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Livit Mugejo

Correspondent

Identifying the problem is always a good starting point. One of the problems that are faced by the country is entitlement.

This problem is threatening to tear the country apart; from politicians down to bureaucrats. Former President Robert Mugabe passed on believing that he was entitled to die in office.

Former Cabinet ministers are bitter and are fighting to remain ministers; and former bureaucrats are finding it unacceptable that they were replaced as heads of ministries, even after reaching retirement age.

Resultantly, there is some kind of dissonance playing out on social media camouflaged as the fight for democracy, yet the people are fighting for their perceived entitlement to remain in their previous positions and benefit at the expense of the country.

This dissonance has unhelpfully pronounced itself as the Old versus the New (in all political formations and the civil service); as the New Dispensation against the Old Dispensation.

The important question to be addressed is how should this be solved? There is no need to invent the political wheel in solving the problem as it has been faced and solved in other political jurisdictions such as the American system.

This system is used to frequent change of government every four or eight years. During the course of this year, Mr Joe Biden was elected president and he is busy assembling his team to take over this January 2021.

A take-home lesson is that whenever a new leader is elected in the United States of America, he is given an opportunity to assemble his own team whose members share his vision. Mr Biden is not expected to continue with President Donald Trump’s team, which had a totally different vision.

In other words, those in president Trump’s government are not in any way expected to drive President-elect Biden’s government.

This is meant to avoid discord in the new government.

Without addressing this fundamental question, the government risks the danger of having officials in key positions pulling in the opposite direction to the leader’s vision.

As a result, where President-elect Biden will be pushing for a climate change deal, the old will be pushing for disengagement; where Biden will be pushing for the resumption of an Iranian deal, the old will be calling for stiffer sanctions; and where Biden will be calling for multilateralism, the opposite call will be for ‘America first.’

It is clear that the above American analogy is already ringing some bells to the Zimbabwean situation. There is no need for elaboration.

Suffice to say a small disclaimer that there is nowhere being suggested in this article that where the President is calling for engagement and re-engagement, the old in the system are pushing for disengagement.

Neither is it insinuated that the strong call for economic diplomacy is met with resistance in favour of traditional political diplomacy.

As a way forward, the new Government should be given a chance to spell out and implement its vision; choose its own strategy; assemble its own team that is capable to drive its vision.

Most importantly, the new Government ought to choose competent team members who share its vision so that it can drive it to its logical conclusion.

In order to achieve his goal, the leader should not be entangled in the old by being consumed by the so-called experience; a largely abused word that is frequently used to entrench certain individuals in their positions.

A new vision does not need to be driven by experience since it is already new to those who are experienced.

Dear reader, it is not being suggested that experience is not important. Experience is not bad.

All that is being said is experience should not be a determinant factor spearheading a new vision. Experience should only arise to solve recurring specific problems that may emerge when implementing the new vision.

In that regard, old methods become relevant to extinguish the problem and this should be done through consultancy and not permanent positions for those who are experienced.

There is no need for recycling the retired cadres unless the vision is in the past. The retired should be allowed to implement their personal goals and create employment for others.

Most importantly, those who have passed their best before date need to give the new Government an opportunity to implement its new policies.

Without a complete detachment from the past, Joe Biden is likely to face multiple challenges emanating not only from the Republicans, but from his own team, which would have included those with a different vision. This is why it is important from the start to employ a competent and coherent team.

Civil service jobs are not meant to reward loyalty or political correctness, but are meant to achieve national objectives. There is a need to go to both local and international employment marketplaces and compete for those highly qualified to drive the national vision.

A visionary leader has to gamble in order for the country to follow him to the Promised Land.

A case in point is where President Mnangagwa took the political risk by appointing completely new faces, who were not Cabinet ministers before, like Dr Sibusiso Moyo, Professor Amon Murwira, Professor Mthuli Ncube; Professor Paul Mavima, just to mention a few.

The gamble has paid handsomely as these new ministers acquitted themselves well, and have refused to be stuck in the past.

They have been willing to come up with new ideas for the benefit of the country. All that is needed is to support them so that they are not captured by those who belong to the past; who always resist any meaningful change.

Furthermore, there is need for due diligence to avoid appointing tainted persons who would spoil an otherwise noble decision.

Without proper management of such contradictions, the Government will face a lot of unnecessary challenges such as those being experienced on cyber space.

The country has witnessed those who strongly feel entitled to certain positions causing havoc in Ministries; sometimes trying to create non-existent scandals just to tarnish the country’s image and derail the implementation of the national Vision 2030.

The role of driving the new national vision should not be solely entrusted to the old. Even God did not entrust Moses to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. A new charismatic warrior, Joshua, was personally appointed to lead them into Canaan.

Imagine the role that Moses played in liberating the Israelites from Pharaoh, yet God did not hesitate to step him aside and pass the torch to a new generation suitable for the new task.

As previously pointed out, positions are not meant to reward past roles or loyalty, but are meant to drive a vision.

Indonesians have understood this message well. During elections, their political parties compete for competent and talented candidates outside their political parties.

A good example is the current Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who was endorsed by different political parties, which he did not belong to simply because of his clean political record of turning the fortunes of the cities of Solo and Jakarta as the Mayor and Governor, respectively. Political parties who remain stuck to their traditional members, as their candidates are usually defeated.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo

Equally important to note is that after winning the elections, Indonesian President Widodo carried out some interviews, inviting highly talented Indonesians to join his government.

He selected those who shared his vision and were competent enough to drive his vision. As a result, they were able to assist him implement his vision and win the second and final term.

By and large, what is being proposed is a thorough debate on the choice of our representatives and Government officials for this determines our success or failure. Without good people in key positions, the vision will not be realised.

 Livit Mugejo is a deputy director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The views expressed here are personal.