This study was an investigation of the relationship between political conditionality and self-determination using Zimbabwe as a case study. The Zimbabwean land issue illustrates the challenges posed by external influences on supposedly autonomous domestic policy decision-making processes.

<p>Land ownership, control and reform have been some of the most contentious issues in contemporary Zimbabwe. The land question has generated a lot of emotional debate and there is a general consensus that it represents a critical dimension to the crisis the country is going through. This thesis intended to offer some insights into the modus operandi and outcomes of land reform in the country.</p>

This study is motivated by the realisation that, in post-2000 Zimbabwe, while the contest pitting one political formation against another has been given prominence in the media, an important struggle that has attracted little attention during this period has been that of the genders, in particular the competition between men and women for the right and power to govern the country. Media organisations have participated in this struggle by developing and distributing images of the various interest groups in the political fray, including men and women. The media has, thus, played a key role in developing conceptual tools to apprehend the condition of female and male politicians in Zimbabwean society (Bhebhe, 2016), thereby implicitly distributing power to one or the other group. This study has, therefore, examined the representation of female politicians in three Zimbabwean newspapers, namely Kwayedza, The Standard and the Financial Gazette, during the four election held between 2000 and 2008. The study was guided by the following concerns: the way images of female politicians were projected in the print media in Zimbabwe during the period in question, how the political affiliation of the three newspapers influenced the coverage of female politicians, and how female politicians were represented in different languages (i.e.Shona and English). The study tested the following hypotheses: women were generally represented as unfit for public office; images developed by the different newspapers were determined by the newspapers’ preference between the two major political parties, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC); the representation of female politicians was determined by the language (Shona or English) used by the newspaper; and newspaper owners determined the way female politicians were portrayed. The study made use of qualitative content analysis to examine the representation of female politicians in the above-named newspapers, coding selected stories in terms of these frames: female politicians as mothers and housewives, and female politicians as inadequate and unfit for political office, as well as double bind dilemmas. As expected, the privately-ownednewspapers, the Financial Gazette and The Standard, negatively portrayed ZANU PF female politicians negatively, while the state-owned Kwayedza was hostile to MDC female politicians. The study, however found that, beyond this inevitable trait of a polarised media, all three newspapers shared many tendencies in their coverage of female politicians. For instance, across the three newspapers, female politicians were marginalized through iv omission. They were also trivialised by being portrayed in terms of frames irrelevant to politics. Thus, of the three newspapers, only The Standard did not make use of the motherhood and wifehood frame in its representation of female politicians. More significantly, the double bind dilemma is a rhetoric device that permeates stories on female politicians in all three newspapers to the extent that, even in those stories where the two frames were used, the frames are constructed in terms of double binds. Zimbabwean female politicians are thus portrayed as hamstrung candidates, neither fit for public office nor eligible for marriage and motherhood. This double bind is particularly damaging for indigenous black Zimbabwean female politicians since a major finding of this study is that the stories examined construct motherhood as a powerful form of elevation of female politicians as it is consistently associated with a select few female politicians, the elite of Zimbabwean politics, those at very apex of the political pyramid. This makes the combination of the frames and the double bind dilemma much more harmful to the careers of Zimbabwean female politicians than it would be in a non-African context. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

The main purpose of this study is to discuss Yvonne Vera‟s representation of various aspects of women‟s identity in a patriarchal and colonial context as they manifest themselves through the women‟s relationships. I explore ways in which the question of self for some of Vera‟s women seems characterised by marginalisation across racial, cultural, ethnic and generational divides. The short stories and novel studied seem to emphasise that for women, under patriarchy and colonialism in Zimbabwe, seeking an independent and fulfilling identity seems to be interpreted as defying society‟s expectations and dictates. However, even as Vera tells of the various women‟s failure to make breakthroughs, she points at a less gender- inflexible future where both men and women will be valued for their true worth, and not their mere biology, through foregrounding the women‟s stories as they challenge and subvert their societies‟ received norms, traditions and values. / English / M.A. (English)

This thesis is a reaction to the state of utter lawlessness and the abuse of human rights by those in power in Zimbabwe over the past two years and it investigates the possibility of restoring democratic governance in that country by increasing the freedom of expression and media freedom, which is considered to be one of the most valuable elements in advancing democratization. Its aim is to establish the Internet as the best means possible to increasing media freedom and creating new ‘sites of struggle’ for activists in a context where the substantive freedom of expression does not exist. This in turn is shown to advance levels of democracy. To this end, the value of the freedom of expression to media freedom and the value of the latter to increasing levels of democracy is developed and the lack of democracy in Zimbabwe at all levels of society is considered. The Internet is seen to increase the freedoms of speech and association in new and interesting ways and it is discussed in various examples in which it has already been instrumental in evading the censorship of the media and increasing the ability of activists to express themselves freely and to organize more efficiently. Finally, the resources that Internet technology makes available to African journalists and activists are considered along with lessons gleaned from international examples of successful Internet use and it is shown to already be of use to Zimbabwean journalists and activists as they create to new cyberspaces in which they can struggle for positive democratic change in Zimbabwe. The Internet is also shown to have tremendous potential for future use in that country.

This thesis is a critical examination of the origins, barriers and prospects for a working class-led civil society as it sought to democratise Zimbabwe’s post-colonial state. It is an interdisciplinary but historically informed analysis of how advanced capitalist development promoted the emergence of social movement unionism with a potentiality to advance democracy in Zimbabwe. Despite occurring on a much smaller and thinner scale, the evolution of civil society in colonial Zimbabwe was akin to what happened in 19th century Britain where capitalist expansion presented a foundation for democratisation. However, big underlying barriers exist in Zimbabwe, resulting from various forms of authoritarian structures and forcible mobilisation strategies emanating from colonialism and the protracted war of liberation. ZANU PF’s violent reaction to memory contests by non-participants in the war of liberation seeking an alternative political agenda attest to the controversial and polemical nature of struggles over memory and forgetting in contemporary Zimbabwean politics. These structural impediments forestalled the organic growth of civil society in Zimbabwe, thereby explaining its inchoate status and the failure to significantly determine the course of public policy. While recognising the democratic aspirations and capacities of the working class in precipitating political change, this thesis takes into consideration the impact of other factors on state-society relations. These include deepening state barbarism, globalisation, and technological advances in communication, transnational civil society, a dysfunctional economy, migration and remittances. Finally this thesis presents an optimistic scenario about the prospects for civil society and democratisation in Zimbabwe. I argue that the revival of the productive sectors of the economy can possibly strengthen the labour movement and revive its capacities for ushering in a democracy.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / This study was an investigation of the relationship between political conditionality and self-determination using Zimbabwe as a case study. The Zimbabwean land issue illustrates the challenges posed by external influences on supposedly autonomous domestic policy decision-making processes. / South Africa

This study investigates the main causes of the present political crisis in Zimbabwe with particular reference to the crisis as a direct result of a crisis of authority or governance. The economy and the political environments in the former Rhodesia have been in a healthy state until the early 1990s when the ruling ZANU-PF had its rule under siege when the economy dwindled and the opposition became rife. The broad questions that the study sought to answer were: What have been the primary reasons for the political crisis in Zimbabwe between 1995 and 2005? What role has the political elite played in the country’s development? What contribution did the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme make to the economic development of Zimbabwe? Are there any other important factors that have played a role in the development process of Zimbabwe? As a way of investigation, this study uses qualitative research techniques to make a clinical examination of the main causes of the political crisis that has reduced the formerly self-sustaining and democratically highly rated country to a pariah citizen (state) of the world. A number of primary sources have been used and have had their responses/input supplemented by relatively reliable secondary sources that gave authenticity to the argument of the research. This study makes a ten year review of the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe, as this is the period whence the political crisis became apparent and restricts its investigation of the causes of the political crisis to this period albeit some of these reasons are connected to the past i.e. the period from 1980 to 1995. Since this is a deductive scholarly account, the study tests the theory of organic crisis as an explanation for state collapse in Africa with particular reference to Zimbabwe. Finally the study reveals that the major causes of the political crisis in Zimbabwe are the colonial legacy which seems to have had its negative on the politics of the country just ten years into democracy; the crisis of governance which led to political and economic decay as the ruling party tried by all means to solicit political support; the Lancaster House agreement and the land question which are related to the question of colonial legacy and among the primary reasons Zimbabwe has reached political impasse; the crisis of elites which this directly links to the political crisis; structural adjustment programmes and corruption and fraud.

The right to freedom of expression is with no doubt one of the most important rights in all democratic societies. The southern African sub-region is however lacking when it comes to the protection of this right. There are either highly repressive laws which result in the right being practiced but to a limited extent. In other cases the media is owned by the elite in society which results in the majority not being represented in the independent media and at the same time, the public media is often abused by the governing elite. The scene is therefore that both the public media and private media are representative of the elite. The research seeks to explore the protection of human rights, particularly the right to freedom of expression in politically volatile environments. The research focuses on Zimbabwe but comparative analysis has also been drawn with other jurisdictions moreso South Africa. It is important to note that Zimbabwe has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights both of which protect the right to freedom of expression. It is however not enough that states ratify international and regional instruments without domesticating the instruments at the national level. The domestication of the international and regional instruments is meant to ensure that individuals enjoy these rights. Freedom of expression is highly volatile in Zimbabwe. The legislature has been accused of taking away the right which has been granted to citizens by the Constitution through its highly repressive laws. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and the Official Secrets Act are some of the laws which have been put under spotlight in Zimbabwe. There is therefore a conflict between the legislature, the press and individuals in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe like many democratic states, there is separation of powers between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The legislature is the decision making structure that enacts policies in their capacity as representatives of the people; the judiciary is the mediating body that adjudicates decisions between the organs of state as well as between those organs and individuals and the executive enforces decisions. The findings of the research are that despite the ratification of international and regional instruments dealing with the right to freedom of expression and the protection of the right to freedom of expression in the constitution, there still exist repressive laws in Zimbabwe which to a great extent limit the right to freedom of expression. These laws in light of the prevailing environment in Zimbabwe are often used to deprive citizens and journalists of information and their right to freedom of expression. The judiciary finds itself in a difficult position as the executive does not comply with its rulings. The independence of the judiciary, in light of the environment is also compromised by the threats to the judges, the appointment process and ‘gifts’ given to the judges for example, farms. The research analyses the history and theories of freedom of freedom of expression in Zimbabwe, the laws regulating the right and the case law dealing with this right. Finally there is a comparison between Zimbabwe and South Africa and conclusions and recommendations are made based on the discussion in the dissertation. Among the recommendations is that civil society should be involved in educating individuals especially journalists about the right to freedom of expression. Further, the judiciary should also take a more proactive approach in the protection of the right.

MA (Political Science) / Department of Development Studies