Zimbabwe and ZANU-PF's continuing hegemony: Meet the new boss same as the old boss (original) (raw)
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Since the attainment of independence ZANU PF, a liberation party, has been at the helm of government and decision-making in Zimbabwe. Despite the emergence of opposition political parties, the party has maintained its grip on power. The turn of the new millennium saw the emergence of a strong opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and independent candidates that gave a strong challenge to ZANU PF dominance. In essence, despite this challenge ZANU PF has maintained a tight grip on power, claiming to use democratic means to retain its power. It is the purpose of this paper to provide an analysis of survival strategies adopted by ZANU PF in entrenching and sustaining itself in power in the face of opposition forces, not only those outside the ZANU PF environment but also in intra-party opposition. As the paper argues, there are a number of factors that have led to the dominance of ZANU PF ranging from issues of political culture not only in ZANU PF but also within the Zimbabwe populace to issues of using a stick and carrot approach. In the final analysis, the paper will posit on the future of not only ZANU PF but Zimbabwean politics in general particularly in the face of the continuing deepening crisis.
Bsc Thesis, 2016
Political systems and processes in Zimbabwe have attracted much commentary and attention in the world over, with much attention hinged and fixated on elections and the amassment of political hegemony by ZANU PF despite ruling in a dire state of a crippled and plummeting economy that should be inciting social and political dissent. Elections are associated with vote rigging, political violence and unscrupulous political activities that range from appointment of party loyalist in key, strategic and influential positions that define and determine politics of the day. The cry has been that such appointments have been in electoral and state institutions that have the mandate to necessitate democratic transition, the partisan appointments have led to a manifestation of the hiring of white collar electoral fraudsters who miraculously Nikuv elections to the favour of the mostly contested hegemonic political player ZANU PF. This study adopted a qualitative approach to its gathering of information regarding the hegemony of ZANU PF in Zimbabwe’s political experiences and processes, in its qualitative nature it attempted to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and factors driving the political happenings and establish how people interpret the hegemony of ZANU PF, the interpretation of the Zimbabweans’ perception of the state of affairs was thereby established through the use of questionnaires and focus group discussions that showed a true reflection of the political realities on the ground with the aid of purposive sampling. Established was that the hegemony of ZANU PF is convolutedly tied to the lack of political resilience and charisma amongst opposition parties, incompetent political parties, partisan legal systems that favor the incumbent, and general stateism. Strategically, with a great level of political astuteness, ZANU PF has seemingly been identified with using the containment-elimination approach in gobbling up its political opponents and adopting a political illusory approach to deceive its opposition by creating facades of democracy that hinder a transition of political power through elections. Notwithstanding, Zimbabwe needs to thoroughly nuture political leadership in schools, and political parties, and if necessary establish political academies to help inculcate a spirit of political leadership for political competition to be feasibly witnessed in Zimbabwe’s democratic transition story
Zimbabwe Now: The Political Economy of Crisis and Coercion
Historical Materialism, 2004
consensus; and the limitations of postcolonial development in the context of globalisation. The first of these questions has recently been examined elsewhere, 2 and the details are not repeated here beyond noting both their international significance and the marked success enjoyed by Mugabe in presenting the Zimbabwe crisis as externally generated and driven. Instead, this paper will focus on what might be termed the complementary dynamics of domestic tyranny and developmental collapse.
Development denied: Autocratic militarism in post-election Zimbabwe
Review of African Political Economy, 2005
This article examines the recent ideological position of 'Vote for Development' which the ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe pursued during the election campaign of March 2005, and the brief period of freer expression that accompanied the campaign. This strategy of power, the willingness to seemingly embrace democratic process, is then compared with the postelection situation in Zimbabwe, where despite having entrenched themselves in government, the ZANU-PF leadership is conducting a campaign to destroy the infrastructural, physical, economic and social assets of the urban poor. I review the 'Operation Restore Order' against informal traders, and the 'Operation Murambatsvina' ('Operation Clear Away the Trash' -or grime, rubbish, filth) of 25 May to early July 2005 against peoples homes, and ask how we can categorise the Zimbabwean state in its contemporary, seemingly contradictory, form.
Life after Mugabe(ism): the Legitimacy of Mugabeism in Contemporary Zimbabwe
This paper questions the legitimacy of Mugabeism in contemporary International Relations (IR). It aims to form part of an answer to the question of what Zimbabwe will look like when Mugabe is no longer at the helm. It presents the argument that contemporary Zimbabwe operates within a postcolonial context and that Mugabeism must accept and adapt to this ‘new Zimbabwe’, where isolation from the West and from external influences is no longer feasible. The paper argues that Zimbabwean identity is fluid and responds to both internal and external pressures, something which Mugabeism does not fully recognise. Therefore, in view of recent trends (among these the proliferation of communication technology and social media; the emergence of a global civil society; the size and influence of Zimbabwe’s diaspora), Mugabeism has to learn to embrace the ‘other’ (which is often referred to as the West, people living in the West and those ideas which are identified with the West), evolve and adapt in order to be legitimate in contemporary IR. This will place Zimbabwe in a position where it is able to contribute to, as well as benefit from the international system, instead of remaining a pariah.
Zimbabwe Political Analysis Quarter 1, 2015
If viewed in the broader context, the recent decision by the Movement for Democratic Change to recall members of Parliament under Section 129 (1) (k) of the constitution has significantly impacted on the democratisation agenda in Zimbabwe. The malaise within the MDC is symptomatic of the general attrition on the Zimbabwe democratisation agenda across the board. The international community’s lack of confidence in the MDC represents challenges of the first wave of democratisation in Africa’s protracted transitions. Zimbabwe’s resurgence within the region makes it even harder to engage the African region on Zimbabwe. The lack of consensus on policy approaches within the Fishmongers Group is indicative of a crisis of confidence and retrenchment of the democratic idea. The reluctance of the community of democracies to further entrench the democratic idea has emboldened illiberalism as seen in the surge of Chinese pervasive soft power in diplomatic, political, economic, intelligence and military spheres. While blocs such as the European Union and North America have adhered to the international rule of law by engaging on the basis of limited instruments undergird by human rights imperatives, China, for example, engages without reference to international norms and standards. This article examines the current international and domestic constraints, opportunities and scenarios in light of the current developments in Zimbabwe. It examines various presenting challenges in forging a path to the future. It seeks to develop a stronger, analytical and conceptual understanding of the political problems in Zimbabwe. It examines the attrition that normally beset counter-hegemony forces in protracted transitions which can often be characterised by lateral conflicts and the role this plays in authoritarian resurgences. It assesses the nature of the challenge at a nuanced and granular level, while relying on political theory and building a deeper and complex analysis. It reports on what this means to those working to aid democracy in Zimbabwe; and to determine what opportunities may be available to democrats within Zimbabwe —and to those outside seeking to support them—that have not been adequately explored or exploited.
Post Mugabe Era and Feasibility of Regime Change in Zimbabwe
World Journal of Social Science Research
Barely a year after Zimbabwe’s long serving President Robert Mugabe was ousted through a military coup which replaced him with his erstwhile trusted ally and vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, the army shot six civilians caught up in the crossfire of protestors alleging ZANU PF electoral theft of the 2018 July 30 polls. Although the military has always been in the background of Zimbabwe’s politics in general and the ruling ZANU PF affairs in particular, the shooting of protestors incident which occurred on the 1st of August 2018 left the world shell-shocked on the prospects of any peaceful change of government or even transfer of power, confirming to all and sundry that Mugabe could have exited the political stage, but the system he presided over for 37 years is still intact, if not even more perfected in the aftermath. This has since rekindled debates on the feasibility of regime change in Zimbabwe and in that context the validity and essence of having an election in the first plac...
BRIEFING: ZIMBABWE: THE COUP THAT NEVER WAS, AND THE ELECTION THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
African Affairs, 2019
This briefing seeks to shed light on how we should interpret recent events in Zimbabwe by providing an overview of the key themes of the 2018 elections. In doing so, it highlights the rapidly shifting political playing field on which the new president found himself. In particular, we show that in an effort to legitimize his undemocratic rise to power, Mnangagwa positioned himself as the ‘change’ candidate and resorted to a mix of political theatre and soft reforms to endear himself to both Zimbabweans and the international community. The ruling party ceded enough ground to make claims of reform credible, while retaining sufficient control over the key levers of power to ensure a favourable election result. However, the shocking events of 1 August 2018 and early 2019 have cast a long shadow over the new administration. The discrepancy between this violent crackdown and the president’s strategy up to that point suggests that he was either disingenuous about his intentions or that he is not in full control of the state. It is too early to make a definitive decision between these possibilities, but both have significant implications for the future of Zimbabwean politics. If the former is true, the discrepancy between the president’s official statements in favour of peace and dialogue and the human rights abuses committed by the security forces is best interpreted as a ‘good cop/bad cop’ routine, designed to deceive the world into thinking that Mnangagwa is a ‘dove’, and signals that ZANU-PF has found a smarter way to sustain authoritarian rule. If the latter possibility proves to be closer to the mark, the civilian status of the Zimbabwean government is under threat—if it has not already fallen—and the continued militarization of the state and economy means that political and economic reforms are increasingly unlikely. Either way, the prospects for democracy are bleak.