07 Jul 2022

Delegates to an international summit on constitutionalism and democratic consolidation in Africa have lamented that the continent had reverted to military coups and dictatorships.

Speaking during the summit held in Gaborone Wednesday, they said the wave of change which saw a number of countries embracing democracy had vanished.

 Concurring that democracy in the continent had dropped, different speakers sought to explain the current state of affairs in Africa.

In a statement read on her behalf, former Malawian president Ms Joyce Banda said the dearth of democracy was mainly attributable to economic failure and ethnicity.

Ms Banda, whose country celebrated its independence and 28 years of democracy on Wednesday, said democratic governance collapsed due to poverty.She said ‘democracy and poverty cannot go hand in hand’ because people expected their livelihoods to improve under democratic regimes.

“When people’s lives are not improved, they become frustrated and this leads people to lose faith in the regime,” she said.

Another factor blamed for the demise of democracy was ethnicity. Rwanda,  where tribalism led to a genocide in 1994, being a case in point. 

Democracy  and ethnicity were incompatible, Ms Banda said.

She said democracy in Africa was externally driven by the West and as such did not have a strong foundation.

African regimes embraced democracy because it was a prerequisite for receiving aid from developed countries, said the former Malawian leader.

In addition, she said democracy in Africa was based on weak institutions coupled with opposition parties incapable of challenging ruling parties.

Ms Banda said colonialism paved the way for transition into one-party states masquerading as democracy.

Elections in Africa had been controversial, marred by violence, intimidation and manipulation of voters’ rolls, she said.

Ms Banda said time had come for Africa to interrogate itself on whether democracy had ever existed in the continent.

She called for the empowerment of young people and  inculcation of democratic culture in them.

Ms Banda echoed President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s sentiments  that democracy needed strong institutions rather than strong men and women.

 Another speaker, Mr Siphosami Malunga of Zimbabwe, stated that Africa had never experienced democracy saying even the transition from colonialism was not democratic.

 Colonial governments were not democratic and only came to Africa to extract natural resources and when Africans took over, they inherited colonial institutions, he saidAccording to Mr Malunga, the majority of  Africa’s ruling parties were pre-independence liberation movements.

Those ruling parties knew they could never lose elections as they controlled everything, he said adding, ‘this is not democracy’. 

Mr Malunga said in Africa, it was known that a government could not lose elections it organised. 

He said democracy in Africa had been imposed by international donors.African countries, he said, should develop at their own pace measuring their progress against fellow Africans instead of  benchmarking against the West.

Mr Malunga advised that while emulating others, African countries should only copy the good.ENDS