Southern Africa: economic nationalism ‘Empowerment’ benefits political elites while businesses are spooked and citizens are left with nothing but empty promises By Ray Ndlovu A wind of economic nationalism is blowing over southern Africa but curiously, the ordinary citizens who are supposed to be its main beneficiaries have largely been left to spectate from the sidelines. A sign of the emergence of this form of economic nationalism occurred in early 2000, when Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, authorised the seizure of farms owned by nearly 6,000 commercial white farmers. Mr Mugabe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF, liked to refer to the land seizures…
Ray Ndlovu
Zimbabwe’s parastatal paralysis While public employees go without pay for months, their bosses score enormous salaries When Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was sworn in for a seventh consecutive term in August 2013, he named the fight against corruption as the biggest priority of his new term. Almost a year later a series of exposés related to pay packages in Zimbabwe’s loss-making parastatals has embarrassed the 90-year-old leader and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) government. The scandals, dubbed “Salarygate” in local media, came to light in November last year when The Herald, a state-owned newspaper, began publishing details of…
Zimbabwe: the con Two years after voters approved a progressive constitution, repressive laws remain on the books In March this year, police in eastern Zimbabwe arrested Samson Jackson for mocking the country’s 91-year-old president. “Robert Mugabe is about to die, so why do you waste your time following his party?” Mr Jackson is alleged to have asked a public meeting of the ruling party in Manicaland province. Police charged him with contravening what is commonly referred to as the “insult law” that makes disrupting a public gathering a crime. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.…
Zimbabwe: the stalled Movement for Democratic Change Morgan Tsvangirai should take the blame for the collapse of Zimbabwe’s major opposition party The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party, is at its lowest ebb since its formation in 1999. Split into factions and plagued with infighting, it poses no threat to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) or its leader Robert Mugabe, president since 1980. MDC boss Morgan Tsvangirai—once a darling of the masses at home and a figure of hope abroad—is a shadow of the man who just six years ago seemed poised to topple…
Prostitution in Zimbabwe by Ray Ndlovu Notorious for their heavy-handed restraint of President Robert Mugabe’s political opponents, Zimbabwe’s police have now launched a crackdown on sex workers in the capital, Harare. Although prostitution is illegal in Zimbabwe, civil liberties groups are concerned that police are violating the human rights of sex workers. Police officials, however, claim that they are simply doing their job and recent operations against sex workers are meant to clean up the city. The sex workers, for their part, accuse the police of arresting them and then soliciting sex for their release. The reason for the police…
Zimbabwe: asleep at the wheel Trade unions provide yet another reason for Mr Mugabe to rest easy at night By Ray Ndlovu Back in the 1990s, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was a fierce opponent of President Robert Mugabe. It drove the rise of resistance politics in the country and gave birth to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party. Unions were at the frontline of political activism in Zimbabwe when Morgan Tsvangirai headed the federation and went on to found the MDC in September 1999. He has remained a thorn in Mr Mugabe’s side…
Dry days in Zimbabwe by Ray Ndlovu Last July the Bulawayo City Council closed the taps to preserve the south-western city’s dwindling water supplies. For 48 hours every week, they turned off running water to residential areas. The dry days would differ from suburb to suburb and newspapers would print notices of the days and areas to be affected. A tiny minority of wealthy people in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, were able to rely on water from privately-owned boreholes on their properties. In contrast, most of the city’s 1.5 million inhabitants had to store water for cooking, cleaning, and bathing…
Can Mugabe create a tranquil and tolerant election environment? by Ray Ndlovu Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, backed by a powerful military and his ruling party’s vast wealth from the eastern Marange diamond fields, is set to fight for his political survival as he stands against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a new round of elections this year. On the road to the latest face-off, Mugabe has been careful not to openly provoke a climate of fear and intimidation, a stance that has surprised the main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Instead, Mugabe has persistently called for peace and…
