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BZS Review November 2018

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BZS Review November 2018 Zimbabwe Review Issue 18/4 December 2018 ISSN 1362-3168 The Journal of the Britain Zimbabwe Society In this issue ... 1 AGM 2018: Chair’s report page 1 2 ‘What now for Zimbabwe? A post election discussion page 3 3 Update from Brian McGarry page 4 4 Review: The Odd Man In page 6 5 Street Raids – a short story page 8 6 Two documentary reviews: Gukurahundi Genocide 36 Years Later page 10 7 Review: The Secret World of Shlomo Fine page 12 8 New Books page 13 9 News page 15 BZS 2018 AGM 27 October 2018: BZS member Yvonne Welcome from BZS Chair, Dr Pauline Kassim, who died on Dodgson-Katiyo 22 October The Chair opened her report with a minute’s si - lence in memory of our colleague, Yvonne Kassim, who had died recently. Yvonne was a long-standing member of BZS and a member of the Executive. She will be remembered by those who knew her with respect and affection. (Photographer un known) The theme for this year’s Research Day was Youth and Wale Adebanwi, the new Chair of the African Studies Experience . We were supported by our regular partners, Centre, who attended Research Day. We are grateful the Oxford African Studies Centre, and by the Trades to our Vice-Chair, Rori Masiane, who has started to Unions Congress, who awarded funding to enable Vim - put the presentations on our Television Channel, bai Zinyama, a keynote speaker from the Zimbabwe which can be accessed on the BZS website, and on Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to travel to the UK. You Tube. The next Research Day will be held in We had a fewer participants than in previous years Oxford on 15 June 2019. The theme is Creativity and (63 compared to 70-75 in 2016 and 2017). This was Innovation: Research and Resilience in Zimbabwean disappointing because we had better publicity this Arts and Science . More details will be sent to mem - year and we had hoped that the theme would attract bers once the planning is underway. more young delegates. However, this has to be put in context. The professional themes of the Research Young Researcher Prize Days in 2016 and 2017 attracted specialist groups of For the first time this year we awarded the BZS participants in health and agriculture. This year we Young Researcher Prize in collaboration with the Ox - had a broader, more general theme. ford African Studies Centre. The inaugural winner The evaluations were very positive, rating the was Dr Simukai Chigudu of Oxford University. content and organisation as good or excellent. It was Simukai is a qualified doctor and an Associate Pro - a pleasure to welcome a number of very talented fessor in African Politics at Oxford. He is now work - young/early career women researchers. We also es - ing on a monograph, The Political Life of an tablished a good working relationship with Professor Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Continued on next page 1 BZS President Knox Chitiyo talks to speaker Jason Brickhill before the discussion What Now for Zimbabwe? Post-Election Opinions . On the far left is actress Chipo Chung and, in the centre, Professor Diana Jeater. Photograph © Rori Masiane Zimbabwe . A small cash prize for the award winner Campaigns Officer. was raised through donations this year but we are Unfortunately, ACTSA and BZS were holding an looking for sponsorship for the prize so that we can AGM and event on the same day and we recognised continue to offer it. that this must be avoided in future. Nordic Africa Institute We agreed that there were several ways in which In June, our President, Dr Knox Chitiyo, and I partici - we could benefit from working with each other. pated in a Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) conference on ACTSA has a good relationship with African Studies Political Trends and Economic Change in Southern at SOAS which complements our relationship with Africa since the 1990s. The conference was held in the Oxford African Studies Centre. ACTSA is intro - Sweden and was attended by delegates from across the ducing a mentoring scheme in which experienced Southern African region. campaigners will work with younger people; given Knox and I spoke on political participation, elec - our own aim to attract young members, we will be tions and the media in Zimbabwe. It was salutary to lis - interested in learning more about this scheme. They ten to other participants talk about the democratic are also planning to hold a round table on Zimbabwe deficit in their countries particularly in relation to in which they would like us to participate. Similarly, media laws, biased reporting and the ways in which we hope they will participate in our events. some sections of the population are under-represented. Finally ... We hope that NAI will continue to work with us and Lastly, I would like to thank members of the Execu - will participate in our events . tive for all their work on the Society’s behalf this year ACTSA and our members for their continuing support and Our Membership Secretary/Treasurer, Margaret Ling, commitment. and I recently had a productive meeting with Michael Pauline Dodgson-Katiyo Buraimoh, the Director of Action for Southern Africa Chair, BZS (ACTSA) and his colleague, Sunit Bagree, the Senior 2 What now for Zimbabwe? Following our AGM, three recent visitors to Zimbabwe discussed their perceptions of what is happening now, and what the future might hold Chipo Chung The second was the memory of the late Trudy After an introduction from BZS president, Dr Stevenson, whose funeral she had attended at the end Knox Chitiyo, actress Chipo Chung began the dis - of her trip. She remembered Trudy as someone who cussion with a personal account of the Zimbabwe had suffered from and fought against misogyny, and she had found on a recent visit. had made huge sacrifices for Zimbabwe. A divided country Jason Brickhill ‘It was a very divided place,’ she told the meeting, Human rights lawyer Jason Brickhill began his ‘It reminded me of the aftermath of the Brexit vote – talk by acknowledging that Chipo Chung’s per - there was a real divisiveness between those who had sonal and wide-ranging thoughts were a hard act won, and those who had lost. There was a sense of to follow – and that he intended to narrow the cynicism: a feeling that something had been stolen, focus to the Rule of Law. that there had been a drive into a dead end.’ He began by making the point that, despite many She explained that she had decided, as far as possi - difficulties, courts in neighbouring South Africa are ble, not to talk about politics and look for small open - still operating successfully. He then turned to the ings. She said she had come across a lot of doom and coup that brought in the present leadership, which he gloom in Harare, but a grudging acceptance that things emphasised was not lawful and was not a lawful tran - could have been worse. This election had, after all, sition of power – and that this matters. Both ZANU- taken place with far less violence than previous ones. PF and the MDC have been riven by factionalism and A skewed view both have acted against their own constitutions. Nel - However, she felt that the view from Harare was son Chamisa’s appointment as leader of the MDC skewed, as the MDC had been largely unable to cam - was, he said, a case in point, as it is questionable paign in the countryside. The whole campaign, she whether it complied fully with the party constitution. said, had been starkly masculine in tone, and atti - Similarly, the weekend removals of party officials tudes taken publicly towards Priscilla Chigumba, in ZANU-PF following the coup did not follow that head of the Electoral Commission had been worry - party’s constitution. The ZANU-PF constitution is ing. Chipo Chung felt that the fact that the MDC had not readily publicly available and the validity of an taken on a combative style was also disturbing, as earlier amendment creating ‘one centre of power’ is this ran counter to the basis on which the late Morgan also in doubt. It is important for the nation that the Tsvangirai had founded the party. She worried about major political parties embrace the rule of law inter - children growing up in a place where bigoted com - nally, as well as externally. ments could go unchallenged. When it came to the election, despite improvements She believed that for a real transition to take place in the electoral environment there were material discrep - there had to be a recognition of the past: people ancies in the final results. For example, these included should not be expected to forget the last 20 years or the numbers voting in the presidential and parliamentary so, going back to Gukurahundi , and said that it was elections differed; and in some cases, the numbers of difficult to imagine that the perpetrators of the crimes votes exceeded the registered voters. There were also were able to recognise them as such. conflicting accounts of voter turnout. The counting Nevertheless, there were some reasons for opti - process appeared clean until the last moment, when the mism, she felt. That there was now a Minister for foreign observers were excluded. Women, Sithembiso Nyoni, and having Mthuli Challenges Ncube, a technocrat, in charge of finance, both Challenges to the results were, though, visible on the seemed to be positive moves. public stage. In general, the lawyers arguing the case Two thoughts to end with performed well.
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