Politicising ‘Covid-19’: an analysis of selected ZANU-PF officials’ 2020-2021 media statements on the pandemic in Zimbabwe

Paddington Mutekwe,Kudzaiishe Peter Vanyoro

doi:10.18820/24150479/aa53i2/3

Paddington Mutekwe, Kudzaiishe Peter Vanyoro

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18820/24150479/aa53i2/3

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Abstract

This paper examines the politicisation of Covid-19 in Zimbabwe through discourse analysis of selected media statements released by Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) officials on the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and February 2021. Theoretically, the paper employs Foucault’s theory of biopower to interpret the state- citizen power relations that surfaced in the Zimbabwean government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It argues that the ZANU-PF-led government used Covid-19 as an excuse to pursue its political interests. This is politics that protected ZANU-PF’s social, political and economic interests by using Covid-19 as an excuse to pulverise various forms of opposition. The argument advanced herein is that while the implementation of the lockdown in Zimbabwe was necessary to save lives, one of its consequences was the protection of self-interests through selective application of lockdown regulations and the passing of laws to silence critics. This resulted in the prohibition of political gatherings, arbitrary arrests, labelling and name-calling of the opposition and the West by ZANU-PF officials who were safeguarding their party’s waning support resulting from their mismanagement of the pandemic.

Highlights

The purpose of this article is not to justify lockdown or to take up any judgment on the ethics and morals of lockdowns across the globe
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) officials used the COVID-19 pandemic to advance their political interests and ideology. By viewing this advancement of political interests and ideology as the deployment of biopower, the article shows that the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe is evidence of how biological and health issues can be turned into political issues
We have demonstrated how the ZANU-PF government used the COVID-19 lockdown to pursue politics by other means

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of this article is not to justify lockdown or to take up any judgment on the ethics and morals of lockdowns across the globe. This article looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic was politicised through statements by selected Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) officials in Zimbabwe. Discourse analysis was used to analyse selected ZANU-PF members’ 2020-2021 political statements on the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. The article argues that responses to COVID-19 by the ZANU-PF government were meant to save lives as the government claimed. ZANU-PF officials used the COVID-19 pandemic to advance their political interests and ideology. By viewing this advancement of political interests and ideology as the deployment of biopower, the article shows that the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe is evidence of how biological and health issues can be turned into political issues

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