Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Politics and Public Management
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Midlands State University Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Politics and Public Management A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF FACTIONALISM ON POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN ZIMBABWE, THE CASE STUDY OF ZANU PF BY: SUELLEN SHANDIRWA R132610E This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Science in Politics and Public Management, Honours Degree to Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. Zvishavane, Zimbabwe. October 2016 APPROVAL FORM Midlands State University The undersigned strongly certify that they have read and made recommendations to the Midlands State University for acceptance of a research project entitled: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF FACTIONALISM ON POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN ZIMBABWE, THE CASE STUDY OF ZANU PF. The dissertation was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Honours Degree in Politics and Public Management. Supervisor Signature ………………………………………Date ………/………/………… Chairperson Signature ………………………………………Date ………/………/……… i RELEASE FORM Name of Student: SUELLEN SHANDIRWA Registration Number: R132610E Dissertation Title: A critical analysis of the effects of factionalism on political development in Zimbabwe, the case study of Zimbabwe Degree Title: Honours Degree in Politics and Public Management. Year of Completion: 2016 Permission is hereby granted to Midlands state university library to produce copies of this dissertation and to sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes. The author reserves other publication rights and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. Signed……………………………………………………………………………………… Date……………………………………………………………………………………….. Contact Details: 8413 Pumula East, Bulawayo/ 2324 New Bluffhill Westgate, Harare Cell number: +263 773338553/0717884330 Email address : [email protected] ii DECLARATION I Suellen Shandirwa declares that all material presented for examination in this study is my own work and that it has not been submitted before any Degree or examination in any other university; and that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Date October 2016 Student’s name Suellen Shandirwa Signature ……………………… iii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to the author and finisher of my life, Jesus Christ for taking me this far, my late mother Esnath Shandirwa, my late grandmother Rhoda Ngwenya, my brother Hope Mthethwa, my guardians Mr. and Mrs. Malete and my life partner Nyasha Tsikira. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my most profound gratitude to my supervisor Mr. A. Chilunjika for his unwavering support, his patience and dedication throughout my research. If it was not for his open door policy my work would have been sub-standard, thus his input is greatly appreciated as it yielded quality produce. I would like to extend my gratitude to the almighty God for the gift of life and divine health, my sincere gratitude also goes to my guardians Mr. and Mrs. Malete together with my uncle Samuel T. Moyo Shandirwa for helping me financially throughout my full course and for their unwavering support throughout this research. I would also like to thank the ZANU PF headquarters, particularly the commissariat department under minister Saviour Kasukuwere for nurturing and working with me. My exceptional gratitude goes to the director M. Machacha for helping me in my research by offering guidelines and also giving me the rightful contacts to my research. Finally I want to thank all those who participated in my research as interviewees and respondents, who for confidentiality reasons I shall not mention by names for filling me in their tight schedules and availing their time to be interviewed by me and also extending their time filling in questionnaires, without them I would not have been able to identify the causes of the research. v ABSTRACT Factionalism in ZANU PF has brought about several challenges to political development in Zimbabwe, of course MDC has had its own fair share of factionalism but the impacts were never felt like the current factionalism in ZANU PF. The rampant factionalism in ZANU PF ballooned since the December 2014 conference where several ZANU PF members faced the ZANU-PF axe including the then vice president Joyce Mujuru ,since then poor Zimbabweans still continue to feel the heat of factionalism within the ruling party. This factionalism within the ruling party is enrooted in succession issues, affiliate organization intervention, divisive slogans, differing party policies and new ideologies, greediness and selfishness and policy inconsistency amongst a few. Moreover, the current ZANU-PF factionalism can be justified as democratic contestation of power, hence the phenomena of the multi-party system owes its credit to the democratization principles in Zimbabwe ,although factionalism within the ruling party poses great threats to political development in Zimbabwe, the brighter side of the democratization process should not be overlooked. Hence the purpose of this research is to critically analyze the effects of factionalism on political development in Zimbabwe paying particular attention to ZANU-PF. This study was purely a mixed methods model in nature and the data soliciting techniques included questionnaires and in-depth interviews that targeted ZANU-PF officials, ZANU-PF members of Parliament, political science students, preferably those affiliated to ZANU-PF, political activists like YARD currently led by a former ZANU-PF legislator, Temba Mliswa to acquire detailed information about the serious effects factionalism poses on political development in Zimbabwe. Moreover, purposive or judgmental sampling was used as the research only targeted people with the knowhow of the current ZANU-PF factionalism. Content and thematic analysis were employed by the researcher in her research together with document analysis. Moreover, professionalism and confidentiality were observed by the researcher as part of her ethical conducts, the researcher did not force anyone to participate in her study neither did she record the interviews without the interviewee’s consent. Using descriptive statistics to analyze data, the researcher found that although factionalism in ZANU-PF was a clear indication of the democratization process in Zimbabwe, many people suffered because of it. Effects of ZANU-PF factionalism to political development which were discussed in the study included worsening economic woes, poor service delivery, policy paralysis, misuse of public funds, multiparty and civic protests amongst a few. ZANU-PF is recommended to make sure that it introduces robust education on political leadership to its party members, and that it shuns divisional slogans, introduction of stiff penalties on media abuse is recommended and an introduction of a more robust dispute resolution system is recommended to curb factionalism in ZANU-PF that poses as a great threat to political development in Zimbabwe. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS APPROVAL FORM ........................................................................................................................ i RELEASE FORM ........................................................................................................................... ii DECLARATION ........................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. vii ABBREVIATIONS/ ACRONYMS............................................................................................. xiii CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background of the study ....................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Statement of the problem ...................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research objectives ............................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Research questions ................................................................................................................ 7 1.6 Justification of the study ....................................................................................................... 7 1.7 Delimitations of the study ..................................................................................................... 8 1.8 Limitations of the study......................................................................................................... 8