President Robert Mugabe Research Articles

Bond notes, borrowing, and heading for bust: Zimbabwe’s persistent crisis

“Bond notes” were introduced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in late 2016 as a local surrogate currency equivalent in value to the US dollar to address the acute currency shortage afflicting the economy. Unsurprisingly, they were overwhelmingly rejected by Zimbabweans, who feared that they heralded a return to the hyper-inflation which had destroyed incomes and savings in 2008–09. Accordingly, faced by a widening budget deficit, the ZANU–PF government turned to alternative methods of creating money with a view to winning the next election: expanding the supply of electronic currency and selling Treasury bills. The resultant financial crisis provided the backdrop to the military’s recent displacement of President Robert Mugabe. However, commitments to economic reform by any new government dominated by ZANU–PF appear unlikely to address Zimbabwe’s persistent crisis.

Politics, Privileges, and Loyalty in the Zimbabwe National Army

Abstract:In postcolonial Africa, the military has become an actor in politics, often in ways that can be described as unprofessional. This paper focuses on the manner in which the Zimbabwean National Army (ZNA) has become heavily politicized since independence, directly supporting the regime of President Robert Mugabe while denigrating the opposition political party. The military metamorphosed, to all intents, into an extension of President Mugabe’s political party, the ZANU-PF. I argue that even though the military is expected to subordinate itself to a civilian government, the ZNA is highly unprofessional, in- and outside the army barracks. The ways in which politics came to be mediated by army generals, as “war veterans” serving in the military, directly influenced not only how soldiers who joined the army in postindependence Zimbabwe were promoted and demoted, but how they lived their lives as soldiers in the army barracks. This article is based on fifty-eight life histories of army deserters living in exile in South Africa.

Soldiers as victims: behind military barracks in the post-colonial African army

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the ways in which the military infringes on the social and political rights of soldiers who joined the Zimbabwe National Army in post-independence Zimbabwe. Contrary to the scholarly and policy debates that present Zimbabwean soldiers as the silent prop behind President Robert Mugabe and the perpetrators of political violence, this paper argues that these soldiers have also been victimised in army barracks. The victimhood of soldiers has been explicit in the ways in which they are forced to execute their duties beyond their professional expectations. In substantiating this argument, the paper explores the unethical military training and the ways in which soldiers are disciplined and punished through Chapter 11:02 of the draconian Defence Act. The paper’s contribution stems from a ‘rights’ perspective that emphasises the right to freedom, justice and protection, which is usually quite silent in the military. But the question is how can soldiers’ concerns be translated into new practices without compromising so-called ‘state security’?

Patriotic history and anti-LGBT rhetoric in Zimbabwean politics

Over the past 20 years, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his political party, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), have relied heavily on political rhetoric that demonizes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. In this paper, it is argued that the anti-LGBT political rhetoric in Zimbabwe is part of a larger program known as “patriotic history,” which emphasizes a particular kind of Zimbabwean identity to legitimize the continued rule of Mugabe and ZANU-PF. The value of combining patriotic history and political homophobia emerges out of the unique political and economic context which Mugabe’s regime found itself unable to adequately address. To illustrate how and why this has happened, the paper focuses on two key incidents: the 1995 Zimbabwe International Book Fair, and the public conversation over writing a new constitution between 2010 and 2013.

Battle Hymn of the Afropolitan: Sino-African Futures in Ghana Must Go and Americanah

This article argues that a China-directed Orientalism infuses the political unconscious of recent fiction by “Afropolitan” writers. Focusing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go , this article demonstrates that crises of national economic development compel Afropolitan characters to self-Orientalize. Unable to rely on the stability of their home countries’ economies, and unwilling to endure the racism of the United States, these characters cathect alternative futurities offered by China’s non-ideological economic involvement in Africa and the flexible citizenship of Asian/American identity. Afropolitan novelists thus bring into relief the cultural and affective contours of an emergent Sino-African geopolitical formation that, to paraphrase Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, has turned its back on the West.

State intelligence and the politics of Zimbabwe's presidential succession

Since the late 1990s Zimbabwean politics has been shaped by the political succession war raging within the ruling ZANU PF party. The internal fight to succeed President Robert Mugabe pitted a faction controlled by retired General Solomon Mujuru, who was fronting his wife Joice Mujuru, against another faction led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a government minister. The competition between these factions reached a crucial stage in 2014, when Mugabe dismissed Joice Mujuru as Vice-President and purged her key allies in ZANU PF and the government. This article examines the role of state intelligence in this struggle, arguing that the Military Intelligence (MI) leadership, which supported Mnangagwa in the succession conflict, placed Joice Mujuru under surveillance and constructed a controversial gendered case to destroy her bid to succeed Mugabe. In contrast, some elements in the principal civilian intelligence institution, the Central Intelligence Organization, conducted a surveillance operation against the Mnangagwa faction in order to support Joice Mujuru’s power bid. The article widens scholarship on the security sector’s political interventions in Zimbabwean politics, while emphasizing how the gendered dimensions of surveillance can reinforce patriarchal national politics. PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE has led the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party and Zimbabwe since 1977 and 1980, respectively. Mugabe, a nonagenarian, is Africa’s oldest serving president. The length of his incumbency among current African leaders is surpassed only by the tenures of Paul Biya (Cameroon), Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea) and Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola). Rising domestic discontent with Mugabe’s seemingly interminable leadership was one of the reasons for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s formation in 1999 and the rise to prominence of its leader Morgan Tsvangirai as an alternative national *Miles Tendi (miles.tendi@sant.oxon.org) is a Departmental Lecturer in African Politics in the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. African Affairs, 1–22 doi: 10.1093/afraf/adv074 © The Author 201 . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society. All rights reserved 1 6 African Affairs Advance Access published February 12, 2016

The Kimberly Process and Zimbabwe

The Kimberly Process and Zimbabwe By Rebecca Schonauer This paper focuses on the Kimberley Process and its faults. In doing this, I am drawing evidence from the country of Zimbabwe and its president Robert Mugabe, and demonstrating how corruption, mismanagement, and smuggling has led to the loss of millions of US dollars for the country. I am also delving into the atrocities committed by Zimbabwe’s leaders, specifically that in the Marange diamond fields. Here, extreme human rights abuses have been committed, and are still being committed by the military that now controls the area. Because of these atrocities, I pose the question of “why is Zimbabwe still a Kimberley Certified country, even when the same men in power who commanded these acts are still in power?” I will also address the serious problems within the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme itself, and use Zimbabwe and similar countries in Africa to prove its faults. Some of these include: an insufficiency of regulation, ease of smuggling across borders, a lack of infrastructure within participating countries, and the deficiency of transparency. However, there is also a lack of willpower amongst diamond companies to halt these atrocities, and the power of these companies can be documented within the process. Because of these faults, I argue that the Kimberley Process has failed to regulate and stem the flow of blood diamonds from the market, and has allowed human rights abuses to go unchecked and unpunished.

English

THE FIVE-YEAR government of national unity tenure in Zimbabwe that brought together three leading political parties namely the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parties came to an end when the country held successful parliamentary and presidential elections in July 2013. As was the case in 2008, the ruling ZANU-PF party won the 2013 election. Using the social-semiotics approach, this paper examines the representations and portrayal of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai through editorial cartoons. Specifically, this paper assesses how, why and to what extent The Zimdaily.com editorial cartoons representations reflected the happenings on the ground. Key research methods used in this study are qualitative archival research, textual analysis, semiotics and content analysis. Based on the mass communication theories of gate-keeping, agenda building, representation, media and political economy theories, this paper argues that old fashioned conflict resolution and conflict prevention tactics and strategies need to be improved as the modern society becomes networked than ever. It was clear that peace building approaches such as those recommended by the 1992 United Nations resolution could not apply to Zimbabwe, but modern societies such as those found in Zimbabwe need a multi-task diplomacy approach such as the one employed by the then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki in resolving the Zimbabwean problem. The Zimbabwe conflict had become a sub-continental problem and could have spilled into an armed violence or even an insurrection but for the regional intervention and other multi-task diplomacy approaches, as manifesting through the editorial cartoons, the result was the government of national unity and not war. Key words: Diaspora media, inclusive government, agents of regime change.

Land, Indigenisation and Empowerment: Narratives that Made a Difference in Zimbabwe’s 2013 Elections

The 2013 harmonised elections held in Zimbabwe after the termination of the SADC-facilitated Government of National Unity elicited unprecedented comment following another resounding 'win' by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). This article reflects on the election and argues that while competitive authoritarianism contributed significantly to the party's 'landslide victory', it is slipshod to ignore the centrality to its electoral success of Zanu-PF's populist stance with respect to land, indigenisation and empowerment. The article also examines the significance of hate speech as a negative campaign strategy employed by Zanu-PF to portray the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the most negative light. It concludes that the election was reduced to 'fantasies of salvation' by President Robert Mugabe as a charismatic leader, primarily because the electorate was seduced into viewing Zanu-PF as the most credible party to pull the country out of the economic quagmire through its land, indigenisation, empowerment, 'pro-poor' and anti-Western policies. These policies resonated well with the growing numbers of wage-less youthful voters, who constitute more than 60% of the country's population.

The ‘Menu of Manipulation’ and the 2013 Zimbabwe Elections: Towards Explaining the ‘Technical Knockout’

A year after Zimbabwe's July 2013 elections some are still mystified by the results, especially the overwhelming triumph of incumbent President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). The outcome seemed to go against the grain. Zanu-PF achieved a supermajority, capturing more than two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. Its chief rival, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) only offered feeble competition and was left befuddled, wondering what had hit it. To date, few know what exactly happened to the opposition forces and their 'pro-democracy' allies in civil society and how it happened. However, there is anecdotal and circumstantial evidence that can be used to deduce what might have taken place. This article seeks to do that.

The Origins and Functions of Demonisation Discourses in Britain–Zimbabwe Relations (2000–)

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU(PF) government's violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms in 2000 heralded the nadir of diplomatic relations with British Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour government. Britain objected to the ZANU(PF) government's human rights violations and state-orchestrated violence, and, through the European Union, subsequently imposed sanctions. This article maintains that, from 2000, mutual demonisation discourses became a distinct feature of the Britain–Zimbabwe diplomatic conflict. Yet the nature and drivers of these demonisation discourses, and their influence, have not received systematic treatment in the literature on Britain–Zimbabwe relations. Drawing on constructivist interpretations of international relations, I argue that New Labour engaged in demonisation for normative reasons, while ZANU(PF) demonised New Labour for more instrumental purposes. Demonisation discourses promoted non-engagement between the British and Zimbabwean governments. This non-engagement partly circumscribed foreign policy options to aggressive measures, as evinced in Blair's covert canvassing for British military intervention in Zimbabwe. Lastly, it is demonstrated that demonisation discourses affected the third-party mediation efforts of South African President Thabo Mbeki.

CRONY CAPITALIM AND STYMIED DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE: Cry the Beloved Countries

Crony capitalism is the precursor to many of the woes of any country. It makes the rich richer and lessens the participation of the poor in the economy of any country, and thus automatically makes them poorer. This paper therefore, looks at crony capitalism from a South African viewpoint, in order to place into perspective the issues of development that are seriously compromised. In so doing the paper will attempt to look at some issues that affect development because of the scourge of crony capitalism. It would therefore, discuss the hidden billions of South Africa’s elite, which hampers progress and development, ushers in strikes and thus compromises stability and the economic balance of the country. That the billions of rands earned by chief executives could be used to promote and advance the issues of development, bring about stability in all sectors of the economy and, particularly in the mining sector of South Africa and issues that confront the poor. The paper expands the discussion by asking the question – Is South Africa’s left on the right road to socialism? It therefore explores the allegiance to Marxist – Leninism and statism and argues that that they are out of step with modern democratic practice. The paper also exemplifies the problems that confront Zimbabwe, in terms of its debt crisis due to overt cronyism and shows that Zimbabwe is at the crossroads of development with increasing poverty, unemployment and inequality, and is drowning in debt. It argues that it is crunch time for President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU political party.

ARE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES POSITIVELY INFLUENCING DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION? EVIDENCE FROM THE 2008 ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE

This research is a case study analysis of the 2008 national elections in Zimbabwe. The elections are considered crucial in the history of the country because long-time President Robert Mugabe suffered an unprecedented defeat at the hands of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the first of the two rounds of voting. This study presupposes the view that as digital technologies become more accessible and affordable, more people are able to easily coordinate, organise and advance their interests. It aims to critically examine the overall role played by the Internet in propelling democratic reforms in Zimbabwe, specifically focusing on its role during the 2008 elections. The major question in the research pertains to the assumed use of new media technologies by Zimbabwean exiles to channel pro-opposition information into the country, effectively leading to President Mugabe’s losing.

Psychological concomitants and predictors of violence during political upheaval in Zimbabwe: A content analysis study

Predicting when political violence is likely to erupt is a major problem for international, national, and local governments and agencies. In this study, thematic content analysis (TCA) was used to measure integrative complexity (IC) and power motive imagery (PMI) in editorials written by the spokesman for President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Decreased IC and increased PMI have been shown to precede and accompany war versus negotiation in international confrontations. Here, they were used for the first time in the case of a prolonged history of domestic political violence committed by an oppressive government and its supporters. A less time- and labor-intensive, computerized method of content analysis, Profiler Plus, was also tested as a possible alternative to TCA. The scores were correlated with levels of political violence at the time of the publication of the editorial and with levels of violence 2, 3, and 4 weeks later. Although violence was significantly correlated with changes in several measures, IC decrease was the only variable that was also significantly correlated with violence at all three prediction periods. Together, decreasing IC and rising PMI provided unique predictive utility. The overall model accounted for 73% of the variance in log-transformed violence.

Between threats and war: U.S. discrete military operations in the post-Cold War world

When confronted with a persistent foreign policy problem that threatens U.S. interests, and that cannot be adequately addressed through economic or political pressure, American policymakers and opinion formers have increasingly resorted to recommending the use of limited military force: that is, enough force to attempt to resolve the problem while minimizing U.S. military deaths, local civilian casualties, and collateral damage.These recommendations have ranged from the bizarre-such as a Predator missile strike to kill Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, or the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez-to the unwise-the preemptive bombing of North Korean ballistic missile sites-to the demonstrably practical-air raids into Bosnia and Somalia, and drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan. However, even though they have been a regular feature of America's uses of military force through four successive administrations, the efficacy of these Discrete Military Operations (DMOs) remains largely unanalyzed, leaving unanswered the important question of whether or not they have succeeded in achieving their intended military and political objectives. In response, Micah Zenko examines the thirty-six DMOs undertaken by the US over the past 20 years, in order to discern why they were used, if they achieved their objectives, and what determined their success or failure. In the process, he both evaluates U.S. policy choices and recommends ways in which limited military force can be better used in the future. The insights and recommendations made by Zenko will be increasingly relevant to making decisions and predictions about the development of American grand strategy and future military policy.

Militarisation of Public Institutions, Flawed Electoral Processes and Curtailed Citizen Participation: The Case of Zimbabwe

Abuse of political office in many African countries has been on the increase in recent years. This has been as a result of incumbent leaders trying to cling to power for a number of reasons ranging from prospects of arrest for human rights violations to being unable to contend with being an ordinary citizen. Through sinister machinations, political leaders have employed a range of tricks and gimmicks to rig elections. In Zimbabwe, militarisation of electoral institutions has been one central means employed to ensure the long-standing incumbent President Robert Mugabe wins all elections. Various other public institutions were militarised through appointing serving or retired military personnel to take charge of these state institutions. Desperate youth and the gullible rural population have been manipulated and urged to arm themselves ‘in defence of their country’ against neo-colonialism, a euphemism for a war cry to cause mayhem and despondency among the population, which has further militarised much of the general electorate. As a consequence, legal process has been widely undermined and political violence of one form or another is an everyday occurrence.

Angola–Zimbabwe Relations: A Study in the Search for Regional Alliances

The common approach to the study of foreign policies of Southern African Development Community (SADC) states is to locate them within the context of ‘brother presidents’ and ‘sister liberation movements’. There is emphasis on liberation war camaraderie as a key variable. However, Angola–Zimbabwe (read as MPLA–ZANU-PF and MPLA–MDC) relations have no noticeable strong liberation war-time ties. The relations are traceable to the post-1980 period when the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) pursued a deliberate policy of integrating itself within the SADC region and this coincided with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola's (MPLA) long-time desire to isolate its internal enemies of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. What is also noticeable is the opacity and ambiguities in Angola–Zimbabwe relations, which have provoked growth of speculation and suspicion. The only time Angola and Zimbabwe openly collaborated was in their intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo war in 1998 under the auspices of the SADC in general and the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security in particular. However, two recent developments—the state visit to Luanda by the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) Morgan Tsvangirai in October 2009, and the announcement by ZANU-PF of the China-Sonangol $8bn investment deal in November 2009—have provoked fresh interest in understanding Angola–Zimbabwe relations in the context of a regional initiative to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis. Although Angola is visible as a member of the SADC in the search for a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis, it has not openly expressed its foreign policy towards Zimbabwe. Unlike Botswana under Ian Khama and Zambia under the late Levy Mwanawasa, which openly criticised President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF over governance and its human rights record, Angola has remained quiet, making it hard to know its exact position vis-à-vis initiatives towards resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis. Interest in Angolan foreign policy is further motivated by the fact of its ascendancy as one of the regional powers; building on its rich mineral resources, it has the potential leverage to help in the resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis if it openly expressed its position. At the moment, it is not clear whether Angola has also adopted ‘quiet diplomacy’, just like South Africa under President Thabo Mbeki in its dealings with Zimbabwe.

Don't Drink the Water

Zimbabwe's 2008-09 cholera outbreak holds the dubious distinction of being Africa's worst on record. At the end of May 2009, the World Health Organization reported 98,424 cases of the disease and 4276 deaths. Other sources estimate that the number of cases has topped 100,000 since September 2008. ' The near-collapse of the country's water and sanitation infrastructure has dramatically reduced Zimbabweans' access to clean water and proper sewage treatment systems. With a case fatality rate of over four percent, Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak has exacerbated problems in a country already weakened by economic collapse and political mismanagement.Cholera outbreaks are relatively rare in the absence of war, so why did it happened in Zimbabwe in 2008 and 2009? We cannot understand the answer to that question without examining government policies and actions in the years prior to the outbreak. The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is both a humanitarian crisis and symptomatic of political decisions made by the Zimbabwean government. Cholera did not emerge out of nowhere in Zimbabwe; it emerged because government policies allowed it to emerge. Epidemics do not just happen. They are not random events. They have histories, write Barnett and Whiteside.2 We can identify direct relationships between the policies and decisions of President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front) party and cholera's emergence. The takeover of municipal water supplies by the national government to weaken the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the government's economic mismanagement have worked in tandem to allow cholera to flourish.Understanding the underlying dynamics that gave rise to the cholera outbreak in the first place, though, does not necessarily tell us how we should respond to this humanitarian crisis. If the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe occurred because the government did not effectively provide public goods to its citizenry, how can the social contract be reestablished? Does the international community have a role to play? If so, should it work through official state channels?This article has two goals. First, it seeks to demonstrate how infectious disease outbreaks like cholera in Zimbabwe are political crises as much as epidemiological ones. Specific government policies give rise to the conditions under which a disease like cholera can flourish. Second, it aims to outline potential remedies to prevent future cholera outbreaks. The international community can potentially play a role in preventing future cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe, but the bulk ofthe burden lies with Zimbabwe. This speaks to larger questions about the role ofthe international community in protecting and promoting health worldwide. Health has traditionally been the province of national governments, but the international community has taken a greater interest in health and infectious disease in recent years. This has led to questions about the appropriate balance between the two, and the case of cholera in Zimbabwe offers us an opportunity to explore that balance.CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN ZIMBABWECholera spreads via a bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, where water supplies, sanitation, food safety, and hygiene practices are inadequate and poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water supplies predominate.3 Symptoms frequently occur within two to three days of exposure. These include a bloated feeling in the abdomen, generally with no accompanying fever, that quickly gives way to very watery stool. Cholera can cause severe dehydration and kidney failure, leading to death in as few as 18 hours. Without treatment, mortality rates can range from 50 to 90 percent, making it one of the most historically feared of diseases. However, treatment with oral rehydration therapies is remarkably effective if administered in a timely fashion, bringing the case fatality rate below one percent.Cholera also has a history of creating political divisions within societies. …

Zimbabwe: Grappling with Hyperinflation

This case will lead students to a discussion of the causes and effects of hyperinflation. The link with fiscal deficits is explored, and so is the link with societal changes. The particular focus is on the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe whose government implemented a controversial land redistribution program. The case can be taught with a class experiment—see teaching note.

Zimbabwe: Grappling with Hyperinflation

This case will lead students to a discussion of the causes and effects of hyperinflation. The link with fiscal deficits is explored, and so is the link with societal changes. The particular focus is on the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe whose government implemented a controversial land redistribution program. The case can be taught with a class experiment -- see teaching note.