Turmoil in the Postcolony: Post-Independence Electoral Violence in Zimbabwe and the Relevance of Peace Journalism
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COPYRIGHT AND CITATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR THIS THESIS/ DISSERTATION o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. How to cite this thesis Surname, Initial(s). (2012). Title of the thesis or dissertation (Doctoral Thesis / Master’s Dissertation). Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/102000/0002 (Accessed: 22 August 2017). Turmoil in the Postcolony: Post-independence Electoral Violence in Zimbabwe and the Relevance of Peace Journalism. Allen Munoriyarwa 215067501 Doctor of Philosophy A Doctoral Thesis submitted to the Department of Journalism, Film and Television, School of Communication, Faculty of Humanities in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of: PhD in Journalism 2019 Supervisors: Professor Jane Duncan Professor Pier Paolo Frassinelli i ABSTRACT Between the year 2000 and 2013, Zimbabwe held seven elections and two constitutional plebiscites. Many of these elections have been condemned by local and international observers as unfree and unfair because of election violence. In the post-2000 period, election violence has increased in both qualitative and quantitative terms as electoral contestations increased. Lives have been lost, political trust destroyed and citizens’ belief in the electoral system has, arguably, been shaken. On many occasions, the press has been fingered as failing to speak out against election violence by adopting alternative news reporting models like peace journalism. They have also been accused of failing to provide credible election news, enabling them to be objective, non-partisan conduits of election news in the country, and critics of the country’s election practices. Critics easily point at the ideological divide and subsequent polarisation of the press as the main cause of the press’ failure to be useful spaces of election information, and their subsequent failure to muster a unified voice against rampant election violence. This study is a qualitative research that explores press discourses of election violence in post-2000 Zimbabwe and the relevance of peace journalism. This study utilises qualitative framing analysis and CDA of news texts from The Sunday Mail and The Independent - to ascertain their alignment to peace journalism practices. In addition to textual analysis, the research utilises in-depth interviews with political reporters who covered election violence news for the two weeklies, to establish why news frames and discourses appear the way they are in both newspapers. The study observes that generally, there is no peace journalism practice in the two newspapers. Journalists expressed ignorance of the practice despite its obvious relevance to the Zimbabwean volatile electoral environment. I find that hate- spewing, racist, confrontational, polarising and divisive discourses on electoral violence make it difficult to understand the extent of election violence, its subsequent consequences and how, in the long term, it can be arrested. I argue that in some instances, the two newspapers went beyond reporting news on election violence to participating in election violence. I propose a peace journalism news reporting model that can be utilised by the press in case election violence arise again. Key words: election violence, peace journalism, press, Zimbabwe, news ii Declaration I Allen Munoriyarwa, declare that this thesis is my own original work. It is being submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Journalism at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. This work has not been, in substance, submitted previously nor concurrently, in candidature for any degree at any other University. ………………………………………. ………13…….day ……of…February……………., 2019 iii Dedication For Anesu You pushed me to this iv Acknowledgements A study of this magnitude could not be completed without the contribution of many people. Countless people contributed to the completion of this thesis and I wish to acknowledge them all for their efforts. First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my two Supervisors, Professor Jane Duncan and Professor Pier Paolo Frassinelli. I am still surprised why the two never lost hope in me even when I felt like I wanted to quit. I am indeed grateful to both and I will forever be grateful to them. Throughout my study, I stood on the shoulders of these two academic giants. I would like to thank the University of Johannesburg Research Council for the funding I received for this research. I am indeed grateful to the University. I could not have come to UJ if they had not supported my research. I am grateful to Canon Collins Scholarship for awarding me a research grant to complete my research. I am also grateful to the Canon Collins for enabling me to connect with many scholars around the world who are interested in peace and journalism. I would also like to express my profound gratitude to my family – my mother, my brothers, sisters, all their children, to Vachihera - Netsai, little Nikita, Willy, Nyasha Marambi – You are a true family! Thank you for being there. I will not forget my friends – Collen Chambwera, Mukanya, Dr Lyton Ncube, chizukuru, Dr Albert Chibuwe and Dr Mugari for the advice and insights. To my classmate, Kudakwashe Limited Keche, thank you very much. You are the reason why I could do my interviews. You are a special friend. Refilwe and Tsholofelo, thanks for pushing me. Thank you also for reading my work. You are the best! Special thanks to Professor Dumisani Moyo, Professor Sarah Chiumbu and Professor Gilbert Thatayaone Motsaathebe. You always asked how this thesis was shaping up. Thank you Amy Maphagela for all the support. I cannot thank you enough. I will miss you! v Abbreviations AMH Alpha Media Holdings AU African Union CCJP Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace CDA. Critical Discourse Analysis CIO Central Intelligence Agency CPIA Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa ESAP. Economic Structural Adjustment Programme EU European Union MDC. Movement for Democratic Change MISA Media Institute of Southern Africa MMPZ Media Monitoring Programme of Zimbabwe MPOIZ Mass Public Opinion Institute of Zimbabwe SADC Southern Africa Development Community UN United Nations ZANU-PF. Zimbabwe African Union-Patriotic Front ZEC Zimbabwe Election Commission ZIMPAPERS Zimbabwe papers (Pvt) (Ltd) ZNA Zimbabwe National Army ZPP Zimbabwe Peace Project ZRP Zimbabwe Republic Police ZANU PF Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front vi List of Figures Figure 3:1. Galtung’s Peace Journalism Model…………………………Page 34 Figure 3: 2. Aslam’s Inverted Trident of Peace Journalism Model…… Page 37 Figure 6: 2. An Integrated Peace Journalism Model for Zimbabwe……Page 218 vii List of tables Table 6: 1. Axis, Actions and Deliverables of a new Peace Journalism model….. Page 215 viii Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ii Declaration............................................................................................................................................... iii Dedication............................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................ v Abbreviations......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures....................................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Preface………………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………1 1.2. The research problem………………………………………………………………………………….2 1.3. Research objectives……………………………………………………………………………………3 1.4. Research questions…………………………………………………………………………………….4 1.5. Justification of the study………………………………………………………………………………4 1.6. Locating the study in peace and journalism discourses……………………………………………….5 1.7. Delimitations of the study…………………………………………………………………………….7 1.8. Limitations of the study………………………………………………………………………………8 1.9. Outline and structure of thesis………………………………………………………………………..9 Chapter 2: The political and press context of post-2000 Zimbabwe…………………………………….11 2.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….11 2.2. Zimbabwe’s election history: An overview…………………………………………………………11 2.3. Post – 2000 Zimbabwe: the rise of a labour-based opposition………………………………………12 2.4. Understanding election violence in Zimbabwe through Mamdani’s post-colonial perspective…….14 2.5. The press in post-2000 Zimbabwe: A chequered history of press-state relations……………………21 2.6. Explaining the press context using the Linear City Theory…………………………………………..23 ix 2.7. Understanding Zimbabwe’s press context as a polarised pluralist model………………………….24 2.8. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………….28 Chapter 3: Literature review……………………………………………………………………………29