POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: SECURITY REFORMS FIRST, THANK YOU!!! : Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and his State Security counterpart Sydney Sekeramayi have lately been particularly vocal in this reg...

Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and his State Security counterpart Sydney Sekeramayi have lately been particularly vocal in this regard, as has been the state media churning out reportage packaged to discredit the reform calls as a foreign-sponsored agenda. These demands for professionalism in the security sector were this week presented in the state media as a grand plot by the MDC-T to fire military commanders and outsource the country’s security to the West should the party win elections. In his latest pronouncements Sekeramayi claimed Zimbabwe’s security was under threat from the West relentlessly pursuing an “illegal regime change” agenda, in the hope of installing a puppet government. This shrill sentiment has become Zanu PF’s refrain as high-stakes elections beckon. The reason for the campaign which dovetails with Zanu PF’s mounting resistance to agreed-to reforms is easy to pin down. The defense forces have been Zanu PF’s pillar of strength and electoral trump card sinc

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ROADMAP FIRST BEFORE ELECTION-PM : Tsvangirai said polls would only be held when the elections roadmap has been fully implemented. He also said he would launch a diplomatic o...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ROADMAP FIRST BEFORE ELECTION-PM : Tsvangirai said polls would only be held when the elections roadmap has been fully implemented. He also said he would launch a diplomatic o...

Tsvangirai said polls would only be held when the elections roadmap has been fully implemented. He also said he would launch a diplomatic offensive within Sadc and other strategic African states to lobby their leaders to pressure Mugabe to adopt reforms. Tsvangirai spoke about the elections roadmap, security of the vote, Zec secretariat, invitation and accreditation of observers, electoral law amendments, voter education and the conduct of security forces during elections. “The major stumbling block to the implementation of the above already agreed reforms remains a palpable deficit of political will to implement agreed issues, without which we are likely to reproduce electoral contestations and a disputed outcome,” Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare yesterday. “In a short while, I will be visiting players within Sadc and the AU to ensure that the people of Zimbabwe are guaranteed of a free and fair election that will usher in a new dispensation.” He said security forces must not i

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ZANU PF ON THE PATH TO SELF-DESTRUCTION!! : This failure at re-inventing itself to resonate with the ‘new voter’ whose attachment to liberation politics is not as emotional, has ha...

This failure at re-inventing itself to resonate with the ‘new voter’ whose attachment to liberation politics is not as emotional, has haunted most of the liberation movements in Africa. This presents the greatest threat to the survival of ZANU PF as a (former) liberation movement, and as well its quest for continued hegemony. This threat is further compounded by entrenched gerontocracy and ethnicity commonly referred to as factionalism. This piece will argue that ZANU PF is not a coherent and solid unit as it has been in the past but will be fighting for its life in the forthcoming elections. This is so, in light of its failure to regenerate itself and the internecine eth nic struggles within it. Furthermore it will be argued that ethnicity (commonly referred to as factional ism) makes ZANU PF vulnerable in electoral politics. Its over dependence on the Mashonaland vote presents its major vulnerability as Mashonaland is not Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is not only Mashonaland as Jonath