The Sunday Mail
Lovemore Ranga Mataire
In the last three years or so, Southern Africa has been experiencing leadership renewal, particularly within former liberation movements.
Since 2015, younger cadres have been taking over the reins of leadership, a development observers attribute to a new youthful demographic outlook.
Interestingly, the majority of them have roots in their respective nations’ liberation from imperial control.
But they exhibit a marked difference in that their focus is more on economics and less on populist rhetoric.
This league appears smarter, too; embracing new technologies like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.
There seems to be undeniable awareness amongst the new leadership of the imperative of bringing the post-liberation constituency into the fold.
And this constituency mainly comprises “born-frees” who are more amenable to global connectedness and working economies in which their various skills flourish.
In Mozambique, the ruling Frelimo party has led the way in constantly renewing leadership, with preference being much younger cadreship.
Mozambican President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi was elected in 2015, replacing Armando Emilio Guebuza.
President Nyusi is 59 years old while his predecessor is 16 years older.
He joined Frelimo at the age of 14, a party that both his parents were veterans of.
He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree (Brno University of Technology, Czechoslovakia) and a post-graduate degree in management (Victoria University of Manchester, Britain).
In power for nearly three years, President Nyusi is considered a man of the people.
From humble beginnings in the north of Mozambique, his mandate has been to continue his predecessor’s work and oversee foreign investment inflows and development of strategic national resources.
President Nyusi is said to be technologically adept and has vibrant Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Angola’s new leader, President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, 63 years old; is relatively young, just like President Nyusi.
President Lourenço grew up in a politically-engaged family of 10 children.
His father, Sequeira Joao Lourenço, was of the Malanje ethnic group and a nationalist who served three years’ imprisonment in Portuguese Angola for “illegal” political activities.
His mother was a seamstress of the Namibe group.
Like President Nyusi, the Angolan leader is also a former Defence Minister considered to be a loyal MPLA party soldier.
He once served as governor in several provinces of Angola, and between 1992 and 1997 and was at one time the information tsar in the MPLA’s Politburo.
He later served as the party’s secretary- general for several years.
At the time of his elevation, Lourenço was the deputy president of the governing MPLA and a defence minister.
A technically minded individual, President Lourenço did not waste time in enunciating his vision which is focused on economic delivery and curbing corruption.
Like President Nyusi of Mozambique, President Lourenco has effectively used his Twitter handle “João Lourenço (@cdajoaolourenco)”, to disseminate his messages to the public, a clear awareness to reach out to a larger audience that now depends more on mediated information.
True to his word, within three months of taking power, the Angolan leader moved swiftly in effecting changes to state-owned company Sonangol.
He quickly appointed a new crop of new ministers to differentiate himself from Dos Santos and replaced key security personnel.
In his bid to further consolidate his grip on power, President Lourenço has already started implementing an ambitious six-month plan that includes consolidating taxes, limiting public debt, improving productivity and attracting foreign direct investment.
There is less populist rhetoric as he moves to change the country’s fortunes and address more pressing issues. President Lourenco’s firm tackle on corruption and largesse tendencies resonates well with Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa’s resolve that there will be no sacred cows as the country transit to a new era.
During his campaign, President Lourenço made it clear that “No one will be above the law . . .” and that “he will be the only President”.
Although slightly older than his Mozambican and Angolan counterparts, President Mnangagwa (75), has already shown that he is no prisoner of history.
While he appreciates and cherishes the country’s rich historical trajectory and that of Zanu-PF as a party of liberation, he realises the urgent need to address bread and butter issues. In his first public address after returning from exile in South Africa, President Mnangagwa made it clear that his biggest challenge was to grow the economy and create jobs.
“Today, we are witnessing the beginning of a new and unfolding democracy,” he told the thousands who had gathered to welcome him home.
His brief stint in the Diaspora may have enhanced his appreciation of the social media as a communication tool that can reach a wide audience. His message promising to come back was widely circulated on social media and became viral within a short space of time.
In an interview with a local journalist, President Mnangagwa could neither deny nor confirm that he has a Facebook account or Twitter handle in his name.
He jokingly said that if positive comments are posted, then it’s his, but if the comments are negative, it’s not.
It would be good if the Twitter handle is verified so that his legion of supporters can freely interact with him.
President Mnangagwa has expressed keenness in reshaping Zimbabwe into a more inclusive nation across the lines of race and political affiliation. His vision includes re-engagement with the international community.
Popularly known as ED, the President has impeccable liberation credentials but is quite aware of the exasperation of his people to deliver the promised milk and honey.
ED’s quest for an economic turnaround and using all communication tools at his disposal to drum up his vision seem to be shared by his Namibian counterpart, President Hage Geingob.
Riding on the wave of his “No Namibian will be left behind”, Geingob has declared poverty as number one enemy. According to President Geingob, the mark of a leader is the ability to create a vision for his people and get them to believe in that vision.
A greater amount of time during his first year as president was committed to outlining his vision, which saw a lot of induction seminars for ministers, deputy ministers and permanent secretaries. The officials were taken through good governance and ethics, poverty eradication and reduction of income disparity, accelerated economic growth, job creation and rapid industrialisation.
Just like ED, Geingob requested all ministers to prepare declarations of intent, in line with government goals and objectives of Vision 2030. President Mnangagwa has given his ministers a 100 days ultimatum to have achieved something tangible in their respective areas.
Geingob has given performance contracts for all ministers, including performance agreements at civil servant level, through the Office of the Prime Minister.
Like Nyusi of Mozambique, Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe and Lourenco of Angola, President Geingob has committed himself to transparency and zero tolerance of corruption.
As proof of his serious intent, Geingob publicly declared his assets and that of his wife, an act that improved the country’s ratings on the transparency index.
But that’s not all. Geingob is an advocate of social media with a Twitter handle that has a huge following of 85 600.
The Twitter account is constantly updated with his most recent engagements including policy pronouncements.
His government recently approved the Social Media Use Policy which provides for a unified and standard way of using social media by government communications.
The policy was necessitated by the realisation of the empowering nature of social media on individuals and the need for government to influence political agendas and policy process.
While the Namibian government has been slow in being active on social media, President Geingob’s personal social media pages have been a vehicle for collective action and first-hand information, where he interacts directly with communities and individuals. Besides enunciating the social media policy, Geingob’s government has approved the Government Communication Plan, which was submitted by the ICT ministry, as a working government document to provide information to the public, in order to create an open and transparent government. Across the border, incoming South Africa’s African National Congress president Cyril Ramaphosa is also a social media enthusiast. His Twitter handle has 49 100 followers and was quick to congratulate the ANC for holding a successful congress.
At 65, Ramaphosa is much in tune in understanding the needs of his people, particularly those born in the post-apartheid era. He is a former trade unionist who later became a businessman and understand the need for transmitting messages in real time through social media.
In his maiden speech at the end of a five-day meeting where he was elected president of ANC, Ramaphosa said he aims at expediting job creation, improving the lacklustre economy and speeding up the transfer of land to black people.
Despite being an ardent supporter of social media, Ramaphosa is also conscious of the possible damage the platforms can cause because of their apparent unregulated operations.
Ramaphosa himself has in the past been a victim of a social media smear campaign were purported questions from a Sunday newspaper in South Africa circulated some information about his personal life.
The SA deputy president had to respond through the same platform, describing the emails as a deliberate campaign to smear him by distorting personal email correspondence that could only have been obtained through criminal means.
That as it may, Ramaphosa believes the benefits of social media far outweigh the negatives as evidenced by his campaign to NASREC, which was marshalled through social media platforms.
And one of the older leaders in the region, Prof Peter Mutharika (77) of Malawi, is also not behind in utilising social media for widespread dissemination of information.
Although his followers pale in the shadow compared with other regional leaders, there is no doubt that the Malawian leader takes social media seriously.
His Twitter account currently has 2 327 followers with 600 tweets.
Prof Mutharika also has a Facebook page with 59 789 followers, a big number that assures him of a larger virtual audience.
By far the most active Head of State on social media in the Sadc region is Seretse Khama Ian Khama who at 65 years is adept at using his Twitter or Facebook page to mock opponents or announce major government policies.
His government also has Twitter and Facebook pages, including all government ministries.
Zambia’s Edgar Chagwa Lungu (61) boasts 6 837 followers on his official Twitter handle, with 591 345 people following him on Facebook, ni mean feat for a seating African Head of State.
Social media is the buzzword in Zambia, with lots of people addicted to it.
Many government officials, including President Lungu, have urged public, community and private media to embrace social media to reach out to people.
Outside the region, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Paul Kagame of Rwanda are known for using social media to update their people of various initiatives they are undertaking.
