MINDS founder and executive chairperson Nkosana Moyo says there is a need for a rule-based society to address many of the country’s political and socio-economic ills.
He said this in his presentation at the Ideas Festival conference held in Nyanga, organised by the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) chairman Trevor Ncube through his In Conversation with Trevor programme.
AMH is the publisher of dailies NewsDay and Southern Eye, weeklies The Standard and Zimbabwe Independent.
The country’s biggest private media firm also runs an online broadcast station Heart & Soul.
Moyo said a rules-based society will ensure a return to the rule of law.
“So, let us start with a good society. A good society I think is very easy to prescribe,” Moyo said.
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“Our challenges are bigger as the society grows, either country level, regional level, or global level. That is where we start making instructions.
“All of a sudden, there are a lot of pinching points. Law and order are part of the way we can build a good society, to form a rules-based society.”
He said a rules-based society will ensure predictability and consequences of any transgressions.
“And the people in administration, the committee we select, is a committee that clearly understands they do own anything, that everyone owns the club, and that they are administering on our behalf. What does that mean? It simply means there has to be a mechanism, a concrete way to lead to existence.”
Chartered accountant and governance expert Nyasha Zhou weighed in, saying this will also enable Zimbabwe to tackle widespread corruption.
Zhou said Zimbabweans should return to the principles of ethics and integrity.
“It is time that we need to go back to our adolescence and what our mothers taught us. It is not about the value, it is about the principle,” he said.
“If it is not yours, take it back. Your parents would probably text or call your teacher and say, teacher, this young man brought a pen that is not his, can you find out who it belongs to? We need to go back to the basics. That is what integrity and ethics are all about."
Zhou also noted the need for self-realisation and reflection grounded on ethics and integrity.
“In addition to the anti-corruption, if you go and Google, there are seven other anti-corruption legislations before that,” he said.
“It is not about the quantity of arrests and the legislation; it is the self-realisation by you and I that I should not steal a pencil and much more.
“The law is made for a few very tiny, small groups of people that are uncontrollable, not for the majority.”
He added: “What is fundamentally important is personal reformation, for one to have a basic understanding of what their values are, what your principles are and what you live by them.
“It does not matter what laws are put up and so forth. For as long as you yourself, what you contain in your person is not clean, it is going to be something else.”