NOW that there is the real possibility of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai taking over from Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, there is a critical political question that must be answered.
It is a question that few have asked, principally because Mugabe appeared to be holding onto power in perpetuity.
There is still the possibility that Mugabe will find a way to stay in power, but that should not stop us from raising this issue.
The question that must be asked about Morgan Tsvangirai is quite simply this: Does he have the policies and the personality to lead Zimbabwe out of the Mugabe morass?
More specifically: Does can he fashion an economic policy direction that will return Zimbabwe’s most vital sector, agriculture, to normality.
To do this he will have to find a creative way of dealing with Mugabe’s land redistribution programme.
It will be easy enough to return farms taken by Mugabe’s cronies for self-engrandisment, but more tricky will be unscrambling the larger redistribution programme.
Tsvangirai will have to win the confidence of the farming sector and of those given farms under Mugabe’s patronage if he is to find a “third way” which embraces transformation, but not at the expense of productivity.
A failure to deal with this central question will accelerate Zimbabwe’s economic decline and Tsvangirai will find himself embattled.
So far, we have seen very little from Tsvangirai on policy. A charitable interpretation would be that he has not exactly been afforded a platform from which to elaborate his thinking.
Less charitable would be the view that he does not have the answers on economic policy and that he finds himself beholden to his trade union base (he rose to prominence as a union leader).
He must begin to chart a way forward.

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