JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS JOURNAL OF JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS Special Issue on Zimbabwe’s 2005 General Election Vol 4 No 2 Oct 2005 Vol Volume 4 Number 2 October 2005 VOLUME 4 NO 2 1 Journal of African Elections Special Issue on Zimbabwe’s 2005 General Election ARTICLES BY Peter Vale Norman Mlambo Sue Mbaya Lloyd M Sachikonye Choice Ndoro Bertha Chiroro Martin R Rupiya Sehlare Makgelaneng Volume 4 Number 2 October 2005 2 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS Published by EISA 14 Park Rd, Richmond Johannesburg South Africa P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006 South Africa Tel: +27(0)11 482 5495 Fax: +27(0)11 482 6163 e-mail: [email protected] © EISA 2005 ISSN: 1609-4700 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Copy editor: Pat Tucker Printed by: Global Print, Johannesburg Cover photograph: Reproduced with the permission of the HAMILL GALLERY OF AFRICAN ART, BOSTON, MA, USA www.eisa.org.za VOLUME 4 NO 2 3 EDITORS Denis Kadima, EISA, Johannesburg Khabele Matlosa, EISA, Johannesburg EDITORIAL BOARD Tessy Bakary, Office of the Prime Minister, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire David Caroll, Democracy Program, The Carter Center, Atlanta Luis de Brito, EISA Country Office, Maputo Jørgen Elklit, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark Amanda Gouws, Department of Political Science, University of Stellenbosch Abdalla Hamdok, International Institute for Democracy Assistance, Pretoria Sean Jacobs, New York University, Brooklyn, NY Claude Kabemba, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria Peter Kagwanja, International Crisis Group, Southern Africa Project, Pretoria Peter Katjavivi, Ambassador of Namibia to the European Union in Brussels Abdul Rahman Lamin, Department of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Tom Lodge, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick Robin Ludwig, UN Dialogue with the Global South, New York Robert Mattes, Department of Political Science, University of Cape Town Yvonne Muthien, Corporate Affairs, MTN South Africa Eghosa Osaghae, Igbinedion University, Okada, Nigeria David Pottie, The Carter Center, Atlanta Ben Reilly, Asia Pacific School of Economics & Government, The Australian National Univer- sity, Canberra Lloyd Sachikonye, Institute of Development Studies, University of Zimbabwe, Harare Jeremy Seekings, Sociology Department, University of Cape Town Timothy Sisk, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, Colorado Gloria Somolekae, National Representative of the W K Kellogg Programme in Botswana and EISA Board member Roger Southall, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria The Journal of African Elections is an interdisciplinary biannual publication of research and writing in the human sciences, which seeks to promote a scholarly understanding of developments and change in Africa. Responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts published in papers, research notes, review articles and book reviews rests solely with the individual authors or reviewers. Contributions are referred to specialist readers for consideration, but the Editor is responsible for the final selection of the contents of the Journal. Editorial correspondence, including manuscripts for submission and books for review, should be sent to: The Editor, Journal of African Elections EISA: P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006, South Africa Business correspondence, including orders and remittances, subscription queries, advertisements, back numbers and offprints, should be addressed to: The Publisher, Journal of African Elections EISA: P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006 South Africa 4 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS CONTENTS South Africa and Zimbabwe: Democracy in the Littoral Zone Peter Vale........................................................................................................................... 1 Moods Of Bitterness: How Political Polarisation has Influenced Zimbabwean Elections Norman Mlambo ............................................................................................................. 15 Zimbabwe’s Land Politics and the 2005 Elections Sue Mbaya ....................................................................................................................... 37 Political Parties and the 2005 Elections in Zimbabwe Lloyd M Sachikonye ........................................................................................................ 63 The Politics of the 2005 Parliamentary Elections in Zimbabwe Choice Ndoro ...................................................................................................................74 Persistent Inequalities: Women and Electoral Politics in the Zimbabwe Elections in 2005 Bertha Chiroro ................................................................................................................. 91 An examination of the Role of the National Youth Service/Militia in Zimbabwe and its Effect on the Electoral Process, 2001-2005 Martin R Rupiya ...........................................................................................................107 Zimbabwe’s 2005 Parliamentary Elections: Lessons for the Movement for Democratic Change Sehlare Makgetlaneng ................................................................................................... 123 Review Zimbabwe: Injustice and Political Reconciliation .........................................................142 Contents of Previous Issues ...................................................................................... 148 Notes for Contributors ............................................................................................... 155 VOLUME 4 NO 2 1 SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE: Democracy in the Littoral Zone By Peter Vale Professor Peter Vale holds the Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. He is a Member of the South African Academy of Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University PO Box 94 Grahamstown Tel: +27(0)46 603 8354; Fax: +27(0)46 622 4345 e-mail: [email protected] We are like travelers navigating an unknown terrain with the help of old maps, drawn at a different time and in response to different needs. While the terrain we are traveling on, the world society of states, has changed, our normative map has not. Selya Benhabib ABSTRACT Looking beyond routine explanations of the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe, this paper examines mainstream understandings of Southern African politics and the language that produces them. It uses historical sociology to offer an alternative explanation of the development of the region and highlights the overlapping sources of authority that predated the state system. Drawing on the insightful poetry of Douglas Livingstone (and his own peregrinations in the region), the argument suggests that instead of an ontology based on state boundaries the region should be considered a ‘littoral zone’ in which authority and control move back and forth between different social bundles. Imaginative interpretations, rather than the ‘weasel words’ cult democracy, could help secure rights in Zimbabwe. INTRODUCTION Why are debates about the prospects for change in Zimbabwe threadbare? Insipid, uninspiring and terribly introspective, they turn and return to a mantra: insist on ‘accountability’, ‘governance’ and ‘transparency’ in the country; and insist, too, that South Africa, as it did before the Lancaster House Agreement 25 years ago, deliver Zimbabwe to the folds of modernity. 1 2 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS When this option wilts, as it often does, the policy door swings towards ‘liberal internationalism’1: this is the same option that propelled the United States (and its infamous ‘Coalition of the Willing’) to invade Iraq in order to free the country and liberate its people from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. So, and not occasionally, either, policy pundits (and others besides) suggests that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) – or George W Bush – should invade Zimbabwe, remove Robert Mugabe and his cohort, and set the country’s people free. Although these options – democracy by formula and pressure, and armed invasion – make dramatic Op Ed pieces, they make little intellectual or political sense. One reason for this, and this explains the purpose of this paper, is that the two positions are distilled through the language and logic of interacting variables (Lapid 2001, p 3). As a result, it seems as if history and sociology – let alone the real business of politics, humanity – have no place in the relationship between South Africa and Zimbabwe. A little reflection, let alone a glance at a map, suggests that the two countries – a term used here only for illustrative purposes – have been intricately linked for more than a century. The depressing outcome is that beyond the framing of state and nation – and the influence on both these of race – there is no imagination in the minds of those who are vocal on the topic. This explains why policy prescriptions seldom stray beyond the standard operating procedures that are at the core of contemporary diplomacy and which, as the dismal experience in Iraq shows, can be so dangerous. Although largely unacknowledged, these prescriptions highlight an archaic understanding of the idea of policy