Michelle Chifamba, 

In its weekly critical analysis into the Zimbabwean political economy, Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, a political think-tank based in Harare says the protracted struggle for independence in Zimbabwe has become a long unattainable dream and goal for citizens, human rights advocates and democracy defenders in the forty- four years of independence from colonial rule, as liberators have gradually become oppressors.

According to ZDI’s issue titled ‘the Zim-Agora/Public Sphere’, Zimbabweans have been suffering at the mercy of their political leaders who have turned from being liberators to oppressors, transitioning from the tight-seat rule of the late president Robert Mugabe overthrown from political office by the military in 2017, and  now President Mnangagwa who is trying to maintain his authoritarian rule by attempting to amend the constitution to facilitate a third term in office, when his legal mandate of a second term is expiring in 2028.

The ZDI report proposes that the current political discord in the ruling party Zanu PF under Mnangagwa’s regime suggest that the political transition in the country is hazy and unclear, potentially disastrous if the law is not followed in crafting an effective post Mnangagwa era.

“Apart from the succession power struggles within the ruling Zanu PF and attempts to have an unconstitutional change through prolonging President Mnangagwa’s term in office to 2030, the country is also witnessing a complex, unpredictable and very complicated dual transition manifest in the merging of both the political and economic transition simultaneously. The economic regression characterized by plunging industrial capacity utilization, increased levels of poverty and deprivation exacerbated by drought leaving millions in need of food aid; the biting liquidity crisis and the introduction of the ZIG currency, and the rising costs of food,” reads part of the ZDI report.

ZDI states that the connection between politics and economic has led to economic conditions having an effect on political stability and transition.

“In authoritarian states such as Zimbabwe, regimes shape economic policy, the distribution and management of public goods and resources in accordance with the elite’s political and economic objectives and in this case the central strategic objective is power retention. Thus, economic policy and distribution of resources is not done to encourage a wider distribution of wealth, the regulation does not protect individual rights or a culture of service delivery,” states the ZDI report.

ZDI further states that for Zimbabweans, the year 2024 has been demonstrated by the regime’s obsession with power and power retention at the expense of economic development.

“ZANU PF has maintained power by suppressing the opposition and the organization of

agents of political representation as shown in the complete destruction of the opposition

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) whose leader Nelson Chamisa has resigned arguing

the state has overtaken the opposition party. New and innovative ways have not emerged to confront the state leading to arguments that Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party regime,” states the ZDI report.