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CIVIL SOCIETY, THE STATE AND DEMOCRACY IN ZIMBABWE, 1988 – 2014: HEGEMONIES, POLARITIES AND FRACTURES By ZENZO MOYO A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy in Development Studies Supervisor: Professor David Moore August 2018 Declaration of originality I declare that Civil Society, the State and Democracy in Zimbabwe, 1988 – 2014: Hegemonies, Polarities and Fractures is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Zenzo Moyo (Researcher) Signed: …… …… Date…23 July 2018…… ii ABSTRACT The post-independence ruling class in Zimbabwe carefully combined coercion and consent to assert its hegemony from the day it assumed state power. It implemented this through making use of both civil society and political society. However, this embryonic hegemony started to rupture around 1988 when some civil society organisations began to assert their autonomy from state control. These are the organisations that became the nucleus of a counter-hegemonic alliance that crystallised in the 1990s. This study interrogates state – civil society relations in Zimbabwe between 1988 and 2014, and how these relations have impacted on democratisation. Many studies have characterised state – civil society relations in Zimbabwe as polarised. This polarisation can be understood within Gramsci’s theory of hegemony. One side defined itself around radical-nationalist and redistributionist discourse, while the other emphasised democracy and liberal notions of human rights and good governance. While laying differentiated understandings of democracy, both poles attracted intellectual strata to elaborate on each side’s “ideology”, which resulted in an orbicular broadening of polarisation. This study utilises this characterisation to interrogate the repertoire of state – society relations, and to make a determination on the value proposition of civil society to democracy. One of the contradictions of this polarised engagement was the peripheralisation of other important national questions as two possibilities became modelled as the only alternatives. Thus, the period between 1988 and 2014 witnessed differentiated engagements between the state and civil society, but all defined either within pro-hegemonic or counter-hegemonic terms, yielding either cooperative or confrontational relations shaped by both the state and civil society. This qualitative study, concludes that the current levels of democracy in Zimbabwe, where the old seems to be dying but the new cannot be born yet, are a reflection of struggles and counter-struggles that have tended to negate each other, in the process choking processes of democratisation. It is the enduring phenomenon of polarisation – where only two possibilities are modelled as the only alternatives – which should to be abrogated for true and inclusive democracy to have a chance in Zimbabwe. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv Acknowledgements ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v Administrative Map of Zimbabwe ---------------------------------------------------------------- vii Acronyms ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii List of Figures and tables --------------------------------------------------------------------------- x CHAPTER ONE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The Study: Introduction, Background and Methodology. CHAPTER TWO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 The State, Civil Society, Democracy, Hegemony and Gramsci: Towards a Theoretical Framework. CHAPTER THREE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 65 State – Civil Society Relations: The Possible, the Alternatives and the Preferred. CHAPTER FOUR ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 85 Sketching the Polarisation Dialectic: Nationalist Movement Pre and Post-Independence and the Quest for Democracy. CHAPTER FIVE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 110 Labour and Student Movements: Historical and Contemporary Development of Civil Society. CHAPTER SIX ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------138 Human Rights Alliances and the Party-State: Constitutionalism, Antagonisms and Partnerships in a “Democracy”. CHAPTER SEVEN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 179 Civil Society, State and Democracy: The Effects of Polarisation and the Emergence of Fractionalisation. CHAPTER EIGHT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 226 Findings and Conclusions: Hegemony, Polarisation, Fractionalisation and Democracy. REFERENCES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 244 APPENDICES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 267 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I had never envisaged myself embarking on a PhD study. However, in 2012 Professor David Moore sent me several articles that were not directly related to my Master’s research, for which he was supervisor. The accompanying message was “These may be good for a PhD study”. Thereafter I started toying with the idea of embarking on a PhD journey. I knew that it was going to be difficult, and I would probably have to sacrifice my teaching job in order to study full-time. Mid-2014, I was awarded a University of Johannesburg’s Global Excellence and Stature (GES) scholarship, which was to sustain my studies for three years. I am deeply indebted to this scholarship because it afforded me the luxury to quit my teaching job with full knowledge that I will be financially sustained for at least three years. This project would not have been completed without God’s guidance and protection. For that I would like to bow my head to give thanks to the Almighty. Beyond Devine salutations, I will forever be indebted to Professor David Moore, who, despite my shortcomings during our MA journey, was still willing to continue as my PhD supervisor. I have gained tremendously from you for the past seven years that we have worked together. Your incisive comments and friendly questions created a bilateral learning atmosphere that kept me going. I also thank you profoundly for the opportunities you availed for me to experience the world of academia. I will eternally be grateful to you. There are many other people who were of great assistance that I will not mention on this page due to space limitations. Most of them are in Bulawayo and Harare where I did most of my fieldwork. I sincerely thank you all. I know most of you will read this thesis. As you do so, please know that your assistance made it a success. Of course I take full responsibility for the final product, which might contain some misinterpretation of your views. Either way, your assistance was greatly appreciated. When my scholarship expired in mid-2017, my wife, Nomasiko Moyo had no option but to step in and provide not only for my studies, but also for the upkeep of our two lovely daughters, Noluthando and Minenhle Moyo. These three “women” in my life also endured months and hours of my absence, seclusion and disorder as I grappled with my research. Sometimes I even forgot to pick-up the girls from school. I thank you ladies for your tolerance and perseverance. I would also like to extend my appreciation to my special friends Xolani and Sinikiwe Ncube, as well as their two super-smart boys, Thabo and Bukhosi. The Ncube family sheltered me during my three months writing retreat in Calgary (Canada) in 2017. Bukhosi (8 years), I hope that as I conclude this “book” as you called it, you too will be concluding yours, because that is the pact we made. v I would also like to thank all staff members of the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg for all the support, big or small, that was extended to me. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to everyone who I had the privilege to interview for this thesis. I will not mention your names for obvious reasons. You took time off your busy schedules to accommodate me, and for that I am forever grateful. Professor Brian Raftopoulos