Survival in Zimbabwe
Yvonne Vera, The Stone Virgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, ISBN 0-374-27008-2
The Lost Jewel
President Robert Mugabe shows no sign of retiring or surrendering power to the growing opposition party in Zimbabwe. Martin Meredith’s Our Votes Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe published by Public Affairs, June 2003, provides the background to one of this week’s crises in Africa.
The ruins of Zimbabwe
At independence, Zimbabwe was one of the countries in the southern part of Africa with a very solid economic standing. It had the infrastructure and the systems in place for a continued progress of the economy and the country as a whole. Mugabe himself was an acclaimed hero: “the revolutionary leader who had embraced the cause of reconciliation and who now sought a pragmatic way forward.” Western governments were impressed with the transition and flooded Zimbabwe with offers of aid. President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the late President of Tanzania advised Mugabe at independence that: “You have inherited a jewel. Keep it that way.”
For a number of years Mugabe did indeed take care of the jewel – it was the bread basket of the Southern Africa region and the literacy rate in Zimbabwe rose to 90%. It’s been 28 years since the jewel was placed in Mugabe’s hands and today, it is unrecognizable and Nyerere should be turning in his grave.
Ethical challenges in media coverage of the Zimbabwe crisis
This paper examines some ethical challenges manifested in the media coverage of the Zimbabwe land crisis since it escalated in 2002. The crisis has mainly been around issues of land; with seizure of land from dominating white-minority farmers, for redistribution amongst the black-majority population. Beyond the re-settlement policy, a sky-rocketing inflation, a deteriorating economy, gross human rights violations, poor governance and the dictatorial tendencies of 27-year serving President Robert Mugabe have only help to weaken the country. Within this context, the media are muscled, constrained and operated under draconian press laws. Yet, domestic and international media remain the battle ground for conflicting parties, both within and beyond the national frontiers. A brief recollection of Zimbabwe’s political history, its recent socio-political context and stakeholders as well as the evolution and media landscape put the ethical challenges in context.
South Africa: The Good News
An interview with Cyprian Mkhuseli CyprianVimba, a South African human Rights Lawyer, portrays some of the issues that face his country, that only last week has celebrated a decade of democracy and liberation. He finds that black South Africans responses to white role are fundamentally conciliatory.
Devolution and the new Constitutional Dispensation in Zimbabwe
Dr Jephias Mapuva and Loveness Muyengwa-Mapuva discuss the potential of Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitutional reform to decentralize governmental powers and bolster democratic participation in local governance while also recognizing the many challenges to its implementation.
The Law and Practice of the Devolved System of Governance in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s new constitution provides a legal framework for a devolved system of governance. Harmonizing with this new system, Jephias Mapuva suggests, will be to the benefit of local authorities, and the nation as a whole.