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Formal structures of power in rural Zimbabwe
Derek Matyszak, Research and Advocacy Unit Zimbabwe
November 16, 2010

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In February, 2000 ZANU PF's first ever loss at the polls in a nationwide referendum on a new constitution precipitated a political crisis, which has continued to the present. The most alarming aspect of this loss for ZANU PF was that it was apparent that many rural voters, on whom ZANU PF could usually rely, had withdrawn support. A significant proportion of these voters were perceived by ZANU PF to be farm labourers in thrall to their white commercial farmer employers. With a general election pending in June of that year, ZANU PF moved swiftly to re-establish complete control over the country side. Under the guise of land reform, white commercial farms were invaded, farm workers killed, beaten, raped and displaced, and militia bases established on the occupied land. These bases were used as the spring board for a reign of terror in the countryside.

Part of the strategy to regain control over the rural areas included a centrally organised campaign, commencing in 2001, to disrupt local government and to dislodge government personnel seen as an impediment to the reassertion of ZANU PF hegemony. War veterans closed Rural District Council offices, schools and clinics and brought community income generating projects (such as CAMPFIRE) to a halt. Teachers, nurses, local councillors and district administrators were removed from their posts. Some were re-admitted after vetting by a local war veterans committee, but most were replaced, often by poorly educated persons appointed by the veterans committee on the basis of nepotism and cronyism. Needless to say, the statutory requirements for appointment and dismissal were ignored other than in a few notable instances.

As a complement to this process, in the early to mid-2000s, ZANU PF began to exploit the possibility of co-opting traditional leaders as allies in the campaign for rural control, adopting a carrot and stick approach. Chiefs were encouraged to exercise the extensive powers over rural communities that had been restored to them by way of the Traditional Leaders Act (see below), and were threatened with removal from their positions or discontinuance of state allowances if those under their jurisdiction voted against ZANU PF. These tactics proved successful in by-elections in Gutu (Masvingo Province) and Lupane (Matabeleland North) in 2004, and were adopted nationwide for the general election of 2005. Compliant Chiefs thus have used their powers to evict people from villages, prevent opposition political parties from campaigning and to control the distribution of food aid on a politically partisan basis. The alliance between traditional leaders and ZANU PF became explicit with the allocation of youth militia as "security" details to Chiefs in the two Matabeleland Provinces and the Midlands in 2004. This arrangement has been extended geographically and continued to the present, though the militia details have been replaced in some instances by official, but ZANU PF aligned, "Youth Development Officers".

The elections of March 2008, saw the MDC take control of (and win a significant number of seats on) numerous Rural District Councils (see below) which had hitherto been dominated almost exclusively by ZANU PF. The effect of this on ZANU PF's prior strategy and ZANU PF's reaction, requires further research. However, it is presently clear that, with the possibility of elections taking place in 2011, ZANU PF has sought to shore up its alliance with traditional leaders as a means of exercising local control. Furthermore, where local councils are in the hands of MDC, it has sought to use the traditional leadership and central government control over local councils to circumvent rural councils as a focus of local political power. Determining the present extent, mechanisms and success of this strategy will require extensive field research. Remarkably little attention has been paid to this technology of power to date. This paper sets out the formal structures of local governance in this context and exposes current information gaps in the function and dysfunction of local governance as a prelude and invitation to further research in this area.

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