FACULTY OF HUMANITIES, DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SADC MEDIATION IN ZIMBABWE: LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR LASTING SOLUTION TO THE ZIMBABWE CRISIS By Petra Rumbidzai Chinyere Student No: 217077803 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree, Doctor of Philosophy in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies, School of Social Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban. Supervisor: Dr. Rudigi Rukema Joseph SEPTEMBER 2020 DECLARATION I, Ms Petra R. Chinyere, declare as follows: 1. That the work described in this thesis has not been submitted to UKZN or other tertiary institution for purposes of obtaining an academic qualification, whether by myself or any other party. 2. That my contribution to the project was as follows: - The write up of the whole thesis. - Documentary search and all desk work. - Conducting all of the key informant interviews and all one-on-one interviews and also some of the Focus Group Discussions - All the transcription of audio recordings to typed work for data capture. - Funded the field research on my own as it was purely for academic purposes. 3. That the contributions of others to the project were as follows: - Norman Pinduka conducted one (1) focus group discussion in Harare and assisted partly on data capture as he transcribed the focus group discussion that he conducted. He also helped identify some of the respondents to the in-depth interviews that were conducted. - Tarisayi Chiyaka conducted 3 of the focus group discussions during data collection, in Bulawayo, Gweru and Masvingo. - Kilbride Kajengo did the type setting of the whole document and formatting. Signed Date 25-09-2020. i DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my late parents, who both passed on during the 2nd year of my studies and also to all my children, Kodzero, Kekona and Kiana. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks go to the Lord Almighty who made all this possible. Many thanks to my husband, Aaron whose encouragement and unwavering support kept me going. To my children, words fail me, thank you for understanding that Mummy had to study and for accompanying me to school most of the time. My supervisor, Dr Rukema, thank you for the patience, advice and guidance throughout the course of the studies. My research assistants, Norman and Tarisayi, thank you so much, we did it. All my interviewees, I wouldn’t have made it without your input, thank you. A million thanks go to Kilbride Kajengo who assisted with the final type setting and formatting of the thesis. iii ABSTRACT Nearly a decade ago, a Government of National Unity (GNU) was established in Zimbabwe based on the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which was mediated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The unity government was a result of questionable elections which had seen President Robert Mugabe being defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai and Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) losing its parliamentary majority to the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations. Such a trajectory occurred in a country that had been ravaged by socio- economic woes for decades. The establishment of the GNU brought about short-term positive economic and political changes to the state of Zimbabwe. However, approximately seven years after its end, Zimbabwe has returned to the crisis that was meant to be addressed by the GNU. Consequently, the rationale behind this research was to establish whether the GNU in Zimbabwe was a lost opportunity upon which Zimbabwe’s crisis could have been solved. The study was informed by the Ripeness Theory, the Readiness Theory and the Elite Theory. It used a qualitative analytical approach in which data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and documentary search. The findings of the research revealed that the SADC-mediated GNU provided an opportunity to end Zimbabwe’s crisis but was affected by the approach used in its formation and implementation. While the SADC-mediated GNU ignored certain sections of the Zimbabwe community throughout its life, the differing interests of the parties impacted negatively on the operations of the agreement. The different political parties that constituted the GNU pursued party interest often ignoring the Global Political Agreement (GPA) itself. As a result, the set objectives of political, economic and security sector reforms among others were not realised. The SADC-mediated GNU thus failed to address Zimbabwe’s crisis. However, the GNU experienced some short-term successes especially in temporarily stabilizing the economy and bringing about political tolerance. Against such a backdrop, the study argued that GNU-related negotiations should be all-involving and all-encompassing for them to be successful. The SADC bloc’s elite-driven approach in dealing with crises situations ought to change as it has not yielded positive results. Additionally, the early warning signs of the bloc have failed and require reconsideration. At the national level, the state of Zimbabwe needs to consider adopting traits of the developmental state model to solve its unending crisis. These and some of the suggested solutions in the study will go a long way in solving crisis situations that may require unity governments and/or even assisting states to deal with economic and politically-related woes within the SADC region. Key words: negotiated settlement, unity government, elite settlement, negotiated government, government of national unity, global political agreement. iv Table of Contents DECLARATION ................................................................................................................................................ i DEDICATION .................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................................... 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................. 9 1.4 Research objectives .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.5 Research Questions .......................................................................................................................... 11 1.6 Hypothesis ......................................................................................................................................... 12 1.7 Significance of the Study ................................................................................................................... 12 1.8 Structure of dissertation ................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................................ 15 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 Defining the Concept of Mediation .................................................................................................. 15 2.2.1 The Mediation Process ............................................................................................................... 18 2.3 Characteristics of Mediators ............................................................................................................. 22 2.3.1 Mandate ..................................................................................................................................... 22 2.3.2 Impartiality and inclusivity ......................................................................................................... 23 2.3.3 Entry and Consent ...................................................................................................................... 23 2.3.4 Strategy ...................................................................................................................................... 24 2.3.5 Leverage ..................................................................................................................................... 24 2.4 Mediation in the Conflict Prevention Discourse ............................................................................... 25 2.4.1 The Essence of Mediation: A Human Security Perspective ......................................................