Global Changemakers

On 6 May 2010, the WEF brought together Robert Mugabe, Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai in the session “The Future of Zimbabwe”. Also in attendance: Bongani Ncube, a Global Changemaker from Zimbabwe. Read his thoughts on the session and on speaking up in front of his country’s leaders.

What did I say when the Director of the World Economic Forum Africa asked whether I thought it was a good idea to have Robert Mugabe (the President of Zimbabwe), Morgan Tsvangirai (the Prime Minister) and Arthur Mutambara (the Deputy Prime Minister) sit on a session together? I said yes! After all I am a Changemaker. When she now asked whether I would like to sit on the panel I gulped and said, “I could do that”. We shall never know whether I was trying to convince her or myself.

And that’s how those two answers got me standing in a room in front of a packed room with the President and the Prime Ministers. That of course and being a British Council Global Changemaker. Lots of stuff was running through my head to be honest, I am Zimbabwean so you have to understand that in this moment I stood there with all the Zimbabwean youth who had amongst other things bought toothbrushes for ten million dollars; who had watched their country go to hell and back. But then again I stood there as a youth who had watched these two men who had fought for the past decade, two of whom had been jailed and beaten up under the watch of the one, as someone who had never thought the sun would rise on them sitting just in front of me and talking forcefully about the future of “our” Zimbabwe.

And I remember as Robert Mugabe finished speaking he picked up his microphone and turned over to hand it to Morgan Tsvangirai not realising that Tsvangirai already had his own. Wow. When the question came from Julie, the discussion leader; what did I think as a youth about the current situation in Zimbabwe I spoke about that? I told the world that the three men had shown something bigger than the petty political fighting that had almost torn Zimbabwe by the seams; they had given us something to believe in, that they had set the foundation for something to aspire and hold on to. Perhaps I was a bit too optimistic but in the greater scheme of things, it is the vision that countries are driven by more than the people who populate the halls of power; it is when leaders are prepared to sacrifice enough for their countries that hope is born, especially in a country that had not very long ago been bereft of all hope.

But there is always a “but”. I turned to them and challenged them. (Gulp). It was only the beginning, it wasn’t enough, it was just a start and nothing more. They had to buck up and take it further, push it to the maximum, compromise if they had to, look to the Swiss if they needed to (who else in the world votes about everything!). But on a serious note I was afraid that they would pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves on the great job they had done because in the end that great job should lead to more concrete results. It was only a temporary measure in a situation which had left very few other choices.

And then the moderator asked another question; What did I see as the vision of Zimbabwe? Just that very morning the five of us; Eddie, Alex, Mahmud, Kemy and I had attended a breakfast meeting with Graça Machel and she had turned to us and said that as Africans the answer to our problems was ourselves. So I smiled because the answer was immediate, “I am a solution and I believe in myself and all the youth in my country; we will make it no matter what.” In a way, to quote a London Economist, Zimbabwe is doomed to succeed.

(For more on WEF Africa and the session “The Future of Zimbabwe”, check out this post.)