AFRICAN EYE

By Rawlings Magede Energy Minister, Fortune Chasi recently outlawed the fitting of new electric geysers in a move aimed at reducing demand for electricity and encourage the use of renewable sources of energy. The Minister announced this in line with regulations contained in Statutory Instrument 235 of 2019.How this is going to be monitored and effected remains a complex puzzle. While such pronouncements are positive and seek to save power, the Minister was rather mum on how it was going to be enforced. The announcement follow an earlier communication on the breakdown of the Hwange power plant hence the need to increase load shedding. In October this year, the power utility increased its tariffs by over 320 percent which translates to 162, 16 cents kilowatt hour. The justification for the hike was that the power utility needed to improve power supply. A month later after the astronomical hike, consumers are still exposed to more than 10 hours without power. In the past t

By Rawlings Magede Robert Mugabe has gone to meet his maker. While for now the tussle over his burial place has been put to rest after the family buried him in his rural home, it is now time to revert back to reality. There is no doubt that the tussle over Mugabe’s final resting place had diverted national attention. While on one hand, his former party ,ZANU PF has appeared to have lost that fight, there is no doubt that the final move by Mugabe’s family has further exposed the administration failure to even override Mugabe’s decision even in his death. While Mugabe’s family and his loyalists continue to pontificate about his legacy, what remains factual is that during his reign, he ruled with an iron fist and cared less about his people. The Pan Africanist mantra can only be measured against his endless lectures at international platforms on the need to liberate Africa (Africa’s solutions, to African problems, whatever that means).I deliberately avoided writing an obituary on the

By Rawlings Magede During a recent interview with Bloomberg news, Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube revealed government’s plans to settle with global lenders, sell assets and make the difficult spending decisions needed for financial recovery.Ncube’s well read script is in line with government’s new trajectory on the Zimbabwe is open for business mantra which it hopes will set the country on a recovery path. With the country set to complete an International Monetary Fund Staff Monetary Program in January 2020, there is optimism at least within government that the end of the monitored programme will bring good fortunes. An SMP is an informal agreement between country authorities and IMF staff in which the latter agree to monitor implementation of a nation’s economic programme. SMP does not entail financial assistance or endorsement by the IMF executive board. It aims to implement a coherent set of policies that can facilitate a return to macroeconomic stability. The completion o

By Rawlings Magede In his book, Political order and political decay, Francis Fukuyama notes that patrimonialism which ancient dictators used to run down countries has now evolved into what is called “neopatrimonialism” in which political leaders adopt the outward forms of modern states-with bureaucracies, legal systems,elections,and the like and yet in reality rule for private gain. What strikes me about Fukuyama’s assertion is that his observation is at play in most African countries where some leaders have managed to “transform” their countries by effecting artificial institutions that remain subservient to the appointing authority.Fukuyama’s describes this as political decay which makes reform prohibitively difficult. What is rather disheartening about this is that citizens within such countries have taken a back seat and left the ruling elites to run the show and craft repugnant pieces of legislation that will have a bearing on future generations. Recently, MDC-T

Sudan is currently engulfed in a political crisis a few months after the fall of former President; Omar Bashir.The former president had fallen out of favour with some members of the military who thought that his time at the helm was up. This is despite the fact that in 2018 alone, 70% of Sudan’s budget was dedicated to military and security sector. The important takeaway from Bashir fall is that military governments are difficult to prop up and sustain in countries with no proper and strong institution to foster constitutionalism and rule of law. Today, Sudan burns as the Transitional Military Council (TNC) which has been at the helm since the fall of Bashir has intensified its crackdown on peaceful protestors who are demanding a transition to civilian rule. What makes the situation dire in Sudan is the insincerity by the military leaders to negotiate and prioritize the need for a return to civilian rule. Recently, after heavy criticism from the international community, the TNC pr

28 March 2019 marked a year since Chad banned the use of social media. The internet blackout in the North- West African country came after a series of protests broke out restricting access to the internet in the face of mass popular and political movements. This is a new trend synonymous with most authoritarian regimes in Africa. The first two months of 2019 saw five African countries; Algeria, Zimbabwe, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan experiencing internet blackouts that were meant to thwart the mobilizing ability of social media. To date, Chad has continued with the blackout and this has crippled communication and retarded development in the north-central country. Perhaps the first considerable level of public attention on the impact of social media can be traced back to what is known or referred to as the Twitter Revolution that took place in Iran in June 2009.The Western news media were filled with reports of tech-savvy protestors using Twitter and o

Since the fall of Charles Taylor in 2003, successive governments in Liberia have failed to address the complex but yet fundamental issue of reconciliation. Former Liberian President Sir Leaf Johnson though touted as a woman who overcame the hurdles imposed by patriarchy, she failed however to initiate a conclusive wholesome healing and reconciliation process that would have helped to heal the country’s violent episodes of violence .She left the highest office on the African soil having set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) but throughout her tenure in office, no meaningful reconciliation took place. Liberia has a long history of violent conflicts that took place in the early 1990s that left hundreds of thousands dead. To date, Liberia is home to victims of such a violent past who live in abject poverty due to the failure of government to offer reparations or a form of restoration of livelihoods. Past conflicts in Liberia left trails of destruction including victim

The fever that gripped the nation when the election results for the 2018 elections produced a disputed outcome has died down. As reality begins to sink in, President Emmerson Mnangagwa administration is at sixes and sevens as it tries to rescue the economy from an abyss of turmoil and deterioration. The economy has continued to be in free fall since the elections with the cost of basic commodities spiraling compounded by acute fuel shortages .The January 2019 job action by proved to be the final provocation of the administration.Indeed,the government responded by deploying the military whose conduct in controlling the demonstration jeopardized Mnangagwa’s re-engagements efforts particularly with Western powers. Video footage of gross human rights abuses have started to filter weeks after the infamous shutting down of internet by the government. All this evidence has come just at the wrong time as there was traction on the international scene as some countries had commended the Mnan