Nobody benefits from violence in the country

There is no doubt that violence has a place in real political life. A typical strongman will liberally mention the availability and invincibility of ‘his’ army and threaten to crash whoever threatens his regime.

 Whenever the need arises, the promise is carried out with such dexterity that it leaves even the most unshakable of doubters, in belief.

What is intriguing about violent regimes is that despite the fact that they are apparently dominant, vibrant and robust and tend to last long, they have no future beyond the individuals that sponsor or found them.

To craft a government basing on violence is a very well thought out and implemented scheme. It involves not only the physical use of force to suppress divergent thinking ,but also underhand methods to intimidate, isolate and make vulnerable all those that are deemed a threat to it. 

In doing so, there is also an effort to make a violent government appear larger than life. It involves re-writing of history, embellishments and outright lies that make the government an unassailable juggernaut. 

After those that resist it have been eliminated or sent into exile, there is a re-distribution of economic power. The aim is to put the government firmly in the middle of most activities as a ‘spoiler’ of sorts.

 Ironically, even if they tout and follow the path of market economics, the major characteristic is to phase out economic activity that is independent of the government. 

So the cooperative societies, which are a private initiative, are restricted or removed and replaced. Farmers are left vulnerable and exposed to exploitative middlemen most of whom have a relationship with the government. The farmers and fishermen then have to recognise the importance of having a good subservient relationship with the government. 

Next, it emphasises commerce and trade as being more suitably practiced by foreign investors as opposed to locals. So the bulk of the economy steadily moves out of the hands of locals. 

The new kids on the block are shielded with all manner of preferential policies and practices that are not available to the locals.

 They reciprocate by availing funds to the government whenever called upon.
Then the State is rearranged. Its independence vanishes. You have a Judiciary that is padded with devotees who do the bidding of the government. 

The Legislature goes to those who can ‘work with the government’ for development as opposed to an independent oversight body. The army, police and the Public Service is then staffed, based on loyalty as opposed to competence. 

A system is created where for anything to move, one must know either the President (who is now the State) or someone high up. For individuals to survive in such an environment, it is smart to play along as a praise singer even if one disagrees with the system.  

The end result is that the system does not reflect reality. It has no honest critical thinkers to guide it.

 It is full of self-seekers, political, economic, social climbers and sycophants looking for meal tickets, school fees for their children and funding to take them to hospitals abroad to treat their aging bodies. 

Their focus is the violent government which has the authority to influence tenders and job placements. It also offers opportunities for corruption and abuse of public finance. 

This can then be used to facilitate political and economic domination and marginalisation. The proceeds of the corrupt may be used to facilitate land grabbing or buying it with pressure, at throw away prices. 

When many people are cowed, the government can then concentrate its high handedness on the non-compliant. 

The rest of society will either keep quiet about these excesses or justify them as being the comeuppance reserved for hooligans and the unpatriotic.

The problem with such a set up where the rulers are surrounded by yes men and women, is that the rulers are blinded from reality. The cancers that afflict society keep growing to a point where they become so malignant that they outweigh the capacity of the government to solve them.

 They can only respond by shooting and jailing the young unemployed urban youth who have become impatient and violent in attempting to establish their existential well-being and the cycle continues. Like all things, one fine day there will be a breaking point.

 At such a time, the government will need real military generals to deal with fluid situations but will only have loyalists who will be thinking more about their own safety as the pressure mounts. They will flee leaving the one they previously called ‘irreplacable,’ to his own devices. Others will shift allegiance like Judas in the Bible.  

When the hitherto powerful Libyan leader  Muammar Gaddafi, the self-proclaimed African King of Kings, was nearing his end, he run to a trench in the desert with a handful of men guarding him.

 All his tanks, jet fighters, all his generals and the legions of men had fled or were dead. Gaddafi cried to ordinary men to spare him for he had not wronged them!

The same happened to Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. Lt Col Nzimbi, one of the trusted officers of the presidential guard, had positioned snipers at the airport with orders to shoot down the plane of the fleeing Mobutu.

When Mobutu landed on his way out of Zaire he got to know what exactly happened. The Field Marshal, who was being abandoned like rats do to a sinking ship rhetorically asked his handlers, ‘even Nzimbi?’ He then burst out and cried like a baby suffering from colic.  It always ends in tears.

Twitter: @nsengoba