The contemporary state is a creature whose conception comes from the basic concept of the social contract. All citizens collectively empower the state both legally and morally to act as an institution mandated with crafting the rules by which society functions. The state has the supreme role to see to it that rules are adhered. The state will then act as the legitimate instrument of coercion.

The substantial threat to the social contract emanates from the fact that the state is an inert instrument thus incapable of functioning alone, but through the efforts of its few citizens who are selected based on an agreed democratic formula. The rule of law also called supremacy of law is a legal and moral thinking according to which decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws, without the intervention of discretion in their application. The maxim is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance.

The concept of the rule of law speaks not about justice but how the legal system upholds the law. The rule of law is both a moral and legal issue. To some contemporary thinkers, the rule of law is a prerequisite for democracy, peace and economic prosperity. According to these thinkers, it is the extent to which agents have confidence and abide by the quality of contract enforcement and justice.

The privileged subjects of the state who are entrusted with the power to conduct the business of the state cannot therefore exercise arbitrary rule or the rule at variance from the basic rules and the morality that the citizens of the state opted for. This unfortunate state of abrogation of the rule of law and excessive application of the law on fellow citizens in a postcolonial Zimbabwe have bred a humanitarian disaster, political crisis and the economic decadence that Zimbabwe has endured for the past decade.

The recent human loss due to curable diseases such as cholera; violence against women and malnutrition amongst children are all products of a calculated assault on the rule of law by a privileged minority.

The signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) despite its noble intentions brought with it over 100 white owned farms being invaded by a cabal of people bent on selfish ends. This shows that the crux of the food shortages and economic decadence has been our consistent and expanded actions in ‘property rights vandalism’. All concerned individuals must challenge this brand of economic redistribution marred by lack of observance of the rule of law. The efficacy of property rights vandalism by a few cabal of officials linked to Zanu PF should be interrogated and intellectually challenged.

Property rights refer to the farmers’ right to use, modify, control and benefit the rent from the farm. These rights provide responsibility to the farmer to manage the farm in a sustainable format; it also helps to allocate costs and revenue to the title holders. The property rights concept is gateway to international financing, laying the foundation for financial intermediation and infrastructure.

It is thus equally difficult for the agricultural sector to be revived without developmental financing. The link to developmental financing is developing an institutional quality which guarantees and allows our farmers to take credit while using land titles as guarantee in case of loan default.

These dynamics posit that property rights as an institutional quality are important in order to achieve a revival of our battered agricultural sector; guarantee to investors that their investments in future will be safe and secure and give investors the drive to expand their productive capacity. The observance of property rights is also a modern future of a national brand that investor’s fall over each other in pouring and mobilizing their productive capacities.

Zimbabwe's food shortages and massive de-industrialization are a calculated assault on poor Zimbabweans by few minorities mandated to govern. The framework of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which put the inclusive government into effect provides Zimbabweans with an opportunity which forever we must utilize.

The platform and provision that the constitution or the supreme document governing the country be re-written within twenty four months of the office of this compromise administration and the fact that Zanu PF's power in government has been diluted should be utilized by all well-meaning citizens to craft the ideal Zimbabwe we want. Intense debate about the nature of the constitution in all spheres be they in cabinet, parliament and even in streets should be nurtured and consistently encouraged.

Ordinary men and women who have endured the effects of property rights vandalism must stand up and proclaim that never shall Zimbabwe be a banana republic. Respect for property rights should be at the core of any legal and moral underpinnings for Zimbabwe’s recovery from the current socio-economic quagmire. We have allowed ourselves to be victims of a few unelected cabals’ actions. Consequently civil society and all political actors must mobilize for this momentous process and never shall Zimbabwe miss this glorious opportunity to mend itself of its economic wounds.

Hillary Kundishora is a Zimbabwean based Strategist and Agronomist. (He writes in his personal capacity)