"Leaving So Many Behind" by Godfrey Kanyenze, review by Anton Mlynczak

Kanyenze: Leaving So Many Behind

Anton Mlynczak, May 17, 2022

First draft of a review for the editors of Africa South.

Godfrey Kanyenze is a significant part of the policy process in Zimbabwe as head of the LEDRIZ trade

union institute. He knows it in great detail. His book, which describes 40 years of independent

Zimbabwe, political phenomena, plans, committees and actors in detail in its first seven

comprehensive parts before looking ahead in the eighth part, bears witness to this.

If you want to know what Zimbabwe has experienced in terms of political cabals and periods of

violence, how economic, mainly macro-economically based goals have always been changed back

and forth, with the well-known bad results, then read the first parts of the book. One "experiences"

and "feels" this roller coaster ride.

The 40 years after liberation are divided into the period from 1980 to 1990 - the legacy of Rhodesian

rule and the beginning of the nation, the period until 1996, marked by the "Economic Structural

Adjustment Program" (ESAP) wanted by the government and world financial institutions, the period

from 1997 to 2008, a crisis characterized by social disintegration, violence and lawlessness, the

period from 2008 to 2013, the government of national unity, and the period thereafter with ZANU

PF's autocracy under Mugabe until 2017 and then the post-Mugabe period until 2020.

Methodologically, these first parts refrain from evaluations, judgments and condemnations, at least

to a large extent. One can read out an ever-present hope in civil society (or rather its groups), of

which the ZCTU sees itself as a driving force.

This hope has crystallized in various participation formats (government, social groups), especially in

the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF). It has been repeatedly disappointed by dodges on the part of

the government and other actors. In particular, if I read this correctly, Kanyenze complains that

during Government of National Unity (GNU), the politicos of the MDC factions did not lean on and

promote civil society. The unification among elites could not promote the mobilization of society.

Reading the phenomena, studying the tables, some constants of Zimbabwean politics solidify in my

mind as a reviewer.

ZANU PF, for all its internal factionalism, developed the ability to use ever-adapted methods to

secure its power, brutally breaking or adhering to the framework of a democratic constitution, using

violence excessively, and then coming to agreements.

The directional dispute over state intervention in the economy-indigenization versus liberalization

and internationalization of the economy-has never been settled. Nor has it been productive in terms

of striking a balance between development from within the country on the one hand and

development for the global economy on the other. When the direction is changed, the

macroeconomic figures enjoy a jump upward, and then they go down again. One result of these wild

leaps is that no strong middle class has emerged that focuses on local industrial production and

services.

Both on the part of the government and the ruling party, the opposition parties and also the civil

society organizations, it is very often about power or sharing power without fighting for and using it

for developmental steps in Zimbabwean society. ZANU PF wants power as the sole legacy of the

liberation struggle. The opposition says ZANU PF cannot do it without saying how the country can

move to better shores. Civil society is trying to prevent bad things from happening in general strikes,

mass protests and participation in "round tables" but is not gaining any formative power.The final and eighth section then raises high expectations for analysis and how the way forward can

succeed, keeping in mind the legacy of the past.

Kanyenze once again summarizes the experiences of violence in Zimbabwe. He embeds them in the

pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial violence from which the country, specifically the ruling party,

has not liberated itself. If anything, the experience of the armed liberation struggle has increased

conflicts in society, without society having learned to resolve conflicts in a civil manner. "The enemy"

is the eternal fighting term preserved from the 7 years before 1980. Kanyenze also blames the lack of

conflict culture on the fact that during the phases of ending conflicts, society was not involved in the

economy and politics through NGOs. Instead, the political elites came to an agreement: in 1987 after

the Gukuharundi with that of ZAPU and in 2008 with the two factions of the MDC. Thus-perhaps out

of fear of society-no broad-based reconciliation or awakening could take place. In this respect,

Zimbabwe's crisis continues unabated. This is fostered by the unreflective narrative that sanctions

are to blame for everything.

He does not draw a straight line from this political and social analysis to the economic ups and

downs. The core of his analysis, which is supported by figures, is that Zimbabwe, unlike other poor

countries, is characterized by urban migration to the countryside. This movement is accompanied by

a decline in productivity, neglect of infrastructure and maintenance of existing facilities. There is

disappearing low propensity to accumulation. This has made it impossible to finance the

expenditures for advances in education and health care. Poverty and divisions between rich and poor

increased.

Kanyenze sees the basis for economic improvement in people-driven and people-centered

sustainable development. This is based first of all on democratic and trade union rights. Surprisingly,

the author does not start his bouquet of proposals with people, but rather, in keeping with the

macroeconomic focus of the book, with the monetary system. Only after the foreign debt has been

paid does he move on to possible industrial development paths. If the country follows them, he

hopes for levers to overcome poverty and create good or decent work.

Ledriz and Kanyenze have worked intensively on the problem of the high proportion of informal labor

in Zimbabwe. Transforming subsistence agriculture into commercial agriculture and formalizing

informal labor should succeed through a shift to more appreciation for formal labor. To this end, it

proposes a policy of strengthening and fighting for workers' rights, integrating informal labor into

value chains, and merging informal farms into larger units or cooperatives. These proposals are

supported by very concrete examples of good practice. One more aspect: In a country where the

experience is often that regular work in and around the home is done by women, and that advice on

local destinies is left to men, the proposal to remove barriers to women's participation in formal

work can lead to a boost in forward-looking and continuous work.

As a trade unionist, Kanyenze takes some of his suggestions from the work of the ILO. He desires

cooperative behavior in Zimbabwe and cites a lot of participation - and discussion - circles for that.

'Strengthen these elements' runs like a leitmotif through the book.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)