In this Edition – KC JOURNAL NO 14 SEPTEMBER 2007

The Struggles for Democracy in Zimbabwe

Dear Comrades and Friends

This edition of the journal is dedicated to an analysis of political developments in Zimbabwe. It’s been a while since the political climate in Zimbabwe exploded into the open with rising levels of resistance against the repressive tendencies of the ZANU-PF regime. With the continued deterioration in the political, social and economic conditions, the struggles against the regime also intensified. An interesting feature of these developments has been an absence of systematic analysis, discussion and debate in the South African social movements and the left generally. By and large, activists continued to rely on the mainstream media for reportage and analysis on developments in Zimbabwe.

Our previous editions have addressed the importance of building solidarity in this period of neo-liberal ascendancy. This edition is an attempt to create a platform for the development of a deeper understanding of the political situation in Zimbabwe, with a view to encouraging debate and stimulating solidaristic impulses. For this reason, this edition focuses on the following issues on Zimbabwe: the nature of the ZANU-PF state and the roots of its repressive tendencies; the impact of the political and economic crisis on the working class; the nature of the social forces active in the struggle for a new Zimbabwe; experiences of organising under politically repressive conditions and alternative strategies; as well as the politics of the South African ruling class’s approach to the Zimbabwean situation.

In one of the articles, John Appolis reflects on the nature of the Zimbabwean state and its relationship to capital accumulation under conditions of neo­ liberal dominance. He argues that control over the state is essential to capital accumulation for the black political elites in ZANU-PF. He further argues that strategies and tactics in the Zimbabwean struggle should be informed by such an understanding. In another, Munyaradzi Gwisai examines the strategies and options facing the Mugabe regime and concludes that neither ZANU­ PF nor MDC hold the key to a genuinely democratic resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis. He argues for revolution from below rather than a bourgeois deal from above. Dale Mckinley reflects on the politics of the South African state’s approach to the situation in Zimbabwe and argues that the debate around South African foreign policy towards Zimbabwe has ignored the class interests of South African capital that are driving the state’s policy towards Zimbabwe.

Tafadzwa Muropa highlights the need to integrate bread and butter issues with broader political issues and argues for the inclusion of a greater range of civil society organisations in the struggle. To highlight the place of women in the current political climate, we carry a profile of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), which looks at who WOZA is, what they stand for, their methods of struggle and examples of key struggles against the ZANU-PF state. Koliwe Nyoni and Zenzele Ndebele make an assessment of the repressive media environment and share lessons from emerging alternative broadcasting initiatives. Mafata Mogodi looks at the situation of farm worker communities and observes that farm workers have been among the biggest victims of Mugabe’s human rights abuses and argues that the global justice movement has neglected their suffering. Koni Benson makes observations on how Zimbabwean migrants and refugees are treated in South Africa, and argues that contrary to widely reported views in mainstream media, the poor are the most sympathetic of Zimbabwean’s struggle for democracy.

New features

This edition also introduces two new features which will become part of future editions of the journal. These are the Education Section and the Open Mic Section.

The Education Section

This section is targeted at the study groups and is tightly related to the theme of each edition. It mainly serves an educational role by providing study groups with background information on the theme of the particular edition. In this edition, the section looks at the development of capitalism and the struggle for Zimbabwe as a way of locating the current struggles for democracy in their historical context. This background should help activists and the study groups to make sense of current developments in Zimbabwe as it provides a summation of landmark developments in the evolution of Zimbabwean society. We encourage study groups to read through this section first as this provides important insights on the theme.

The Open Mic section

In this section, we aim to devote space to articles that are not necessarily related to the theme of a given edition. We encourage activists and contributors to submit articles that address topical issues, as well as debates and or follow-ups on articles that were carried in previous editions of Khanya Journal. To launch this section, we carry two articles, the first by Mhlobo Gunguluzi, who reflects on the significance of networks and solidarity across the borders and argues that such initiatives are important components of the struggle against neo-liberalism and globalisation. The second is by Mandlenkosi Mpofu, who looks at the role of ICTs in organising, and argues that ICTs have increased the role and presence of civil society against states and powerful corporates.

The return of Nehanda Africa Supplement

The Nehanda Africa Supplement has been appearing inconsistently in the previous editions. We have since decided that all future editions should carry the Supplement unless in the case of special editions. The focus of the Supplement will not necessarily be the same as the theme of the edition. In this edition, the Supplement focuses on history of Great Zimbabwe. This is only one of the rare cases where there is similarity between the focus of the Supplement and the theme of the edition.

The Barometer, Documents and Selected links on Zimbabwe

This edition also marks the return of the Barometer of struggles after absence in the last two editions. The Barometer will become a permanent part of all future editions and will also return to its original purpose as a compilation of instances of resistance in the Southern African region. For reasons of capacity, the Barometer in this edition is rather limited in size and scope, something that will be rectified in future editions. We also include two documents, in keeping with tradition. One is the edited version of the People’s Charter drafted by WOZA which details a vision of democratic Zimbabwe. The other is a submission by the Reproductive Rights Alliance (RRA) on the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Rights Act. The RRA is a network of 27 organisations that was formed in 1995 and campaigns for women’s rights, especially their sexual and reproductive health and well being. This document is part of a series of engagements with the South African government around these issues.

We end the edition with a list of selected websites on developments in Zimbabwe. We hope these will be of great help for activists in South Africa and elsewhere to follow developments there and develop links with social movements in Zimbabwe for purposes of solidarity and networking.

Yours in solidarity