Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 2013 pictured here at a Southern African Development Community heads of state summit in Malawi where he was given a standing ovation. Mugabe died of an undisclosed illness on September 6, 2019 in Singapore. Credit: Kervin Victor/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Sep 7 2019 (IPS)

Former Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, who died this week, aged 95, leaves a mixed and divisive legacy.

Mugabe – the oldest African leader when he was removed from power in November 2017 – died of an undisclosed illness in a hospital in Singapore on Sept. 6.

Once a revered hero who liberated Zimbabwe from the brutal colonial rule in 1980, Mugabe ruled the country for 37 years before he was deposed in a military coup in 2017. Mugabe’s once-trusted comrade and enforcer, who later turned foe, Emerson Mnangagwa, became president in a 2018 election which was disputed by the opposition.

Describing Mugabe as the iconic leader of the struggle for national liberation, Mnangagwa paid a glowing tribute to Mugabe who sacked him as vice-president in 2017.

“A pan Africanist fighter, Comrade Mugabe bequeaths a rich an indelible legacy of tenacious adherence to principle on the collective rights of Africa and African(s) in general and in particular the rights of the people of Zimbabwe for whom he gave his all to help free,” Mnangagwa said in tribute broadcast hours after he confirmed Mugabe’s death on his official twitter account.

The fighter Mugabe was known for many things, including securing and protecting his own hold on power after he became the country’s Executive President in 1987, the same year he forged an uneasy unity accord between the country’s main political parties, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front  (Zanu PF) and the Patriotic Front Zimbabwe African People’s Union (PF Zapu).

A political colossus

Many adjectives easily fit Mugabe; liberation fighter, diplomat, patriot, pan Africanist, Marxist, strategist, shrewd contriver and master manipulator. Mugabe was also a highly intelligent man and an accomplished scholar, attributes that endeared him to many.

“There is no doubt that Robert Mugabe will go down as a colossus in Zimbabwean history,” David Coltart, former Education Minister and human rights activist, told IPS.

“He has a remarkable impact on Zimbabwe both positively and negatively and his positive legacy is that he fought a bitter struggle with Joshua Nkomo to end white minority rule that will be an enduring legacy. The other positive legacy is he expanded a quality education to all Zimbabweans and he must be given credit for that. He built on the legacy of Garfield and Grace Todd from the 1950s and expanded education.”

Coltart concedes to Mugabe’s less than illustrious legacy, noting that Mugabe perpetuated the violence of the former minority white Rhodesian Front government by disrespecting the rule of law and constitutionalism, growing corruption, abuse of office and the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy which forced hundreds of thousands to leave this southern African nation.

“History will tell on balance whether his legacy is more positive than negative,” Coltart said. “There is no doubt he was revered within Zimbabwe and revered throughout Africa. Indeed one could argue that he was more popular in the rest of Africa than he was in Zimbabwe himself. There is no doubt he mellowed in the final few years of his life, he mellowed in the inclusive government and reached out to the [opposition] MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] and the country settled to a certain extent and the country grew.”

“As Education Minister I worked well with him and we had a good functional relationship and we managed to stabilise the education sector and get it on a growth trajectory again, but of course during that period corruption continued to flourish in the country and after 2003 he allowed corruption to continue and allowed the constitution to be breached in the many ways that it was,” he said.

From liberator to dictator

Praised as a nation builder at independence when he extended the hand of reconciliation across the racial divide, Mugabe was not only a political liberator per se. He sought to liberate his country from poverty too, promoting investment in education, social welfare, industrialisation and food security.

In 1998, Mugabe was awarded the 100,000-dollar Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger given by the Hunger project, a New York global aid organisation in recognition of his stewardship in Zimbabwe’s agriculture success story. The country’s agricultural programmes were praised for having ”pointed the way not only for Zimbabwe but for the entire African continent in fighting against hunger”, the organisation had said at the time.

Tragically, Zimbabwe is today no longer the food security champion in part as a result of its well-meaning but poorly executed land reform programme in 2000.

But Mugabe was a gifted orator with a quick wit and memorable sound bites. The fight for land and self-rule became hallmarks of this tenure.

“We fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are, we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…so Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe. We are still exchanging blows with the British government,” Mugabe once said in a famous spat with the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

David Moore, researcher and political economist at the University of Johannesburg, said Mugabe manipulated the very deep factions and divisions both in Zimbabwean society and the political system to his advantage, starting from the formation of Zanu PF in 1963. Mugabe, Moore told IPS, had a knack of getting people to do his dirty work and finding allies when he was in trouble. For example, Mugabe made alliances with the war veterans in 1997 that pushed him onto the fast track land reform and triggered an economic meltdown that the country has battled to recover from.

“We cannot forget the Gukurahundi where he destroyed a political party and ended up with almost a genocide evolving from that, so l mean anybody who says he is a hero is really missing the point,” said Moore. Gukurahundi is remembered as a series of massacres on civilians and members and officials of Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu that were carried about by the Zimbabwe National Army.

Moore added that this ability to manipulate and work out and exacerbate these factions kept Mugabe in power and Zanu PF unified to a degree even though the unification was based on subterfuge, lying, deceit and playing groups against each other.

“It is a complicated and contradictory legacy how this shy, almost paranoid guy managed to stay on top of the heap and created also a culture of corruption, even though he would say, we need a leadership code,” Moore said.

The emergence of the political party MDC led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai in 1999 unnerved Mugabe. Mugabe’s turned to violence in the elections in 2000, 2005 and 2008 of which the opposition claims to have won outright.

Violence in the form of beatings, torture and of late kidnappings became emblematic of Mugabe’s intolerance of dissenters. Individuals and civil society were not spared.

Human rights activist an Mugabe critic, Jenni Williams, was a victim. As the national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), she was arrested a number of times as the organisation continues to pursue a “non-violent struggle for socio-economic rights”.

“Unfortunately Mugabe’s leaves a legacy of repression and persecution which overshadows any good he may have done,” Williams said.

“I find it hard to mourn a man who caused me such personal persecution and suffering. Under his rule and orders I faced arbitrary arrest, inhuman and degrading treatment and constant persecution by prosecution. I am just one of many who suffered the mayhem of his rule and hatred of the people of Matabeleland leading to mass murder.”

Williams says the dictatorship system Mugabe nurtured is still in place and no real development and economic recovery can be achieved without serious reforms at all levels. Therefore poverty levels are systemically increased out of cruelty.

Burying Mugabe will close a chapter in the life of founding figure but the economic and political fortunes triggered from his rein are worsening.

It is not only food that Zimbabwe is in short supply of these days. Many other things, such as lack of health care and education, can be traced to the ill-informed policies that Mugabe enforced in securing his hold on power.

Journalists from the weekly Sunday Mail as they were arrested on Nov. 4, 2015 on charges of reporting falsehoods. Pictured from left to right in handcuffs are the journalists, who included the Sunday Mail reporter Tinashe Farawo, the paper's investigations editor Brian Chitemba and The Sunday Mail editor Mabasa Sasa. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Busani Bafana
HARARE, Nov 9 2016 (IPS)

Four years ago, a faceless writer using the nom de guerre Baba Jukwa set Facebook agog with detailed exposes of machinations within the ruling Zimbabwe National People’s Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF).

Garnering over 400,000 followers on Facebook, Jukwa pierced the veil over freedom of expression in a conservative Zimbabwe. The enigmatic character, thought to be a mole within ZANU PF, remains unknown and has never been caught."The government is afraid the social media might be used the same manner it was used during the Arab Spring revolutions.” -- Njabulo Ncube, chair of the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum

Now the government – with a history of intolerance to dissent – is not taking chances with social media ‘dissidents’ in the ilk of Baba Jukwa. It is crafting a bill to clamp down on cybercrime and terrorism, but journalists fear the bill will trample the fragile freedoms of the press and expression in the country.

Should it become law, the Computer and Cyber Crime Bill will ensure that ‘abusers of social media’ are stopped dead in their tracks if statements by the government, the police and the army are anything to go by.

Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army, Lieutenant General Valerio Sibanda, recently told the government-run Herald newspaper that the army was training its officers to deal with “cyber warfare where weapons – not necessarily guns but basic information and communication technology – are being used to mobilise people to do wrong things.”

The country’s Information Media and Broadcasting Services Minister, Chris Mushowe, has dismissed fears that the Computer and Cyber Crime Bill will be a death knell for press freedom, but his threats reflect the opposite.

“This Bill is not intended to kill freedom of expression, it is not intended to silence people…If anything, this is intended to ensure we join other nations in fighting the threat of terrorism,” Mushowe told the local media following a briefing with the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe Catriona Laing in August. “We do not want information to be transited through Zimbabwe or information here that threatens the national security of other countries.”

Despite guaranteeing freedoms of expression and of the press under its new Constitution, Zimbabwe is not the most conducive of places for journalists to do their jobs freely, especially those working for the independent press.

The Washington-based media advocacy organisation Freedom House named Zimbabwe, alongside Bangladesh, Turkey, Burundi, France, Serbia, Yemen, Egypt and Macedonia, as countries which suffered the largest declines in press freedom in 2015 in its Freedom of the Press report for 2016.

Already burdened by a raft of laws that restrict access to information, journalists have reason to worry. The Computer and Cyber Crime Bill could be the biggest and meanest strategic weapon the government has yet unleashed on free expression and press freedom.

Information has become the political currency for self-expression. Social media, especially Facebook and WhatsApp, has given Zimbabweans an affordable platform to gather and share information, vent about their daily grind and even organise public actions against a deteriorating economic and political situation at home.
Crippled by a severe drought, Zimbabwe has made a global appeal for 1.6 billion dollars for food and other humanitarian aid as more than four million people will need food until the next harvest season in March 2017. Fears abound about a worsening economic situation when government introduces its own bond notes later this month as a measure to ease the current shortage of cash since dumping the Zimbabwe dollar and introducing a multi-currency regime in September 2009.

Editor of the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent weekly Dumisani Muleya says life in the globalised and technology-driven 21st century presents two great challenges to governments across the world: thwarting terrorism and protecting national liberties. Technology, Muleya says, has played a part in making these challenges tougher, necessitating governments to balance security and liberty.

“The Zimbabwe government, which has a history of stifling political and civil liberties, particularly media freedom, must do the same,” Muleya told IPS. “The current Computer and Cyber Crime Bill must thus not be used as tool to snoop on citizens unduly and reinforce Zimbabwe’s image as a police state, but mainly protect people’s rights.”

Making a joke about President Mugabe, who is now 92, is no laughing matter in Zimbabwe and can land you in court or jail. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has represented more than 150 defendants since 2010 charged with insulting President Mugabe. In most cases the charges were dropped. Videos pocking fun at President Mugabe have gone viral, prompting the government to denounce ‘the gutter journalism’ on social media it says should not be allowed in the mainstream media.

“Government is aware of activists in the country collaborating with the diaspora cyber terrorists. They must be warned that the long arm of the law is encircling them,” Mushowe told the Zimbabwean press.

Acting chairman Zimbabwe National Editors Forum and past Chairman of the Media Institute for Southern Africa- Zimbabwe Njabulo Ncube describes the Computer and Cyber Crime Bill as a nullification of press freedom.

“The future looks bleak with the seemingly proliferation of harsh media laws that seek to criminalise the practice of the journalism profession in Zimbabwe,” Ncube told IPS. “The government is afraid the social media might be used the same manner it was used during the Arab Spring revolutions.”

Ncube believes government has muddied the waters by creating the impression that cyber terrorism is the production of subversive, inflammatory and inciting messages shared through the social media, which was in fact misconduct online or abuse of social media in breach of the country’s contentious laws such as the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act), the Interception of Communications Act and Postal and Telecommunications Act (PTA).

“This continuous misleading of the citizenry on what constitutes cyber terrorism is aimed at instilling fear and self-censorship among citizens when exercising their rights to free expression, access to information and freedom of conscience,” Ncube said.

Despite government underplaying its effectiveness, social media has given Zimbabweans a loud voice to amplify their struggles. The crackdown on the social media is meant to deal with activists calling for reforms within the government, Executive Director of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe and Secretary-General of the World Association of Press Councils, Loughty Dube, argued.

“If the government intends to use the law to curb internet crimes there should be a clear demarcation that should show that there are no sinister intentions by the state to snoop on citizen communications and to criminalise those that are using internet platforms to seek reforms and expose government excesses.”

Last August and two months after the online campaign led by Pastor Evans Mawawire using the #This Flag successfully mobilized Zimbabweans to stay away from work, Zimbabwe passed the National Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy. The policy which allows government to snoop on its citizens and control cyberspace by putting all internet gateways and infrastructure under a single company it controls.

It is the cohesive power of social media that the Zimbabwe government seeks to weaken through a carte blanche law to snoop on and even shut down social media. While it may raise the cost of accessing social media, block its operation and resort to threats, government cannot control social media, argues, lawyer and political strategist, Alex Magaisa.

“In physical spaces, the state can always deploy anti-riot police and use physical force to drive away demonstrators expressing their view,” Magaisa wrote on his blog, The Big Saturday Read. “However, on social media, the state is not well equipped to handle users…Social media presents a new terrain over which the state has no control.

Magaisa said the Computer Crime and Cybercrime Bill would create very wide, vague and indeterminate offences in respect of social media activity, while giving police extensive search and seizure powers. Measured against the Constitution, which protects freedoms of communication and the right to privacy, Magaisa said the Bill falls woefully short and a number of its provisions in the present form could be stuck down by the Constitutional Court if challenged.

“While some of the purported reasons for introducing the Bill, such as protecting children, preventing racial and ethnic hatred sound noble, most critics believe the real motive which has promoted the rapid response is political. This is the cause of the citizen’s mistrust, suspicion and resistance in respect of the Bill,” wrote Magaisa.

Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai rally on Jul. 29, 2013, two days before Zimbabwe’s election. Many Zimbabweans are disillusioned by the country’s political leadership. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Mar 24 2014 (IPS)

Leroy Muzamani from Zimbabwe’s low income suburb, Highfield, sits with his chin resting on his hands.

Dressed in a worn shirt, shoes that have been repaired multiple times and a pair of oversized trousers, he waits by the public works department in the country’s capital Harare, hoping that he will be hired by them to work as a casual labourer for the day.

“We always hunt for casual jobs that are not even there. Since [the] 2002 elections, many of us have placed our hopes on our political leaders, thinking they would solve our unemployment problems, but alas…” Muzamani tells IPS. "If main political actors are really failing, it means there is ground for other political forces to emerge.” -- Socio-political commentator Brian Mateyo

Muzamani is a professional marketer who has never been employed in his qualified profession. And he blames the government for not prioritising the plight of Zimbabwe’s jobless.

According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s unemployment rate was 10.70 percent in 2011. However, the United Nations World Food Programme estimates that Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is as high as 60 percent.

Consequently, like many other Zimbabweans, Muzamani has lost hope in the political course this southern African nation is taking.

“We have many unanswered questions right now as we [endure] hardships, wondering about who shall really change the dynamics of our politics for the better. [The] major political parties have proved to be failures as they are seized with internal power struggles,” he says.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) is ridden with internal fissures as factional groups are said to be positioning themselves to succeed their 90-year-old leader, President Robert Mugabe.

One Zanu-PF faction is reportedly led by the country’s, and party’s, vice-president Joyce Mujuru. The Zanu-PF secretary of legal affairs, Emerson Mnangagwa, allegedly leads another.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) is equally ridden with divisions amid calls for its leader Morgan Tsvangirai to step down due to his repeated failure at the polls since 2002.

In February, the deputy secretary general of the MDC-T, Elton Mangoma, wrote a letter to Tsvangirai, urging him to step down and pave the way for a new leader with fresh ideas.

However, this did not go down well with Tsvangirai’s supporters in the party, who pushed for Mangoma’s suspension. It consequently caused anxiety for many Zimbabweans like Muzamani who feel political leaders here offer them no hope for a better future.

“There is growing confusion amongst ordinary Zimbabweans as to which political leaders to entrust their hopes; they now doubt Mugabe, and they also equally now doubt Tsvangirai,” political observer Whatmore Makokoba tells IPS.

Civil society leaders here are also sceptical about the future of Zimbabwe’s main political parties.

“With fissures widening in Zimbabwe’s major political parties, Zanu-PF and MDC-T, for them really the future looks uncertain. Both may be headed for their Waterloo,” Claris Madhuku, director of the Platform for Youth Development, a democracy lobby group here, tells IPS.

Independent political analyst Malvern Tigere tells IPS that it raises the question of “who shall Zimbabweans follow now between a failure and failure?”

“First it was Mugabe who raised Zimbabwe’s hopes at independence from Britain in 1980 when he came to power. But his government only helped to diminish the gains made during the colonial era and now many Zimbabweans look back to the colonial era with nostalgia,” Tigere explains.

“Secondly, we have Tsvangirai who kindled the hope of a departure from Mugabe’s [grip] on power, but is now personally mired in leadership wrangles in his own party, rendering millions of his supporters disillusioned.”

But the country’s major political parties don’t see it that way.

“Zanu-PF has a history of an unquestionable degree of unity since its formation over half a century ago and it remains a trusted political party by Zimbabweans to this day,” Zanu-PF national spokesperson Rugare Gumbo tells IPS.

MDC-T national spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora is equally confident of his party’s leadership.

“MDC-T remains the only alternative for real change in Zimbabwe. It’s an organised party unshaken by fallacious rumours of fissures spread by our detractors,” he tells IPS.

But socio-political commentator Brian Mateyo tells IPS, “if main political actors are really failing, it means there is ground for other political forces to emerge.”

David Chidende, programmes officer for Youth Information and Education for Behaviour Change, a democracy lobby group, does not rule out civil unrest.

“Civilian-led uprisings can happen, but it’s not too obvious. Young people have to re-strategise and form a mass movement that will champion the democratic course for this country. As the youth of this country, we are the most affected, and if we relax, we risk suffering in perpetuity,” Chidende tells IPS.

Muzamani says it may be the only way to enforce political change.

“As betrayed ordinary people, we shall be one day forced by circumstances to take matters into our own hands and lead the struggle for political change on our own,” Muzamani says.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will be inaugurated for another five-year term as president. He is pictured here at the SADC heads of state summit in Malawi on Aug. 17 where he was given a standing ovation. Credit: Kervin Victor/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Aug 22 2013 (IPS)

Robert Mugabe will be inaugurated on Thursday, Aug. 22, to serve yet another five-year term as Zimbabwe’s president after holding the post for the last 33 years. And he does so as analysts here raise concerns that a recent High Court ruling recommending the arrest of outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s lawyers on contempt of court charges could be the start of political oppression.

“The [Aug. 20] order by High Court judge Chinembiri Bhunu to arrest Tsvangirai’s lawyers may be a sign of more impending arrests as the ruling party tries to tighten its political grip here through silencing the voices of opposition political parties,” independent political analyst Masimba Kuchera told IPS.

Tsvangirai’s lawyers, Lewis Uriri, Alec Muchadehama and Tarisai Mutangi, filed a Constitutional Court application on his behalf seeking to nullify Zimbabwe’s Jul. 31 polls, saying it did not meet the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) minimum standards for a fair vote. They argued that the election was conducted without media and security sector reforms, and that widespread vote rigging had occurred.“SADC failed Zimbabweans and set a wrong precedent for democratic elections here." -- Thabani Nyoni, spokesperson for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition

Tsvangirai also filed two urgent petitions with the Zimbabwe High Court to access the election results to use as evidence in his Constitutional Court challenge. He is alleged to have questioned the integrity of the judiciary in these petitions.

The High Court did not rule immediately on the matter and on Aug. 16, a day before the Constitutional Court hearing, Tsvangirai withdrew his challenge as he felt he would not receive a fair hearing without the requested voting material.

However, on Aug. 20 the Constitutional Court proceeded with its ruling, saying constitutionally there was no legal tenet to allow withdrawal of the case.

And also on Aug. 20, Bhunu ruled against the two petitions filed by Tsvangirai to access the election records, and recommended the arrest of the outgoing prime minister’s lawyers.

However, Douglas Mwonzora, spokesperson for Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T), told IPS they were not surprised by the Constitutional Court ruling and were now exploring other political means to object to the election outcome.

“Although we sought to withdraw our election challenge, the court could not allow us to do so. We are not surprised by this ruling because we saw it coming after we were denied access to voting material used on election day, which we wanted to use as evidence to prove our case of massive vote rigging by [Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front] Zanu-PF,” Mwonzora told IPS.

Owen Dliwayo, programme officer for the Youth Dialogue Action Network, a local democracy lobby group, said the Constitutional Court ruling was a desperate ploy to legitimise Mugabe’s disputed electoral victory.

“The court just proceeded with Tsvangirai’s case as a way of legitimising the veteran ruler’s disputed re-election. If the MDC-T had been allowed to withdraw [its case], Mugabe could have faced a legitimacy crisis in the southern African region,” Dliwayo told IPS.

Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher for the Africa division, Dewa Mavhinga, said the Constitutional Court ruling means that the MDC-T will have to raise their grievance with regional bodies.

“The court ruling leaves the MDC-T leader with options to pursue regional and international legal remedies, including with the [African Union’s] African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,” Mavhinga told IPS.

However, the MDC-T may not have any success with SADC. Mugabe’s victory was legitimised at the SADC heads of state summit in Malawi on Aug. 17 and 18. Mugabe had been welcomed by loud cheering and two standing ovations.

Current SADC chair, Malawian President Joyce Banda congratulated Mugabe on his country’s peaceful elections and pledged the organisation’s complete support. At the summit, Mugabe was appointed deputy president, and the next summit chair, of the regional body.

“Clearly, the MDC-T may be fighting a losing battle. Mugabe now clearly heads SADC considering his political seniority to Banda, who may be soon taking instructions from the aged veteran politician. This puts the MDC-T in a difficult position,” independent political analyst Malvern Tigere told IPS.

Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists say they are disturbed by SADC’s endorsement of the election.

“SADC failed Zimbabweans and set a wrong precedent for democratic elections here, which kills people’s hopes of changing things through an electoral process,” Thabani Nyoni, spokesperson for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an amalgamation of 70 rights groups here, told IPS.

Claris Madhuku, director for Platform for Youth Development, a democracy lobby group here, told IPS: “Now Mugabe has been legitimised by both SADC and the Constitutional Court here. He will become more confident and will be more stubborn … on the basis that he has been given legitimacy.”

It paves the way for Mugabe to be sworn into office on Thursday, which has been declared a public holiday here.

Political and economic analysts say that a new government under the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) is the best solution for Zimbabwe’s economic future. Credit: Trevor Davies/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Aug 1 2013 (IPS)

Zimbabwean analysts say that it will be historical if President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled this country for 33 years, loses the country’s presidential election to his long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and relinquishes power.

A day before the election, Mugabe had told reporters at State House that if he loses he would concede defeat.

On Wednesday, Jul. 31, Zimbabweans in Harare, the capital, woke up at midnight eager to cast their ballots in the general election. In most towns across Zimbabwe, voters began queuing very early on Wednesday morning, enduring the chilly weather in order to vote.

Many, like 32-year-old Loveness Mbiza, a fruit and vegetable vendor from Harare’s Machipisa high-density suburb, feel this election will bring an improved economic environment.“There has never been such voting excitement here save perhaps for 1980 at independence and this means something much bigger is set to happen here and people want development to kick-start under a new regime.” -- voter and local businessman Jabulani Gumbo

“I have lived under constant surveillance from brutal police in Mugabe’s government who have always chased me from one point to the other, often accusing me of selling my wares at undesignated points in the city, but without providing me with alternatives,” Mbiza told IPS.

“I woke up soon after midnight to be on the queue here so that I could cast my vote early and go back to attend to my vending business. My wish is to see my vote being respected because I know most people are suffering just like me and wish to see President Mugabe shown the door when the results are announced,” added Mbiza.

But Claris Madhuku, a political analyst and director for Platform for Youth Development, a democracy lobby group in Zimbabwe, told IPS that voters should not put their full trust in the new political dispensation that may emerge after this election.

“There is excessive excitement from voters and too much optimism is being invested in a [Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai] MDC-T government that they think will be born out of the elections. But they should allow any dispensation to settle down and gradually manoeuvre its way to rescue this country from its long economic crisis,” Madhuku said.

Zimbabwe is still recovering from an economic meltdown, based largely on Mugabe’s controversial policies. There have also been allegations of widespread corruption and stealing from the state’s coffers by Mugabe and other high-ranking officials within his party.

Between 2003 and 2009, this southern African nation’s year on year inflation was reported as 231 percent. According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, 85 companies closed down in Harare last year and over 100 shut down in Bulawayo between 2009 and 2013. Unemployment is high, with most people being forced to work in the informal sector.

Independent political analyst Rashwit Mkundu said he foresees the country becoming an economic “powerhouse” under Tsvangarai’s leadership, if he wins this election.

“There is certainly going to be rapid economic recovery in Zimbabwe if Tsvangirai is announced winner of this election. Zimbabwe will fast emerge as an economic powerhouse of the rest of the African continent, possibly overtaking South Africa in terms of economic growth,” Mkundu told IPS.

Mugabe and some of his party hardliners in Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu–PF) are under economic sanctions from Western nations for violating human rights. However, in March the European Union suspended most of its sanctions, though Mugabe and a number of his followers remain on the list.

Analysts think this election could be the Zanu-PF leader’s last race before Mugabe disappears from the political scene, as he turns 90 years old in six months’ time.

Chairperson for the Council for Social Workers in Zimbabwe, Philip Bohwasi, told IPS that a victory by Tsvangirai would result in a stampede of investors to the country. A number pulled out after Mugabe implemented the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act of 2007. It states that foreign-owned companies are required to sell a 51 percent stake to locals to stimulate economic growth.

“Tsvangirai warms up very well to nations from the developed world from which most investors come. His victory in this election will spark a scramble for investment chances from investors abroad eager to put their investments here,” Bohwasi told IPS.

But Masimba Kuchera, an independent media analyst in Harare, told IPS that ordinary people should be careful not to build their hopes on impulsive policies pencilled in political party manifestos.

“Yes, I know most people who have voted in this election anticipate drastic changes from the MDC-T, which they widely believe will massively ride to victory when election results are announced. But what has convinced them to so overwhelmingly rally behind MDC-T are mere policies penned in the party’s campaign manifesto, which may be an exaggerated piece of paper designed to lure voters,” Kuchera said.

Although the Zanu-PF government, which entered a coalition arrangement with the two formations of the MDC, stands widely accused of being the architect of the country’s economic crisis, many, like 25-year-old Donemore Dziva, a jobless college graduate with a diploma in marketing, hopes for a Zanu-PF victory.

“I didn’t wake up so early in the morning to come and waste my vote on MDC-T because I didn’t see anything worthwhile it did for young jobless people like me during its tenure in the coalition government. I just hope we shall have President Mugabe back when the results shall be announced and let him finish the economic empowerment of locals here,” Dziva told IPS.

Other political analysts here say any win by Mugabe in this election would spell disaster for Zimbabwe.

“Any win that favours Mugabe in this election will be contestable and there is really nothing new that Mugabe has in store to warrant a justified return to the number one job in the land. His return will only further deepen the country’s economic crisis considering that Mugabe has not been successful in mending his dented relations with the rich European nations,” an independent political analyst, Blessing Vava, told IPS.

Harare businessman and owner of a fleet of trucks, Jabulani Gumbo, 56, thinks the large voter turnout is a signal of future great economic strides for Zimbabwe.

“There has never been such voting excitement here, save perhaps for 1980 at independence, and this means something much bigger is set to happen here. People want development to kick-start under a new regime,” Gumbo told IPS. There are no official figures yet available about the number of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots on Wednesday. Initial reports, however, show that the vote was largely a peaceful one.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told an estimated crowd of 40,000 supporters at a rally in Harare’s Freedom Square on Jul. 29 that his party had not being able to verify the names on the voters’ roll. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Jul 31 2013 (IPS)

“We definitely can’t miss this grand chance to cast our vote. It’s like Zimbabwe is just gaining independence; the excitement to see a new government coming into power is just incredible and we hope we get a new Zimbabwe rolling again,” 38-year-old Mildred Saungweme from Harare’s Hatfield suburb, told IPS.

On Wednesday, Jul. 31, the country is set to choose a president. It will be the third time that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T), has challenged President Robert Mugabe for power. Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu–PF), has been in office for 33 years.

However, ahead of Wednesday’s vote, election observers from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had doubts whether the poll would be credible.

“I’m worried [that the] voters’ current excitement may be hampered by certain forces determined to steal this election,” an AU observer speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS.“The risk of escalating violence and other human rights abuses after the election results are announced remains high because the infrastructure of violence remains intact." -- Human Rights Watch director for Southern Africa, Tiseke Kasambala

Hours before polling stations across this southern African nation opened at 5am, voters were still struggling to find out where they could verify their names on the electoral roll.

Those who knew where they would vote, like 73-year-old Tambudzai Gavi from Harare’s Mabvuku suburb, said they were willing to wait overnight in queues in order to cast their ballots.

“We have had one party, Zanu–PF, which has failed to deliver its promises for 33 years. I will sleep in the queue to make sure nobody will have an excuse to deny me the chance to cast my vote,” Gavi told IPS. Results are expected no later than Aug. 5.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been criticised by political parties and civil society organisations for failing to make the electoral roll available before the polls. There are an estimated 6.4 million registered voters, but concerns have been raised about the number of dead still on the roll.

According to the Electoral Act, the ZEC is required to provide all contesting political parties and observers who request it either a printed or electronic copy of the electoral roll.

“We wonder how names on the voters’ roll are going to be verified if the electronic voters roll has still not been made public,” Tawanda Chimhini, director of Elections Resource Centre, an independent elections organisation in Zimbabwe, told IPS.

Tsvangirai told an estimated crowd of 40,000 supporters at a rally in Harare’s Freedom Square on Jul. 29 that his party had not being able to verify the names on the voters’ roll. “About a day before the elections, ZEC has not presented us with the electronic voters’ roll, something which renders questionable its credibility to run this election,” Tsvangirai said.

International rights group Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Africa director, Daniel Bekele, told IPS that as legal and institutional reforms, including those to reform the security sector and the ZEC, had not been implemented, it did not create a space for free and fair elections.

“In spite of the difficult human rights environment, the elections are going ahead as a critical test both for Zimbabwe and the regional observers, SADC and AU in particular, to demonstrate genuine commitment to reflect the will of Zimbabwean people,” Bekele said.

“If the elections are rigged, Zimbabwe risks plunging into a complicated political crisis and the risk of violence and other human rights abuses is high,” added Bekele.

Already, ahead of the election there have been reports of violence, abductions and intimidation. IPS reported claims that local traditional leaders were cautioning villagers against voting for the MDC-T to avoid post-election violence by Zanu-PF. There were also reports of suspected Zanu-PF officials seizing voters’ identity cards.

On Jul. 30 reports by local media stated that riot police had been deployed to potential trouble areas in central Zimbabwe.

HRW’s director for Southern Africa, Tiseke Kasambala, told IPS that it would be difficult for voters to cast their ballots freely in light of these abuses.

“Zimbabwe’s unity government, consisting of the former ruling Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions, has failed to implement legal and institutional reforms to address various political, institutional and human rights issues ahead of elections,” Kasambala said.

She said that although the new Zimbabwean constitution, which was signed into law in May, had implemented some reforms; these were insufficient to level the political playing field as there has been no repeal or amendment of repressive legislation.

The country still needs to amend repressive laws like the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which stipulates that journalists should register annually with the Zimbabwe Media and Information Commission, and the Public Order and Security Act, which criminalises the reporting of falsehoods and leaves journalists open to litigation.

“The risk of escalating violence and other human rights abuses after the election results are announced remains high because the infrastructure of violence remains intact, and there has been no accountability for previous human rights abuses, including the 2008 political violence,” added Kasambala.

In 2008, following the disputed election that saw Mugabe hold on to power, violence erupted across the country. In a 2011 report titled Perpetual Fear: Impunity and Cycles of Violence in Zimbabwe, HRW stated that Zanu-PF had been responsible for abuses that led to the deaths of 200 people, and the beating and torture of 5,000 more.

Despite this, MDC-T supporters were excited ahead of the vote.

“We know Tsvangirai is going to win this election and form a new democratic government to relegate President Robert Mugabe to the dustbin of history,” 31-year-old Patricia Hove, a staunch MDC-T supporter, told IPS.

However, most Zanu-PF hardliners claim that a MDC-T victory means the country runs the risk of falling into an era of neo-colonialism.

“If MDC-T wins this election, we run the risk of falling into the hands of an indirect leadership of Britain again because this party is a puppet of Britain and America, countries which feed it money to garner support from ordinary Zimbabweans,” Goodson Nguni, a well know Zanu-PF leader, told IPS.

Meanwhile, 36-year-old unemployed civil engineer Nigel Samuriwo was looking forward to casting his vote. Samuriwo graduated 13 years ago, but he has not been able to find a job since.

“I’m so excited about this election. I’m so optimistic it will bring change in my life and a job I have never had under Mugabe’s government, which sparked the closure of several companies,” Samuriwo told IPS.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at a party rally on Jul. 29, 2013, two days before Zimbabwe’s election. Economists say that it does not matter who wins the country’s Jul. 31 election as none of the political parties may be able to reverse the country’s economic meltdown. Courtesy: Jeffrey Moyo

By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Jul 30 2013 (IPS)

At a recent campaign rally in Zimbabwe’s Midlands Province, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pledged to establish rural-based companies to create employment. It was a promise that appealed to 34-year-old sociologist Agnes Ngwenya who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe 10 years ago, but has not yet found work.

She broke into song and ecstatic ululation, as she jumped and gyrated with optimism, waving a red flag – a distinctive trademark of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T).

MDC–T promises to create a 100-billion-dollar economy by 2018, anchored by foreign direct investment. Meanwhile the splinter MDC–Ncube, led by Professor Welshman Ncube, pins its campaign on devolution, or decentralising governance.

“Believing that the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu–PF) 2013 campaign manifesto will one day transform the lives of many suffering Zimbabweans after the party’s three decades in power is a definite impossibility and absolutely untrue,” Ngwenya tells IPS.“We strongly believe that we no longer need a government of national unity, because it hampers our economic growth." -- Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Davison Norupiri

Zimbabweans go to the polls on Wednesday Jul. 31, amid reports of intimidation, threats of violence and abductions. But economists here say that it does not matter whether Tsvangirai’s MDC–T or President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu–PF wins the election, neither will be able to reverse Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown anytime soon.

Economist Kingston Nyakurukwa says that both parties have unrealistic plans for solving Zimbabwe’s economic problems.

“While I agree that MDC–T seems to have a better plan to rescue the country from a decade-long economic crisis, generally manifestos pencilled by the parties set to lock horns at this years’ elections are unrealistic, exaggerated and reflect the ambitiousness of the parties racing to govern this country rather than the pragmatic means to arrest the country’s economic woes,” Nyakurukwa tells IPS.

Between 2003 and 2009, this Southern African nation’s year on year inflation was reported as 231 percent. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was forced to issue a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note and eventually the central bank stopped printing money in 2009, opting to adopt a multi-currency regime. Not only that, unemployment is ridiculously high. A 2009 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that the country’s unemployment rate was 94 percent. A great majority now work in the informal sector.

Much of the country’s economic meltdown has been blamed on Mugabe’s policies, which include a controversial land reform programme that began in 2000 and saw over 300,000 people forcefully occupy land previously owned by an estimated 4,000 white commercial farmers.

Another controversial policy area is foreign investment.

Though for 21-year-old Evelyn Chatsi from Mwenezi district, about 144km southwest of Zimbabwe’s oldest town of Masvingo, it is not controversial at all. She feels it is a solution for her improved economic future.

“I know Zanu–PF will not betray young people. The party crafted the indigenisation policy to empower youths like us and come Jul. 31, our lives will be changed, with President Robert Mugabe back at the helm of leadership,” Chatsi tells IPS.

Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai rally on Jul. 29, 2013, two days before Zimbabwe’s election. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

Under the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act of 2007, foreign-owned companies are required to sell a 51 percent stake to locals to stimulate economic growth.

But some financers fear losing their investments through this policy. Independent economic analyst John Robertson says it has scared away investors and led to several companies closing down after being taken over by locals.

“With indigenisation, we have attracted very little new investments here and caused closure of several companies that offered employment to many people here,” Robertson tells IPS.

According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, 85 companies closed down in Harare last year and over 100 shut down in Bulawayo between 2009 and 2013.

Araj Mouri, a Zimbabwean-based Indian businessman, tells IPS: “We definitely can’t trust a party whose aim is to have its hands on our investments without bringing its own capital. We are therefore watching this election drama with scepticism.”

Claris Madhuku, director of Platform for Youth Development, a democracy lobby group, agrees that Zanu–PF’s indigenisation and economic empowerment policy has failed and says that is has caused “mayhem in the country, with many people linked to it scrambling to grab foreign-owned companies.”

“While MDC-T’s manifesto is reasonable, [it is] too ambitious, which may also be difficult to implement. The political parties want power; they don’t mean what they say,” he tells IPS.

Charles Msipa, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry, says Zimbabwe really needs a government with a consistent policy framework that addresses the country’s economic opportunities and challenges.

“But whether that policy environment is delivered by a coalition or single-party government, it’s for the electorate to decide,” Msipa tells IPS.

However, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Davison Norupiri says another coalition government would stifle economic growth. After the violence that followed Zimbabwe’s disputed 2008 election, Zanu–PF and MDC–T signed a pact to form a government of national unity with elections this year.

“We strongly believe that we no longer need a government of national unity, because it hampers our economic growth. With our [unity government] here, we haven’t moved much in terms of economic development,” Norupiri tells IPS.

Mike Milton, who runs a plastics manufacturing company in Harare, is also not sure that either party has a concrete solution to save the economy.

“Both MDC-T and Zanu-PF election manifestos lack pragmatic means to arrest the country’s decade long economic woes. They are not clear on how they aim to practically restore investor confidence,” Milton tells IPS.

“But if we have another disputed election, another coalition government may be unwelcome, which will throw this country into a serious and irretrievable economic morass,” he says.

But Prosper Chitambara, an economist with the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute Zimbabwe, an independent economic research think tank, says he doubts that Zanu–PF’s manifesto would yield any positive changes if the party won the elections.

“In its manifesto, Zanu-PF carries the same old story and I don’t think they will change the way they have been doing things for the past [three decades] even if they may win this election. What they are saying in their campaign manifesto only helps to weaken the value of the national assets and in this case, Zanu-PF’s manifesto is more ambitious than the MDC-T one,” Chitambara tells IPS.

“But I think under an MDC government, we shall see numerous positive transformations and developments hence people have so much expectations,” says Chitambara.

An African Union election observer speaking to IPS in Harare on condition of anonymity says political uncertainty has been the biggest factor in crippling Zimbabwe’s bid to grow its economy.