Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe performs in the low range in two categories of the Global State of Democracy framework: Representation and Rule of Law. It performs in the mid-range in Rights and Participation. It is in the bottom 25 per cent of countries with regard to multiple factors of Rights and Rule of Law. Over the last five years, Zimbabwe has experienced notable declines in Judicial Independence and Access to Justice but has advanced in Elected Government. It is a lower-middle income country with an economy driven by the agricultural, mining, and tourism sectors.
Since the late 1990s, Zimbabwe has experienced a protracted period of economic and political crisis, marked by historic hyperinflation of 89.7 sextillion per cent, punitive slum clearances, the violent seizure of white-owned farms and the eviction of hundreds of thousands of farmworkers.
Zimbabwe’s history of racial and ethnic discrimination means that these identities have an important political salience. The prominence of nativist politics in Zimbabwe since the 1990s, for example, owes much to the British colonial legacy of entrenched white privilege. The politics of race have been particularly visible in relation to land ownership. Also of political significance is the ethnic-regionalism present in the western provinces of Matabeleland, a phenomenon that has antecedents in the unaddressed scars of extreme violence against the Ndebele people in the 1980s by the government of the time. Today, Zimbabwe has two main self-identified indigenous groups, the Tshwa and Doma, the majority of whom live below the poverty line, Many face discrimination, societal insecurity, low employment levels, and limited political participation. Other minority groups include the Ndebele and Kalanga, Tonga, Shangaan, Venda, and whites.
The principal cleavage among Zimbabweans is political partisanship, and it is to this end that politicians have invoked these identities. The cleavage divides the supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF from a handful of opposition parties, the most prominent of which is the Citizens Coalition for Change. Polarization across this divide is high and is fuelled by the distinct demographic groups (Zanu-PF supporters who are overwhelmingly rural dwellers, less educated, older and female, and opposition supporters with the pattern reversed) and by their divergent news consumption, with partisans favouring separate news outlets.
In Zimbabwe, gender inequality and discrimination remain an obstacle for advancing women’s rights. Despite a progressive institutional framework to tackle gender-based violence, violence remains prevalent. Women also face structural barriers, and many are excluded from political participation, higher education, and the labour market.
The fragility of Zimbabwe’s democracy was laid bare when its long-serving independence leader, President Robert Mugabe, was deposed in a 2017 military coup that installed Mugabe’s estranged former-vice president (Emmerson Mnangagwa) as the new leader of the Zanu-PF party. While many were cautiously hopeful for democratic and economic reforms, the post-coup landscape has been marked by a deepening securitisation of politics, state capture and the violent suppression of dissenting voices. Furthermore, little progress has been made to stabilise Zimbabwe’s economy as Mnangagwa’s efforts to boost economic growth have failed.
Looking ahead, it will be important to watch the deepening securitization of the state and politics since the 2017 coup. This has occurred through the embedding of military personnel within Zanu-PF’s party structures and within strategically important Zimbabwean state institutions, including the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the judiciary. Concerning too, is the government’s dismantling of the newly minted constitutional constraints on presidential powers. Recent amendments have increased the president’s ability to determine the composition of the judiciary, which could impact Rule of Law metrics going forward.
https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/
February 2024
Ruling party wins by-elections after opposition candidates were excluded
In the three months following the August 2023 general election, 27 of the members of the National Assembly (as well as 14 Senators and a number of local councillors) from the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) were fraudulently recalled, triggering by-elections for those seats. The High Court in Harare ruled in December that the recalled members of parliament could not contest the by-elections as CCC candidates, essentially shutting the party out of several of the constituencies. The second set of by-elections was held on 3 February. In these elections, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) won all six seats, giving the party a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. The CCC’s founding leader, Nelson Chamisa, had already quit the party on 25 January, and the party has weakened further as other politicians have left the party since the by-elections.
Sources: eNews Channel Africa, Africa News (1), The Herald, Africa News (2), All Africa
November 2023
Fraudulent recall of opposition parliamentarians continues
The chaos within Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), deepened in November as Sengezo Tshabangu, a man purporting to be the party’s Secretary-General, submitted letters recalling a further 13 MPs and five Senators, whose seats were then declared vacant by the parliamentary Speaker and the President of the Senate on 14 November. In October, he recalled 14 MPs and nine senators. The High Court has also ruled that no further CCC MPs can be recalled until Tshabangu’s authority to issue the recalls has been determined. Separately, a legal application for reinstatement made by the first group of recalled parliamentarians (those recalled in October) was dismissed, meaning that by-elections to fill their seats will take place on 9 December. The recalls have been criticised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which also raised concerns about physical attacks on opposition legislators by state actors – a trend that has intensified in the lead up to the December by-elections.
Sources: Africa Confidential, International IDEA, Veritas, The Zimbabwe Mail (1), The Zimbabwe Mail (2), The Zimbabwe Mail (3), Inter-Parliamentary Union, The Africa Report
October 2023
Opposition party thrown into chaos by fraudulent recall of parliamentarians
In October, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change, was thrown into chaos by a letter to the parliamentary speaker from a man fraudulently claiming to be the party’s Secretary-General and recalling 14 of its MPs and nine of its senators. Despite a request from the CCC’s leader, Nelson Chamisa, that the letter be disregarded, the parliamentary Speaker and the President of the Senate, who are both members of the governing Zanu-PF party, declared the seats to be vacant, triggering by-elections that create an opportunity for Zanu-PF to achieve a two-thirds majority in the legislature and with it the ability to amend the constitution. The speaker’s decision prompted protests from CCC MPs, who were subsequently suspended for six parliamentary sittings after riot police were called to eject the MPs from the chamber. Chamisa later said CCC would ‘disengage’ from lawmaking. The recalled MPs have challenged their recall in court.
Note: This report was updated on 13 December for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
Sources: News 24 (1), Africa Confidential, The Africa Report, News 24 (2), Veritas
September 2023
Rise in political violence amidst post-election government crackdown
Following Zimbabwe’s election on 23 August, media and human rights organisations reported a rise in political violence as government forces cracked down on opposition politicians, supporters and human rights defenders. Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF), a Human Rights NGO, documented 316 incidents of organised violence and torture between 24 August and 30 September 2023 (an increase on the 274 incidents it recorded during the volatile post-electoral period in 2018). The types of violence documented by the ZHRF include arbitrary arrest, torture, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. Reports indicate that the victims were predominantly members or supporters of the main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), and that they were targeted because of their association with the CCC. The perpetrators are thought to have been members of state security agencies and supporters of the ruling party, Zanu-PF.
Sources: Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, The East African, Africa Confidential, The Guardian
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