Department of Development Studies / PhD (African Studies) / There is a political conflict in Zimbabwe between the ruling Zimbabwean African National Union-PatrioticFront (ZANU-PF) and the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Political conflict is a battle that occurs between two or more sides with different beliefs. Although Zimbabwe is a sovereign state, South Africa used a foreign policy of “quiet diplomacy” to contribute to the peaceful resolution of Zimbabwe’s political conflict. A sovereign state is a state which administers its own government and is not dependent upon or subjected to another state. Dissent in Zimbabwe centres around the land issue, land ownership, land reform, and land appropriation – problems caused as a result of parliamentary and presidential elections. Land reform led the government to introduce “Operation Murambatsvina” which was a campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country. The government depicted the operation as a crackdown against illegal housing and commercial activities and as an effort to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious disease in these areas. South Africa’s “quiet diplomacy” succeeded in the peaceful resolution of the Zimbabwean political conflict because the land issue was deemed legitimate; however, the methods used for land reform seem to be problematic. For a way forward, the Zimbabwean government needs to be accountable, transparent and democratic. The researcher used a qualitative research method to gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that govern such behaviour. The researcher asked broad questions and collected word data from participants. The researcher used different approaches in collecting data, such as narratology, storytelling, classical ethnography and shadowing. In addition the researcher used primary and secondary sources.

PhD (Political Science) / Department of Development Studies / No serious study into the contemporary politics of Zimbabwe can ignore the celebrated influence of nationalism and the attendant role of elite leaders as a ‘social force’ in the making of the nation-state of Zimbabwe. This study analyses the role played by nationalism as an instrument for political mobilisation against the white settler regime in Rhodesia by the Zimbabwe African People Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Therefore, of particular importance is the manner in which the evolution and comprehensive analysis of these former liberation movements, in the political history of Zimbabwe have been viewed through the dominant lenses of nationalism. Nationalism can be regarded as the best set of beliefs and the worst set of beliefs. Being an exhilarating force that led to the emergence of these nationalist movements to dismantle white minority rule, nationalism was also the same force that was responsible for dashing the dreams and hopes associated with an independent Zimbabwe. At the centre of this thesis is the argument that there is a fault line in the manner in which nationalism is understood as such it continued to be constructed and contested. In the study, nationalism has been propagated as contending political narratives, and the nationalist elite leaders are presented as a social force that sought to construct the nation-state of Zimbabwe. Thus, the study is particularly interested in a comparative analysis of the competing narratives of nationalism between ZAPU and ZANU between the period of 1977 and 1990. This period is a very important time frame in the turning points on the nationalist political history of Zimbabwe. Firstly, the beginning of this period saw the struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe climax because of concerted efforts by both ZAPU and ZANU. Secondly, the conclusion of this period saw the death of ZAPU as an alternative to multi-party democracy within the nationalist sense and the subsequent emergence of a dominant socialist one-party state. Methodologically, a qualitative approach has been employed where the researcher analysed documents. / NRF

Text in English / Social media has taken the world by storm and keeps on evolving. This evolution poses a threat as well as an opportunity to mankind, to the livelihoods of hordes of people employed in the media industry. It also presents a unique opportunity to chart new waters. This study explores the convergence and divergence of new media and traditional media. This divergence and convergence, if properly understood, will help in understanding the future of traditional media, and thus mitigate the threats posed by the ever evolving social media and communication technologies. This study provided a test case on the legitimacy of traditional media in as much as the ‘public interest and purveyor of public opinion’ clause of the media is concerned. The media cannot afford to live by Marx doctrine of “he who owns the means of production also controls the production of ideas in that epoch’. If it is going to be a driver and custodian of democracy in a new emerging Africa, the media has a responsibility to be the voice of the voiceless. Social media plugs the gap that traditional media leaves. Thus, the two can thus complement each other, rather than compete with each other within the same space. The population in Africa is becoming younger and younger and by extension they are moving away from traditional media towards digital and social media. There is an opportunity to be seized there. This study established that the traditional media has entrenched ways of looking at news, which are normally divergent from the way that the general populace, as captured in social media does. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)