Source: Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations
1.1 Introduction
The Zimbabwe Civil Society acknowledges and appreciates the sterling work and commitment that SADC member states have put in supporting non-state actors on the democracy and human rights question in Zimbabwe. It is our hope that SADC member states continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in our quest to find a lasting solution to the multifaceted crises facing the country.
It is three years since a general election marked the end of a power sharing government between President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union, Patriotic Front (ZANU PF), Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a splinter of the same party then led by Professor Arthur Mutambara. ZANU (PF) triumphed at the election and captured more than two thirds of the legislative chamber, marking a return to its hegemonic dominance of the Zimbabwean polity. The ruling party’s super majority was further boosted by the sacking of 21 MDC MPs from parliament and senate following an internal dispute between party President Morgan Tsvangirai and Secretary General Tendai Biti in 2013.
Since ZANU (PF)’s resurgence as a dominant political force, the economy which had shown signs of recovery under the power sharing government, has gone into recession, the political reform process, which had gained momentum, has stalled and there has been a resumption of the militarization of state institutions and human rights violations which escalated in the month of July 2016. This briefing paper presents an outlook of Zimbabwe’s political and economic outlook since the end of the power sharing government in July 2013. Its central diagnosis is that there has been a significant reversal of the country’s political and economic fortunes since the end of the government of national unity (GNU) and that the outlook will remain negative until the government embarks on a comprehensive inclusive economic and political reform programme. The dissolution of the Inclusive Government in 2013 and the return to political hegemony by the ruling party, ZANU PF has seen a worsening of human rights violations, an attack on constitutionalism and a deflationary economy.
Source: Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations