The Struggle for Economic Freedom and Justice

Apparently when you become an advocate for justice, you sign a life time commitment to fight for human freedoms, economic emancipation and their rights in life. I independently chose this path a few years ago, and the challenges that lie ahead are beyond my wildest imagination. In 1980, I never imagined in future I would ever be on the opposite side of any of our leaders, especially those I recognised as our liberator’s, but I guess with responsibility comes free will. Free will enables individuals to make choices between good or bad decisions, however once they have used their free will and made a decision, if in any way the result of that choice causes harm or injury to another human, they are morally responsible to accept the punishment for their free will actions. When we see someone in a life threatening situation, it is our moral responsibility to help them to survive, but we independently have the free will to choose that moral decision or act unethically in an immoral way.

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. ‘International human rights law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.’

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems.

Nowadays organizations and society are concerned about unethical behaviour. One type of unethical behaviour common in African governance and management is crimes of obedience, where followers are influenced by a leader to engage in behaviour they would otherwise consider unethical. People who see themselves as leadership material and hold leaders in high esteem are more likely to view leaders as having more responsibility for ethical decisions and behaviours than followers. Consequently, such persons when placed in a follower position may be more susceptible to commit crimes of obedience through the process of moral disengagement by displacing responsibility for their behaviour onto the leader.

Research findings indicate correlations between moral disengagement levels and individual differences such as locus of control, sympathy, social dominance orientation, and cynicism (Baker, Detert, & Trevino, 2006); academic efficacy and self-regulatory efficacy (Bandura, Caprara, Barbaranelli, Pastorelli, & Regalia, 2001); and demographic characteristics such as gender and age (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, & Pastorelli, 1996). The moral disengagement mechanism that is particularly applicable to crimes of obedience is the displacement or diffusion of responsibility (Bandura, 1999a; Wood & Bandura, 1989). Followers who obey unethical orders from a leader may do so because moral disengagement through the displacement or diffusion of responsibility is facilitated by their belief that followers are less responsible than leaders for the consequences of their actions.

I have chosen to include this academic research finding into my blog article today as I have found it effective in translating the Zimbabwean leadership - follower scenario. Our society has gradually accepted and in some cases adopted a corrupt system of governance supported by a morally unjust culture full of greed and deceit. Perhaps my statement may be a bit harsh to those amongst us who still struggle to build a morally cohesive society that believes in the values of ‘ubuntu’’chivanhu’. So perhaps the justice we seek now is actually beyond just leadership, we should re-examine ourselves as citizens of one nation, our relationship and understanding of our shared values and beliefs.

Do we actually have a cohesive society that understands the basics of family and neighbour relations? Are we actually respecting each other as citizens of one nation and the world? I fear our society has been polluted and infested with negativity associated with class divisions, race, and tribe, political affiliation, rich and poor. I do not believe we are doing enough to rectify these destructive classifications in our society. This is not the sole duty of community leaders, our reliance on leadership for direction has made us dependant and less innovative and productive.

Those progressing are either capitalising on these destructive elements or have simple chosen to manipulate the situation in their favour. Economic empowerment will not be handed to anyone on a silver plate; we have to demand a fair and just system that can provide fair opportunities for growth and development of all members of our society, we don’t need selective justice based on classification or affiliation.

“Ultimately economic freedom and justice will be brought about by a united people acting together for a common good, not individual leaders as has been the traditional approach. Only when people can fully utilise their combined power to demand justice will we have the socio-economic environment we want to see. There’s too much power in the hands of a few men.”

Blame vs. Accountability

In the last few years I have been involved in several public debates and have noticed a very strong blame culture come to life that has somehow done little to address current problems faced by Zimbabwean society. As I write this article I automatically become a victim of such a culture as I attempt to identify the causes and possible solutions around this seemingly never ending thought process that has been strengthened by our current leaders since independence. How many times in the last 30 years have you heard the word 'colonialism', 'imperialism', 'tribalism', 'neo-colonialism' and all the other isms? I'm sure we all know that those words have been associated with some kind of negativity affecting Africans and other developing countries, but has the continuous use of the words changed anything? Has the use of the words changed our socio-economic environments to benefit a broader society? Is blaming the past in-consistences going to fix the present in-consistences? I think history has taught us a lot of sad stories about the past but should we continuously dig the past in order to create a better future? Well I'll leave you to be your own judge to those questions, we are all obviously motivated by different things in life, if constantly being reminded about the negative past drives your work output or general outlook on life then let it be, however I believe positive thoughts influence positive actions.

I have through time realised that this constant investigation into our past develops a loop to the problems we currently face, as in most cases no one is prepared to take responsibility or more so accept that a particular group is responsible for creating the problem in the first place thereby forcing it to spiral on a continuous endless loop..

‘When problems occur, we are likely to start looking for someone to blame before we start looking for a solution.’

Let us analyse the difference between blame and accountability, accountability is holding someone responsible for an action, whereas blame is more associated with accusation. Blame also induces fear, which I think explains the Zimbabwean leadership crisis and political impasse which has been caused as a result of past wrongs, be it human right violations to corrupt governance. Because of these existing and constant accusations from the past, our leaders fear has been transformed to a violent defensive action to resist any change demanded by the people of Zimbabwe.

The difference between blame and accountability is particularly significant in political governance issues and the traditional work place. Fear can induce a person to work, but it cannot cultivate enthusiasm. A good example of this type of fear is common in public servants who have been highly politicised especially security services where service delivery is based on orders, which in most cases are punishable if not followed. Fear can also put a person off entirely especially in circumstances where a safe and open environment for protest does not exist. Unfortunately, blame doesn’t stop at hurting someone. It has the potential to seriously damage a career or a relationship. Fear of being blamed holds people back from acknowledging their mistakes or shortcomings and also destroys opportunities to learn from them. This I believe has been Zimbabwe’s greatest challenge where senior government officials have too many skeletons (wrongs) hanging in the closets and therefore fear leaving their positions of authority and power out of fear of prosecution for past offences committed whilst in official government service.

A more productive approach would be to hold people accountable if necessary create legislation to enforce this. In the case of governments accountability would require a non-partisan enforcement agency that cannot be influenced by political leadership. If a mistake is made, it should be acknowledged so that a lesson can be learned for the future. People rarely get fired for making a few small mistakes, but they do lose their jobs if they go on making the same mistakes over and over again. The challenge for new leadership lies in changing this blame culture to a more accountable system of governance, this obviously will require a complete over-haul of public service systems through reforming of the politicised public services so that law enforcement can take place without any outside interference hopefully creating a more respectable society regardless of any individuals social status or authority (position in society).

If we held our leaders accountable they wouldn’t feel like they were being blamed but rather held responsible for their actions. Blaming is malicious and has the capacity to injure. Injury leads to lies and deceit as the blamed attempt to defend and justify their actions. Holding someone accountable, on the other hand, requires the person to take responsibility. The biggest difference between the two approaches is their effectiveness when it comes to encouraging error creator to learn from the problems so that future mistakes can be avoided. 

Fear of getting blamed prevents new thoughts (creativity) and ideas from taking wing. How we hate to hear someone say, “This sounds like a good idea, but if it backfires, you will be solely responsible!” Comments like this very effectively nip new ideas in the bud. But with some minor linguistic changes, the same sentiment can be expressed in an encouraging manner. What I’m trying to say is the language used by our media to describe negative events though sincere may actually turn out to be very intimidating and quite scary to someone with great responsibility and power involved in those negative events. The result becomes the power of the pen (Media) and voice (people) versus the power of authority (politician) and force (Military) which equals dictatorship or continuous socio-economic instability.

Conclusively mistakes cannot be ignored, nor can we gloss over them with evasive language. Ultimately it is important to face mistakes and learn from them. Mistakes must contribute to the quest for perfection and growth. Blaming someone for a mistake allows neither of these things to happen. In the process, it tears down existing structures of confidence and passion-vital ingredients for professional development. It's time for a progressive culture, one that seeks solutions based on analysing past mistakes.

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” ~Albert Ellis