The constitutional referendum in Zimbabwe in February 2000 and subsequent violent invasion of over 1,500 commercial farms, are widely regarded as the start of what is commonly termed ‘the Zimbabwe crisis’. It is easy to see the current situation as being rooted in a single historical event, or about a single issue, namely land. How true is this? What does a broader historical perspective add to our understanding of the crisis, and what critical challenges can we identify in Zimbabwe?
This issue paper from the Centre for Development Research in Copenhagen considers the complex origins of the crisis and its multiple aspects and effects. The authors focus on four interlinking themes through which the complexities and challenges of the current crisis in Zimbabwe can be usefully analysed and understood: (1) land, (2) state, governance and citizenship, (3) democracy and civil society, and (4) regional and international dimensions.
One of the key paradoxes of the present crisis in Zimbabwe is, on the one hand, a decline in the official democratic spaces for political expression, while on the other, a dynamic growth in political consciousness and activism within an increasingly vibrant civil society. This latter trend has been enhanced by the expansion of the independent media and electronic information technology.
Other conclusions from the paper are that:
- The ruling party’s narrow focus on land masks a more varied and dynamic set of economic relations and livelihood strategies among both rural and urban dwellers
- The opposition and its allies have been left with little space to engage substantially with questions of redistribution, producing a distorting dichotomy between the critically linked challenges of redistribution and rights
- At the regional and international level, the crisis is as much symbolic as it is pragmatic, and has brought to the surface old ideological tensions partly forgotten in a post-cold war era
- While Zimbabwe’s relations with its traditional allies and partners in the region and internationally have become strained, new alliances with mainly ‘southern’ partners are being strengthened.
The terms and relations of international co-operation in Zimbabwe need to be creatively re-imagined and democratically renegotiated. While retaining a focus on poverty reduction, rights and sustainable development, such processes need to interrogate closely all the possible effects of international actions, including those aimed at crisis prevention. Regional and pan-African actors in particular need to be more consistent in their stance towards regional crises, and take a more proactive role in crisis prevention and resolution.
Other critical challenges include:
- Democratic definition of the terms of land access, tenure security and resource rights, with institutional support
- Sufficient resources for new, non-partisan land administration structures with relevant professional capacity and authority to implement just and rational redistribution policies
- Re-establishing the rule of law and independence of the judiciary
- Disarmament and reintegration of war veterans and other militia; depoliticisation of the army, police and state administration
- Support for a broad-based, national participatory process through which a new constitution can be drafted, debated and democratically endorsed
- Deepening democracy through institutions and processes of governance empowered to ensure the practice of democratic politics and protection of real rights of ordinary citizens.
