Source: The Nexus Between Mining and Violence – ZimRights The study investigates and analyses the linkages between mining, human rights abuses, political and electoral violence in Zimbabwe. Using a combination of desk research, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions, it explores in detail the phenomenon of machete gangs connected to artisanal mining in Bindura, Kadoma […]
The study investigates and analyses the linkages between mining, human rights abuses, political and electoral violence in Zimbabwe.
Using a combination of desk research, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions, it explores in detail the phenomenon of machete gangs connected to artisanal mining in Bindura, Kadoma and Kwekwe. While artisanal and small-scale mining (ASSM) has provided significant socio-economic opportunities for communities, the emergence of machete gangs associated with gold rushes and how these have evolved over time has created a toxic situation. Machete gangs emerged initially as groups of artisanal miners, commonly referred to as makorokoza, fought for control and access of gold rush sites, but over time have taken on a rather complex character.
Evidence gathered in this research raises several red flags from the perspective of community safety and security, human rights, and prospects for a free and fair 2023 general election.
Without governance reforms, Zimbabwe will continue to face an economic crisis. Source: Zimbabwe heads to the polls amid high inflation, a slumping currency and a cost of living crisis Inflation continues to defy Zimbabwe central bank efforts Getty images Jonathan Munemo, Salisbury University Zimbabwe is facing a host of pressing challenges that voters dearly want […]
Without governance reforms, Zimbabwe will continue to face an economic crisis.
Zimbabwe is facing a host of pressing challenges that voters dearly want the next president to address. Persistently high inflation, elevated interest rates, and a slumping and volatile Zimbabwe dollar have combined to fuel a cost of living crisis for households and battered business activity.
These will be among the key economic concerns weighing on Zimbabweans as they prepare to cast their votes at elections scheduled for late August. President Emmerson Mnangagwa is campaigning to secure a second mandate that will extend his five-year term in power. He will square off against 10 presidential candidates, including the opposition’s main candidate Nelson Chamisa.
Inflation remains sticky and jumped 175.8% in June from 86.5% a month ago. Part of the recent re-acceleration in inflation was triggered by the Zimbabwe dollar’s slide, which plunged 85% in the two months through May and pushed up import costs. Although inflation edged lower in July, it still remains significantly elevated.
The central bank responded by hiking interest rates to 150% from a previously elevated level of 140%. This move intensifies the pullback on business and consumer spending caused by currency weakening. Additionally, the high pace of price growth has outpaced nominal wage growth, leaving many people struggling to afford everyday essentials. Fewer jobs add to these concerns.
Stubbornly high inflation and its negative impact on the value of the Zimbabwe dollar are symptoms of much deeper problems rooted in decades of fiscal and central bank governance weaknesses. That’s why inflation has defied central bank efforts to rein it in with a series of aggressive rate hikes.
The next president will therefore need to push for reforms in governance to tackle deep underlying problems. Otherwise the country will remain locked in a seemingly endless battle to ward off the economic crisis that is being acutely felt by voters.
Governance vulnerabilities
Governance broadly refers to institutions used to exercise authority by the government. Long-running weaknesses in fiscal and central bank governance institutions have undermined the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound fiscal and monetary policies for many years.
Between 2005 and 2008 for example, the government pursued an expansionary fiscal policy. Public spending averaged 8% of GDP.
However, because of weak budgetary processes, spending was less efficient especially in areas critical for supporting stronger growth such as education, health, and public infrastructure. This meant that the economy could not generate more government revenue. Average government revenue collected was only about 5% of GDP over this period. The budget shortfalls were financed by printing money, which undermined the independence and credibility of the central bank. This impaired the central bank’s ability to fulfill its mandate, including supporting price stability.
The influx of printed cash in the economy fanned domestic demand but did nothing to spur the production of goods and services to meet it. Inflation spiked and drove the value of the currency lower, raising the cost of imported goods and thus amplifying inflation pressures.
This dynamic created a feedback loop in which rising inflation and a weakening currency reinforced each other. The result was hyperinflation. In 2008 inflation reached 231 million %, prompting the government to withdraw the weakening Zimbabwe dollar from circulation the following year and to replace it with the US dollar to combat hyperinflation.
In the years following the switch to the US dollar, inflation receded until 2019 when the Zimbabwe dollar was re-introduced. This was done without fixing vulnerabilities in fiscal and monetary governance that had eventually led to the demise of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009.
Because of these vulnerabilities, inflation skyrocketed to 255% in 2019 – a 23-fold increase from a year earlier as money supply growth quickened from 28% to 250% amid a widening government budget deficit which topped 10% of GDP in 2017. Since then, the central bank has not been able to get a sustained deceleration in inflation despite aggressive rate hikes.
And the negative feedback loop between high inflation and a collapsing local currency was on full display again following the plunge in the currency in recent months. This has made the US dollar more attractive, and it is used more widely to pay for everything from food, fuel, school fees, rent and other services. In February the central bank adopted a new inflation gauge that tracks prices in both Zimbabwean and US dollars to capture this reality.
The US dollar is also seen as a haven which has taken on greater importance as inflation remains stubbornly high. In many ways, the return of the Zimbabwe dollar evokes bad memories of the inflation crisis of 2008 which still loom large for many people.
Weaknesses in governance breed corruption
Weaknesses in governance also create opportunities for higher levels of government corruption, which can lead to public spending waste, inefficiencies and lower revenue collection. All worsen budget deficits and add to monetary financing pressures on a central bank lacking independence.
In 2022, Transparency International ranked Zimbabwe 157 out of 180 countries based on perceived levels of public sector corruption, where the lower the rank the higher the perceived corruption. The evidence also showed no significant progress in tackling corruption for more than a decade. Another 2022 survey by Afrobarometer revealed that a staggering 87% of Zimbabweans believe corruption has increased or stayed the same.
A path forward
Zimbabwe’s economy is facing a confluence of challenges: inflation that won’t go away, higher interest rates and a sliding currency. The fallout has included a cost of living crisis, slowing business activity and fewer jobs. These problems are symptoms of deeply embedded structural weaknesses in the economy.
The following reforms are crucial for addressing these structural weaknesses:
Fiscal governance reforms to strengthen the budgetary process. This will enhance revenue collection and increase the efficiency of government spending. These reforms should also aim to boost revenue collection by lowering pervasive informality in the economy.
Central bank governance reforms to promote autonomy of the bank’s operations, including monetary policy independence which is important for preserving price stability.
In addition, good fiscal governance positively affects central bank governance by reducing the need for central bank financing, which allows a reduction in inflation.
Even in the short time left before the Aug. 23 vote, there are steps the government can take to enhance the quality of the elections. Source: Zimbabwe’s Impending Elections: A Challenge for International Observers – Just Security Zimbabweans head to the polls on Aug. 23 for the second time since Robert Mugabe’s nearly four decades […]
Even in the short time left before the Aug. 23 vote, there are steps the government can take to enhance the quality of the elections.
Zimbabweans head to the polls on Aug. 23 for the second time since Robert Mugabe’s nearly four decades in power ended in 2017. As many countries do, Zimbabwe has invited international observers to monitor the elections. But delays in inviting and then accrediting such missions and limits imposed on their activities suggest the government is doing so somewhat reluctantly. The tensions pose significant challenges for those observing the upcoming elections and, more generally, for anyone concerned about the role of observers in assessing the quality of electoral processes around the world.
Given ongoing negotiations with the international community to clear the country’s debt arrears, Zimbabwe’s government needs the imprimatur that international observers could provide but is sensitive to any potential criticism of its conduct. Still, even in the short time left before the vote, there are steps the government can take to enhance the quality of the elections.
Zimbabwe’s history suggests that the government’s actions are not the result merely of entrenched bureaucratic processes but reflect a determined effort to limit the scope of the observation effort. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government may have an interest in obscuring conditions that hinder a free and fair vote. The human rights situation in Zimbabwe is demonstrably worse than five years ago – Amnesty International recently described it as “a brutal crackdown on human rights, especially the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.”
Among the abuses: the Zimbabwean government successfully engineered the break-up of the main opposition party that contested the 2018 elections by awarding the party assets to a minority faction; few proposed electoral reforms have been enacted; opposition activists have been arrested and detained for significant periods; popular distrust has increased regarding the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the judiciary; opposition candidates are being removed from the ballot on questionable legal grounds, although court rulings have reversed the most egregious cases; and the government continues to provide economic and social benefits to supporters of the ruling party that are denied to the opposition.
My involvement with Zimbabwe’s elections, while sporadic, has spanned almost 40 years. It began in 1985, when I joined three colleagues as part of a modest international effort on behalf of a small human rights organization based in the United States. The Mugabe government’s response to our request to observe was telling: it allowed us the freedom to travel around the country and to speak with whomever we chose, but it declined to accredit our small team, which would have provided access inside polling stations.
Some Improvements in 2018
The situation improved considerably in 2018, when I co-directed an international observer delegation organized by the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute (IRI and NDI, respectively). The newly installed government of Mnangagwa, who had been Mugabe’s vice president and took office after a 2017 coup, was seeking to project a new era of engagement with Western democracies. He welcomed international observers and facilitated their operations.
I arrived in Zimbabwe in mid-April 2018, well before the election was scheduled, and remained for a month beyond the July 30 election day. Our delegation was accredited to observe all aspects of the election process and to deploy long-term observers in all 10 provinces for more than a month prior to the elections. And a high-level pre-election assessment mission engaged with key government officials and articulated, two months before election day, a set of recommendations to enhance the quality of the elections.
The run-up to the vote was less violent than previous elections and election day administrative processes worked well. The IRI/NDI delegation noted “several improvements to the electoral process compared to Zimbabwe’s past elections.” Nonetheless, the delegation concluded that, “equally important problems give rise to deep concerns that the process thus far has not made the mark.” The government was not happy with this critical bottom line, which hindered their campaign to lift sanctions that had been imposed by the United States and the European Union since the early 2000s.
The run-up to the 2023 elections has presented many of the challenges encountered in elections prior to 2018 and some of the same from that year as well. The president announced the Aug. 23 election date on May 31, within the legally prescribed time period, and the electoral commission established regulations five days later for submitting applications for both domestic and international observer accreditation. But the accreditation process took time, so the first international observers sponsored by the European Union, for example, did not begin arriving until the end of June, less than two months before the election. In addition, observers were not authorized to monitor the setting of district boundaries following the new census and voter registration processes, which took place prior to the proclamation of the election date.
Enhancing Election Credibility
Under these circumstances, one can legitimately ask what purpose international observers will serve. However, even in the limited period left before election day, observers can suggest steps that can be taken to enhance the credibility of the vote. A few examples:
Political parties should be authorized to organize rallies with minimal hassle and with adequate protection from the security forces, unlike a pattern reported recently of police banning opposition rallies, citing shortage of resources;
The design and printing of the ballots should be conducted in a transparent manner;
The multi-party liaison committees authorized by law to ensure that problems are addressed in real time should be convened on a regular basis in each of the provinces and with the ability to ensure that corrective actions are taken.
Zimbabwean activists overwhelmingly welcome the presence of international observers. They expect the international observers to deter or identify the most blatant election-day rigging, and to offer an objective assessment of the overall electoral process. They expect that international observers will do more than merely comment on election day events but will emphasize that honest, credible, and transparent elections are defined also by the political and security environment before and after election day.
In this regard, the European Union and Carter Center, with their rigorous standards and considerable experience with election observation in settings like Zimbabwe, will be particularly important. Moreover, data collected by Zimbabwe’s wealth of civil society organizations during the past 10 months will contribute to the ability of international observers to provide a comprehensive analysis of the entire election process and to comment more broadly than on the election-day events alone.
To avoid Zimbabwe’s approach serving as precedent for future elections in other countries, international organizations should carefully consider appropriate responses. Indeed, once the elections are complete, international organizations such as the Carter Center, IRI, NDI, and the European Union, should review existing policies and practices for observing elections in situations where the host government limits the time for on-the-ground observation to take place and imposes other constraints. While such actions may be within the sovereign rights of government, they suggest an antagonism toward the observation process that adversely impacts the multiple goals of international observation.
The challenges facing Zimbabwe will not end on Aug. 23, as the negotiations over the country’s debt arrears attest. Whatever the outcome of this election cycle, officials in Washington and Brussels will have to be cognizant of both the economic and social needs of the population and the imperative of supporting the evolution of democratic institutions. Experience in Zimbabwe alone demonstrates just how difficult the task will be.
IMAGE: A woman casts a ballot at a polling station on March 26, 2022 in Mbizo township, Kwekwe, Zimbabwe, during parliamentary and local authority by-elections that were seen as a yardstick of what is to come in the 2023 general polls. (Photo by ZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP via Getty Images)
Source: Nelson Chamisa’s Face as a Logo – A Questionable Choice for CCC Let me start off by saying that I am all for embracing creativity, innovation, and expressing oneself, especially when it comes to political parties. However, there are certain things that make you question the decision-making process behind some choices. Take, for instance, […]
Let me start off by saying that I am all for embracing creativity, innovation, and expressing oneself, especially when it comes to political parties. However, there are certain things that make you question the decision-making process behind some choices.
Take, for instance, the case of Nelson Chamisa, who decided to let his own face be used as the logo for his newly formed party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). Now, pardon me if I indulge in a bit of mockery, but really, Mr. Chamisa? Your face as a logo? Let’s pause for a moment of contemplation and introspection.
You see, when getting a glimpse of the CCC logo for the first time, I couldn’t help but wonder what went through the minds of those involved in its creation. Did they all sit around a table, scratching their heads, and then someone suddenly exclaimed, “Eureka! I’ve got it! Let’s use Nelson Chamisa’s face as our logo!” I just can’t help but think this decision might have been made after one too many cups of coffee and a few sleepless nights.
Let’s take a closer look at the logo itself. Here we have Mr. Chamisa’s face, staring back at us with a slightly determined, slightly intense gaze. It’s as if he’s saying, “Yes, I am the face of change, and I see you, Zimbabwe.” But what I can’t help but wonder is, what about the rest of the party members? Are they not equally important? Or did they simply not possess the photogenic qualities required for a logo? Perhaps they were too busy focusing on actual policies and strategies to bother with such frivolities.
Now, I understand that in politics, name recognition plays a significant role. People love to put a face to a name, and Mr. Chamisa is no stranger to the limelight. However, using his face as a logo seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? Are we to believe that his facial features somehow encapsulate the essence of this political party? Are we to infer that the CCC’s policies will be directly correlated to the shape of Mr. Chamisa’s nose or the curvature of his eyebrows? It’s almost as if they’re saying, “Vote for us, and you too can have a political party named after your face!”
But let’s not forget the potential consequences of this decision. What happens if, heaven forbid, Mr. Chamisa decides that politics is no longer his cup of tea? Will the Citizens Coalition for Change be forever chained to his face? Will they have to go through an expensive rebranding process to update their logo whenever hairstyles change or wrinkles start to make an appearance? These are the questions that keep me up at night, my friends.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure Nelson Chamisa is a perfectly fine gentleman, and he may even be the charismatic leader that the CCC needs. However, I can’t help but think that using his face as a logo is a tad narcissistic. It’s like he’s saying, “Look at me, Zimbabwe. Look at what I created.” And while self-confidence is certainly admirable, there’s a line between confidence and ego that may have been crossed here.
In the grand scheme of things, perhaps this logo choice is of little consequence. After all, a logo does not define the policies or ideologies of a political party. It is merely a symbol, a visual representation that is meant to inspire and captivate its audience. But when that symbol is the beaming face of its leader, one can’t help but be slightly amused and slightly confused.
So, as we bid farewell to this introspective journey into the world of political logos, let us keep in mind that sometimes, even with the best intentions, we fall prey to the quirkiest of decisions. And perhaps, just perhaps, we can laugh a little, contemplate a little, and maybe even learn a little from the face that launched a political party.
Source: Chief Khumalo replaces Charumbira –Newsday Zimbabwe Charumbira was elected as Khumalo’s deputy in polls conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in Harare. MATABELELAND North traditional leader, Chief Mtshane Khumalo, has been elected as new president of the National Chiefs Council, taking over from Fortune Charumbira, who chose to step aside after leading the […]
Charumbira was elected as Khumalo’s deputy in polls conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in Harare.
MATABELELAND North traditional leader, Chief Mtshane Khumalo, has been elected as new president of the National Chiefs Council, taking over from Fortune Charumbira, who chose to step aside after leading the traditional leaders’ body since 2013.
Charumbira was elected as Khumalo’s deputy in polls conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in Harare yesterday.
The two traditional leaders automatically qualify to sit in Parliament as senators.
The remaining 16 traditional leaders’ seats in Parliament will be contested in an election scheduled for August 24, 2023.
Speaking after his election, Khumalo said he was humbled by the faith shown in him by other traditional leaders
“It is a responsibility I do not take lightly, and I am committed to upholding the values and traditions that have guided our nation for generations,” Chief Khumalo said.
“I stand ready to work alongside my esteemed colleague, Chief Charumbira, and the entire council to further strengthen our traditional leadership institution and contribute to the progress of our beloved Zimbabwe.”
Charumbira, who stepped down as the president, expressed gratitude for being elected deputy.
“While my time as president comes to a close, I am excited to embrace this new role and continue serving our traditional leadership institution in a different capacity,” Charumbira, who had already endorsed Khumalo, said.
“I am committed to working hand-in-hand with Chief Khumalo, the council, and all our dedicated members to ensure the enduring strength and relevance of our traditions.
