The Zimbabwe lesson: Once credibility is lost, it’s hard to get back

[View in browser]( [Mail & Guardian]( M&G Mornings | Wed 13 Sep   [Ron Derby] West Africa is in a season of high change after years of economic decline and corruption, with about four coups d’état in three years. What will come of the government in places such as Mali and, most recently, Gabon, we will see in the totality of time, but it’s unlikely to be positive. Down south, we had a little bit of our own “Arab Spring” just over six years ago, when South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe had leadership changes. Robert Mugabe lost his Zimbabwe in 2017 as did José Eduardo dos Santos his Angola over which he had reigned since 1979. After a bad decade of low growth and tales of rampant corruption, Jacob Zuma lost the presidency of the ANC. Even in the supposedly democratically stable Botswana, we saw a family dynasty come to an end when Ian Khama’s tenure as president stopped in April 2018. (Khama’s father – Sir Seretse – was the founding president of the liberated Botswana and whose story was made into a really bad 2016 movie, A United Kingdom.) Six years on, what have we experienced from these changes and what have we learnt? Well, in the case of Angola, Dos Santos’s chosen successor, João Lourenço, has shown that he was always his own man. The family wealth built by Dos Santos’s 38 years of power that made his daughter, Isabella, the richest woman in Africa, was a priority for him. To change the narrative of Angola being an oligarchic state, Lourenço sought to strip the family of its ill-gotten gains. Whatever the real outcome of this political strategy, Isabella is no longer the media darling of international business magazines such as Forbes. In South Africa, an economy that has been in a low growth trap in the years leading up to the ANC elective conference at Nasrec in 2017, has struggled further. A Covid crisis, a confidence crisis among business and everyday people, corruption and a stubborn electricity crisis hasn’t bode well for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new dawn. Voters will have their say next May. Then there’s the case of Zimbabwe. Emmerson Mnangagwa rode in on his army tanks with his Zimbabwean coloured scarf and took out Mugabe and his “dangerous” partner in Grace some six years ago on a promise of change. With that scarf, I watched as he attended various World Economic Forums telling whoever listened that his beloved country — in which he had served in the many different Mugabe administrations — had turned a corner and was open to business. The economy has, however, remained in the doldrum. Earlier this year, Al Jazeera’s four-part investigative series into gold smuggling in Zimbabwe exposed the involvement of high-ranking officials and mentioned people close to the president. Seemingly, nothing has changed. On governance, Mnangagwa has certainly cemented the idea that nothing has changed, what with the appointment of his son as deputy finance minister and nephew as deputy tourism minister. If credibility is what Emmerson was looking to rebuild in his government, he and the Zanu-PF have failed. It’s long been clear that Zanu is ultimately Zimbabwe’s structural flaw. Ron Derby | Editor-in-Chief [@Ronderby]( [SIU accuses De Ruyter of maladministration]( Andy Mothibi tells MPs the former Eskom CEO could face legal action [// Read more]( [‘Don’t throw the dice’, judge warns in Telkom labour dispute]( A group of former employees are fighting for their jobs which were outsourced to WNS Global Services SA eight years ago [// Read more]( [High court denies Zuma leave to appeal against Ramaphosa]( The former president sought to challenge the court’s finding that his private prosecution of the president was unlawful and invalid [// Read more]( Recommended Reads [A universal basic income grant in South Africa is a national imperative]( A comprehensive policy might not be a silver bullet to all woes but it may help to kickstart economic growth [// Read more]( [Higher education is fast losing its edge in South Africa’s labour market]( The country is under pressure to meet the demands of an evolving job market [// Read more]( Premium [Action SA Western Cape supporters sceptical of coalition with DA, says provincial chair]( Michelle Wasserman said her party was not aiming to take away votes from the DA in next year’s provincial elections, but rather from the ANC [// Read more]( [Senzo Meyiwa trial: Court proceedings adjourn as one of the accused is unwell]( Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng granted an order to the head of the Lueewkop prison for Fisokuhle Ntuli to be examined by a doctor [// Read more]( [IFP founder Mangosuthu Buthelezi awarded a category one state funeral]( Flags will fly at half mast on government buildings until after the Zulu prime minister is buried [// Read more]( Pic of the day (John McCann/M&G) [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( Mail & Guardian Media LTD · 25 Owl St · Braamfontein · Johannesburg, Gauteng 2001 · South Africa