ZIMBABWE has inexorably been set on the firm path to elections as the Seventh Parliament stood dissolved by efluxion of time on June 29.
Guest Column with Vivid Gwede.
This is regardless of the prior contestations and legal battles around the date of polling which were decided by the Constitutional Court, making the July 31 date stand.
Indeed, this is regardless of the continued concern about the playing field prepared by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) electoral grounds people and match officials and ZTV blurring out the other political teams.
At the same time as we approach the next harmonised elections, it is inevitable for Zimbabweans from all corners of the country to vividly recall the last voting which occurred around this time on June 27 five years back.
There were allegations of rigging and there was evidence of violence, which reports said claimed 200 Zimbabwean lives.
There is a silent prayer everywhere that all should end well.
The prayer is that our camp should win.
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The elections crack up the body of the nation into neat battalions by political affiliation which means that the adrenaline, the interests, the sympathies and the prayers of one group, of necessity go against those of another group.
But there is always need for fairness — even armed combat has rules!
One is reminded of the days we were growing up, that time when school holidays meant, for our middle class parents and their families which included young boys like me during that time, going to the rural home from wherever they worked.
One thing I did was to go and herd the cattle and as expected there were fist-fights among the boys. Because they were supposed to be fist-fights, one would not be expected to go out of hand. A boy would not be allowed to pick a stone and and use it to outdo an opponent by either concealing it in a fist, or hurling it.
The fights were supposed to be, indeed as we called out, feya feya (meaning just fair) because they were real contests of our strength meant to gauge who deserved respect among the boys.
Granted, winning a fight through unfair ways would not earn you respect, or any legitimacy.
Let me give an example: An act like that of furious Mike Tyson biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear in an old boxing match — that could not be allowed and could attract collective discipline from the boys. To ground you in contemporary realities, President Robert Mugabe’s unilateral declaration of an election date of July 31 when the Global Political Agreement (GPA) said he should consult his opponents in the power-sharing government first would be deemed violation of our boyhood “rules of engagement”, or would not be regarded as feya feya. Indeed rigging can never be feya feya even in hell!
Thus, countrymen, we grew up with this basic civilisation that any disagreement has “rules of disagreement”, so to say, which govern conduct toward resolution.
For simplicity, there was a little slogan which captured this little local philosophy of the herd boys: That aspect in the conscientious application of our rules of disagreement was known as feya feya conduct. As we go toward elections this year, some colleagues have been resourceful to bring into greater relevance this boyhood “feya feya” philosophy and what a way to recollect those bygone days in the Savanna grazing lands.
On June 27 2013, in the City of Queens and Kings, Bulawayo, 83 civil society organisations under the banner of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition convened and came up with the awesome idea of launching a feya feya campaign for the next harmonised elections and judging from the events, there is some swag to it too.
Shall I conclude that with such innovative people, or beautiful minds, Zimbabwe can neither be a boring place, nor a hopeless country! The civil society organisations — indeed many Zimbabweans — do not approve and do not feel comfortable over the fact that the Presidential runoff election of June 27 2008 “won” by President Mugabe was not feya feya.
Thus the campaign seeks to remind all politicians of the rules of fair electoral fighting, well, progressive parties included, as laid out in the new Constitution.
These rules are also laid out the GPA, in the Electoral Act and as outlined in Sadc Guidelines and Principles Governing Democratic Elections and as espoused in various African Union documents and the lot. Zanu PF knows these benchmarks since they have been in the government corridors for a long time and the progressive parties know them since they have been quoting them; there is no excuse for not adhering to them.
Let me ask you: If you should ask for feya feya in an idle card game, from a soccer referee, or gambling with coins around street corners, what more in a national harmonised election?
After all, in life, fairness is all we want.
With these words, countrymen, let us have feya feya elections!
l Vivid Gwede works for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Information Department . He writes here for his personal persuasion with the feya feya campaign.
