe primarily, and secondarily to gain favour with the MDC-T and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai — then viewed as standing a realistic chance of forming the next government.

By publicly backing Simba Makoni in the presidential race, this faction did ensure that the ZANU-PF leader trailed Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of the presidential race, only for Tsvangirai to fail to garner a threshold of over 50 percent of the vote, the then constitutional requirement to assume the state presidency.

When Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues were kicking and shouting in protest over the coming elections in 2013, the same goofball faction was equally furiously opposed to the idea of the same elections, grovelling about how well they were enjoying working in the inclusive government, and vaingloriously reminding everyone of how Zimbabwe was “not ready for elections.”

After the resounding victory of ZANU-PF on July 31 2013, it has become abundantly clear that the influence of factional warriors is increasing with diminishing party momentum, and presumably with decreasing party membership.

As events are showing within ZANU-PF every single day, factional warriors maximise their influence by excluding those who disagree with them, and this is why suspensions have become synonymous with the party itself.

We have seen that those who defer to the power brokers are often rewarded with positions and other favours. ZANU-PF is killing itself, and as things stand, only a miracle-working god of some sort can halt the decline.

The balkanisation of the party is no longer a matter of expert analysis. It is a reality speaking itself to high heavens, and the rift between the two main factions has become unmistakable.

One can see that personal differences, clashing ambitions, and murky and long forgotten historical events are the major causes of the factionalism bedevilling ZANU-PF today.

This has resulted in the fierce hegemony wars between the factions, each driven by the desire to dominate every facet of political activity. Sadly, there is no focus whatsoever on the primary needs of the electorate, and with the spectacular demise of the opposition MDC-T, ZANU-PF is less seized with matters national.
As things stand right now, there is virtually no opportunity for talented ZANU-PF members who have no factional allegiance.

The factions have become so daring that they now have the audacity to demand loyalty even from journalists and columnists like this writer.
With this production line of soulless apparatchiks, ZANU-PF cannot safely claim safe custody of the revolutionary legacy of our liberation struggle.

Indeed, there are these highly energetic and proficient characters masquerading as heroic icons within ZANU-PF power corridors, but they evidently have no revolutionary soul, no ZANU-PF soul, no liberation legacy soul, and above all no soul to empathise with the suffering Zimbabwean masses.

It appears like control freaks run the factions jostling for power within ZANU-PF, and these people have no more than tunnel visions limited only to the concept of power for power’s sake.

The factions themselves are hopelessly infested with ruthless leakers obsessed with self-interest.
These are individuals who would rather the party lose an election than that they lose their place in the perking order.

The party’s commissariat department has now assumed a presiding role over factionalism as opposed to averting it, and openly so too.
It would not matter much if the basis of factionalism in Zimbabwean politics across the divide was ideology.

Sadly, the basis of factionalism in Zimbabwean political parties is patronage; that is the ability of factional leaders to confer jobs, political posts, honours and other goodies on themselves and on their favoured loyalists and supporters.

This has become the fatal attraction luring our people into politics.
This writer recently received a call from some self-appointed advisor who intimated that this was the time to “emerge with a flourishing political career,” and the invaluable advice was that this writer must “join the winning faction and make yourself useful.”

The answer was very short and simple. This writer does not subscribe to patronage.
The reason both the MDC-T and ZANU-PF’s upcoming congresses are so pivotal to factional politics is very simple — patronage.

The leadership within both parties believe they have some don powers to doll out posts at the coming congresses, and as such aspiring candidates are better off affiliating to their factions if ever they want to make it in sustaining a political career.

For as long as factional warriors are allowed to superimpose their personal interests over the national interest, our people will continue to suffer leadership mediocrity, and we essentially have no valid reason to hope for national development.

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!

REASON WAFAWAROVA is a political writer based in SYDNEY, Australia.