Animal Farm

  On August 26th, 2023, Zimbabweans went to bed with shoes on - a common proverb amongst the local folks which simply translates to being heavily disappointed - after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, in the dead of the night, announced presidential results and declared Emmerson Mnangagwa as the winner with 52.6% of the votes with his closest rival, Nelson Chamisa of the Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC)’s having gathered only 44% of the vote in the harmonized elections which were held on August 23rd and 24th.  The elections were hugely shambolic and have since received widespread condemnation with regional, international and local bodies and human rights groups such as the SADC observer mission, the AU observer mission, the UN secretary general, the Carter Center Election Observer Mission, the EU observer mission, ZESN, ERC among many others. This was the second election after the toppling of Zimbabwe’s long time dictator Robert Gabriel Mugabe who was succeeded by his former long-ti

  On the 23rd of August 2023, Zimbabwe will hold its harmonized elections amid a plethora of challenges ranging from socio-economic instability and political upheaval. In recent months, Zimbabwe has seen the return of hyper-inflation in which the Zimbabwean dollar has completely collapsed on the parallel market against the market preferred United States dollar, hunger and starvation due to poor rains as a result of climate change and political crisis emanating from disputed elections and contested politics.  As Jake Courtney explained in the elusive dream poem, “We seek out pleasure, and flee from pain, But the dream is fickle, and our joys are fleeting gains. We try to control our fate, and shape our destiny, But the dream is beyond our control, a mystery. Yet still we strive, and still we hope, For in the great strange dream, there is always scope. To find a glimmer of joy, a spark of delight, and hold on to it, with all our might.” Each and every year, Zimbabweans look forward to an

  By Youngerson Matete   On the 23rd of August 2023, Zimbabwe is headed for polls which are meant to chose the President, members of parliament and local authorities who will serve the country for the next 5 years amid growing fears of another rigged elections.  The fears have been ignited by the emergence of Forever Associates of Zimbabwe, a shadow group known as FAZ which is allegedly runned by the Central intelligence organisation (CIO) - a security organ that has direct and partisan links to the current government and the ZANU-PF party. The group has reportedly taken over the running of elections in Zimbabwe ahead of the August 2023 crunch polls. Forever Associates of Zimbabwe claims to be a trust organisation that was initially formed in 2010 by students at Solusi University to promote the economic empowerment and integration of its members into the mainstream national economy by establishing and conducting businesses and facilitating their preferential access to opportunities, ei

By Youngerson Matete   President Emmerson D. Mnangagwa, this week, through a gazette, announced that Zimbabwe will go to the polls on Wednesday, the 23rd of August 2023 to elect the next President, members of parliament and local authorities (councilors) for the country.  The declaration of the election date by the President means that Zimbabwe will go to elections without a single electoral or political reform as the electoral reform bill, HB 11 of 2022 was still being debated before the parliament. This means that the electoral reform bill is no longer applicable to this general elections according to section 157(5) of the constitution of Zimbabwe which clearly states that, "after an election has been called, no change to the Electoral Law or to any other law relating to elections has effect for the purpose of that election." The background and battle for reforms in Zimbabwe   Since 2000, Zimbabwe has been battling with a political crisis emanating from disputed elections w

  By Youngerson Matete   The historical background of Zimbabwe's economic crisis   The looming economic crisis has gotten many Zimbabweans extremely worried. This is largely because Zimbabwe has experienced economic and political crisis before.   The crisis was underpinned by hyperinflation, lack of basic commodities in shops, prolonged water and electricity cuts, hunger, and outbreak of water borne diseases. Fifteen years ago, during a financial crisis, Zimbabwe recorded the second highest incidence of hyperinflation in history – the country’s inflation rate for November 2008 was a staggering 79,600,000,000% (essentially a daily inflation rate of 98%). Prices for basic commodities were increasing more than twice every day – goods and services would cost twice as much each following day. With the unemployment rate exceeding 70%, economic activities in Zimbabwe virtually shut down and turned the domestic economy into a barter trade economy. The cause of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation was

By Youngerson Matete   As Zimbabwe head to the polls in August this year, serious electoral flaws and human rights abuses by the government has undermined any meaningful prospects of free and fair elections. A few months to go before Zimbabweans elect a president, members of parliament and local government representatives, the country is in a "dizzy" mood. It doesn't feel like its any election year. By this time in an a normal election year the country must have been with political rallies, enthusiasm and a lot of political activities. The political and electoral playing field remains deeply uneven and stacked in favour of ZANU-PF. As the country stumbles towards the 2023 polls, party and state conflation and lack of implementation of meaningful political and electoral reforms that aligns both the electoral law and electoral practices to the constitution, Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) principles and guidelines governing a democratic election, African