In Search of Régime Security: Zimbabwe Since Independence

Ronald Weitzer

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00056238

In Search of Régime Security: Zimbabwe Since Independence

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Ronald Weitzer

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The relatively peaceful decolonisation of British and French Africa in the 1950s and led, for the most part, to the capturing of state power by a new political élite rather than a throughgoing transformation of the state structures inherited at independence. Instead of refashioning institution in ways that might increase political participation and social justice, existing state capacities tended to be marshalled for exclusionary and, in many cases, authoritarian purposes.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 1984 , pp. 529 - 557

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00056238 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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^{page 529 note 1} On variations within this overall pattern, see Nwabueze, B. O.Presidentialism in Commonwealth Africa (London, 1974);Google ScholarCollier, Ruth, ‘Parties, Coups, and Authoritarian Rule’, in Comparative Political Studies (Beverly Hills), 11, April 1978, pp. 62–93;Google ScholarJackson, Robert H. and Rosberg, Carl G., Personal Rule in Black Africa: prince, autocrat, prophet, tyrant (Berkeley and London, 1982);Google Scholar and Zolberg, Aristide R., Creating Political Order: the party-states of West Africa (Chicago, 1966).Google Scholar

^{page 530 note 1} A leader of the liberation movement in Guinea-Bissau, quoted approvingly by Chabal, Patrick, Amílcar Cabral: revolutionary leadership and people's war (Cambridge, 1983), p. 95.Google Scholar

^{page 530 note 2} Saul, John S., The State and Revolution in Eastern Africa: essays (New York, 1979), pp. 71–2.Google Scholar

^{page 530 note 3} Davidson, Basil, ‘The Politics of Armed Struggle’, in Davidson, et al. , Southern Africa: the new politics of revolution (Harmondsworth, 1976), p. 75.Google Scholar

^{page 530 note 4} Chabal, op. cit. p. 218.

^{page 532 note 1} ‘Emergency Powers: mechanism for instant legislation’, in Moto (Gweru), July 1983.

^{page 533 note 1} Offe, Claus, ‘Structural Problems of the Capitalist State’, in German Political Studies (Beverly Hills), 1, 1974, pp. 31–74;Google Scholar and Bacharch, Peterand Baratz, Morton, ‘Decisions and Nondecisions’, in American Political Science Review (Washington, D.C.), 57, 1963.Google Scholar

^{page 534 note 1} The Herald (Harare), 29 July 1983.

^{page 534 note 2} The Economist (London), 21 April 1984, p. 9.

^{page 534 note 3} See Weitzer, Ronald, ‘Continuities in the Politics of State Security of Zimbabwe’, in Michael, Schatzberg (ed.), The Political Economy of Zimbabwe (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

^{page 534 note 4} Cf. Loewenstein, Karl, British Cabinet Government (New York, 1967),Google Scholar and Mackintosh, John, The Government and Politics of Britain (London, 1982).Google Scholar

^{page 535 note 1} Zimbabwe, , Assembly Debates (Harare), 5, 13 July 1982, col. 623.Google Scholar

^{page 535 note 2} Constitution of Zimbabwe, 1979 (Harare, 1979), section 25.

^{page 536 note 1} Assembly Debates, 7, 13 July 1983, col. 395.

^{page 536 note 2} The Herald, 14 November 1983.

^{page 536 note 3} In June 1983, the Government established a commission of inquiry into allegations of atrocities by security forces in the Western Region, but is not bound either to accept or to implement its recommendations.

^{page 536 note 4} The Ministry of Home Affairs is not a perfect replica of the Ministry of Law and Order in that its activities extend beyond security. ‘The Ministry of Home Affairs’, Harare, 1984, D12/47a.

^{page 536 note 5} Interview, Central Intelligence Organisation official, June 1983; also Africa Confidential (London), 15 December 1982.

^{page 536 note 6} Africa Confidential, 3 August 1983.

^{page 536 note 7} The Herald, 5 February 1983.

^{page 537 note 1} Jenkins, Simon, ‘Destabilisation in Southern Africa’, in The Economist, 16 July 1983.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 2} Interview, C.I.O. official, June 1983. According to Africa Confidential, 5 September 1984, p. 7, ‘Zimbabwean security confirmed that South Africa had largely disengaged from such destabilisation [infiltration] by January this year’.

^{page 538 note 1} Ehrenreich, Frederick, ‘National Security’, in Zimbabwe: a country study (Washington, D.C.,1983, p. 247.Google Scholar

^{page 538 note 2} The Herald, 10 March 1983.

^{page 538 note 3} Africa Confidential, 3 August 1983.

^{page 538 note 4} Assembly Debates, 9,18 January, and 10, 18 July 1984. In the last six months of 1983, 75 murders were attributed to insurgents, with 537 sightings and 175 contacts. In the first half of 1984, the figures reported were 45 murders, 670 sightings, and 191 contacts.

^{page 538 note 5} International Herald Tribune (Paris), 9 April 1983. Cf. The Herald, 19 April 1983.

^{page 538 note 6} Assembly Debates, 5, 13 July 1982, col. 629.

^{page 539 note 1} Barrel, Howard, ‘Which Way Mugabe?’, in New African (London), January 1984, p. 13; see also The Economist, 3 March 1984.Google Scholar

^{page 539 note 2} The Herald, 26 March 1983.

^{page 539 note 3} Kesselman, Mark,‘Order or Movement: the literature of political development as ideology’, in World Politics (Princeton), 26, October 1973, p. 148.Google Scholar

^{page 540 note 1} Donner, Frank, The Age of Surveillance (New York, 1981), p. xv.Google Scholar

^{page 540 note 2} Assembly Debates, 5, 13 July 1982, col. 633.

^{page 540 note 3} Ibid. cols. 630–4.

^{page 541 note 1} Minister of Home Affairs, The Times (London), 9 September 1983; and The Herald, 16 February 1983.

^{page 541 note 2} Austin, Reg, ‘The Law and the Individual’, Address at Newman Hall, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 1983, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

^{page 541 note 3} The Times, 7 April 1981 and 28 January 1982.

^{page 542 note 1} The ‘illegal’ imposition of a one-party system today would not only inflame domestic white opinion and the minority parties, but could be expected to prejudice international investment at a particularly difficult time economically. Secondly, a declaration of one-party rule would only become a serious option in the event that the ruling party began to lose power. Presently, there is little that the régime cannot do because of the parliamentary system.

^{page 542 note 2} Mugabe, Robert himself has alluded to the emergence of a de facto one-party state before it is legally installed. ‘The Parliment of Zimbabwe and Some Aspects of the Constution’, in Parlimentarian (London), 65, January 1984, pp. 1–9.Google Scholar

^{page 542 note 3} Finer, S. E., ‘The One-Party Regimes in Africa’, in Government and Opposition (London), 2, July–October 1967, pp. 491–509.Google Scholar

^{page 542 note 4} Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, quoted in The Herald, 2 March 1983.

^{page 542 note 5} Bishop Abel Muzorewa, leader of the U.A.N.C. and Prime Minister in the short-lived Rhodesia–Zimbabwe, was released in early September 1984 after ten months in detention without charge. A Republican From M.P. was detained for a similar period, and finally had his case thrown out by the High Court.

^{page 543 note 1} The Herald, 4 February 1983.

^{page 543 note 2} Sunday Mail (Harare), 10 March 1983.

^{page 543 note 3} ‘Bruising the Dissidents’, in Moto, March 1983.

^{page 544 note 1} The Herald, 27 March and 19 April 1983.

^{page 544 note 2} The Guardian (London), 21 June 1984.

^{page 544 note 3} See Thomashausen, Andre, ‘Forfeiture of Enemy Property in Zimbabwe’, in Human Rights Law Journal (Arlington, Va.), 4, September 1983, pp. 167–78.Google Scholar

^{page 544 note 4} The Herald, 26 February 1983.

^{page 544 note 5} Broadcast by the Prime Minister; Sunday Mail, 1 January 1984.

^{page 544 note 6} The Times, 18 August 1983.

^{page 544 note 7} Interview, C.I.O. official, June 1983.

^{page 544 note 8} Ibid.

^{page 545 note 1} The Herald, 25 April 1983; Davies, Nick, ‘Zimbabwe Torn Apart by Old Issue of Land’, in The Guardian, 24 March 1983;Google Scholar and Barnes, Fred, ‘Search and Destroy’, in New Statesman (London), 18 March 1983.Google Scholar

^{page 545 note 2} ‘Zimbabwe’, in Review of the International Commission of Jurists (Geneva), 30 July 1983, p. 29.

^{page 545 note 3} The Herald, 30 March 1983.

^{page 545 note 4} Trelford, Donald, ‘Lost People of Zimbabwe’, in The Observer (London), 15 April 1984;Google Scholar and Godwin, Peter, ‘Stench of Death Everywhere in Mugabe's Siege of Matabeleland’, in Sunday Times (London), 15 April 1984.Google Scholar

^{page 545 note 5} Godwin, Peter, Marsden, Eric, and Milligan, Stephen, ‘Mass Murder in Matabeleland’, in Sunday Times, 8 April 1984.Google Scholar

^{page 545 note 6} ‘Zimbabwe: fear is the key’, in Africa Confidential, 11 April 1984.

^{page 545 note 7} The Times, 16 April 1984.

^{page 546 note 1} ‘Zimbabwe’, in Review of International Commission of Jurists.

^{page 546 note 2} The Herald, 4 February 1983.

^{page 546 note 3} Assembly Debates, 6, 3 February 1983, col. 1219; and Moto, March 1983.

^{page 546 note 4} Barnes, loc. cit. p. 15.

^{page 546 note 5} Interview, C.I.O. official, June 1983.

^{page 547 note 1} Mugabe has frequently dismissed the possibility of any kind of political solution to the troubles: ‘The solution in Matabelelend is a military one’. Quoted in Trelford, loc. cit.

^{page 547 note 2} Jackson, Robert, ‘Political Stratification in Tropical Africa’, in Canadian Journal of African Studies (Ottawa), 7, 1973, p. 394.Google Scholar

^{page 547 note 3} Cf. O'Connell, James, ‘The Inevitability of Instability’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 5, 2, September 1967, pp. 181–91.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 547 note 4} Sachs, Albie,‘Mozambique: the survival of legal docrine in a revolutionary society’, in International Journal for the Sociology of Law (London), 7, February 1979, pp. 31–6;Google ScholarIssacman, Allen, A Luta Continua: creating a new society in Mozambique(Binghamton 1978);Google Scholar and Allen, and Isaacman, Barbara, Mozambique: from colonialism to revolution 1900–1982 (Boulder, 1983).Google Scholar

^{page 547 note 5} Since the available literature on Mozambique is rather limited, the following discussion is necessarily suggestive rather than conclusive.

^{page 548 note 1} Daily Telegraph (London), 13 October 1979.

^{page 549 note 1} Cf. Davidow, Jeffrey, A Peace in Southern Africa: the Lancaster House Conference on Rhodesia (Boulder, 1984), p. 70.Google Scholar

^{page 549 note 2} Isaacmans, Mozambique, p. 40.

^{page 549 note 3} Bailey, Norman A., ‘Government and Administration’, in Abshire, David M. and Samuels, Michael A. (eds.), Portuguese Africa: a handbook (London and New York, 1969), pp. 133–45; and Isaacmans, Mozambique.Google Scholar

^{page 549 note 4} On the state's rôle in unifying the dominant classes, see Poulantzas, Nicos, Political Power and Social Classes (London, 1973).Google Scholar

^{page 549 note 5} Saul, op. cit. p. 65; and Middlemas, Keith, ‘Twentieth Century White Society in Mozambique’, in Tarikh (London), 6, 1979, pp. 42–3.Google Scholar

^{page 549 note 6} Middlemas, loc. cit. p. 44.

^{page 550 note 1} Although the settlers extracted concessions, they still described the Lancaster House agreement as the worst offer they had ever received from Britain, and it was called ‘a victory for Communism’ by Ian Smith. The Times, 17 December 1979.

^{page 550 note 2} Gregory, Martyn, ‘Zimbabwe 1980: politicisation through armed struggle and electoral mobilisation’, in Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (London), 19, March 1981, p. 84.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 550 note 3} Porch, Douglas, The Portuguese Armed Forces and the Revolution (London, 1977), p. 32.Google Scholar

^{page 550 note 4} Maxwell, Kenneth, ‘Portugal and Africa: the last empire’, in Prosser, Gifford and Louis, Wm. Roger (eds.), The Transfer of Power in Africa: decolonization, 1940–1960 (New Haven and London, 1982), p. 372.Google Scholar

^{page 550 note 5} Mittelman, James, ‘State Power in Mozambique’, in Issue: quarterly journal of opinion (Los Angeles), 8, Spring 1978, pp. 4–11.Google Scholar

^{page 551 note 1} See the following Lancaster House Conference Papers: ‘Patriotic Front Proposals’, CC(79)16, 18 September 1979, and ‘Patriotic front Response to British Proposals for Zimbabwe’, CC(79)23, 8 October 1979. In the latter document, the Patriotic Front stated its opposition to an entrenched Declaration of Rights because ‘the Govenment will be unable to respond to legitimate popular demands’, p. 3.

^{page 551 note 2} See Lancaster House Conference Papers, ‘Independence Constitution’, CC(79)4, 12 September 1979, and ‘British Govenment Proposals for Independence Constitution’, CC(79)19, 3 October 1979. The final draft of the constitution was essentially a carbon copy of these original Foreign Office proposals.

^{page 551 note 3} Agreement, para. 15, in Southern Rhodesia, Report of the Constitutional Conference, Lancaster House, September–December 1979 (London, 1980), Cmnd. 7802.

^{page 551 note 4} Ibid. para. 2.

^{page 551 note 5} Soames had served previously as British Ambassador to France during the negotiated decolonisation of Algeria. Sec Musamirapamwe, O. N., ‘The Evian Agreements on Algeria and the Lancaster Agreements on Zimbabwe’, in Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law (Athens, Ga.), 12, 1982, pp. 153–70.Google Scholar

^{page 551 note 6} Soames, Lord, ‘From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe’, in International Affairs (London), 56, summer 1980, p. 418.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 552 note 1} Gregory, loc. cit.; and Astrow, André, zimbabwe: the revolution that lost its way (London, 1983).Google Scholar

^{page 552 note 2} Gregory, loc. cit. p. 84.

^{page 553 note 1} Isaacman, A Luta continua, p. 30.

^{page 553 note 2} From a similar number of 250,000 whites during the war, four years after independence Mozambique was left with 20,000 and Zimbabwe with more than 100,000.

^{page 553 note 3} Ehrenreich, op. cit. p. 242.

^{page 553 note 4} The Lusaka Agreement, 7 September 1974, para. 18.

^{page 553 note 5} Isaacmans, Mozambique, p. 111.

^{page 554 note 1} In terms of overt destabilising forces, Mozambique has been under greater siege than Zimbabwe. In the last half of the 1970s the Rhodesian régime launched hundreds of military interventions against Mozambique, while in the 1980s the destabilisation efforts of South Africa have been extremely troublesome. The Pretoria-sponsored Mozambique National Resistance movement has waged a campaign of insurgency against the Maputo régime far in excess of the disorder caused to Zimbabwe by dissidents. See Fauvet, Paul, ‘Roots of Counter-Revolution in Mozambique: the Mozambique National Resistance’, in Review of African Political Economy (London), 29, July 1984, pp. 108– 21. The M.N.R. is estimated to number 12,000, compared to the 300 insurgents operating in Zimbabwe at any one time.Google Scholar

^{page 554 note 2} Moorcraft, Paul and McLaughlin, Peter, Chimurenga: the war in Rhodesia (Marshalltown, 1982), p. 90.Google Scholar

^{page 554 note 3} Cf. Cliffe, Lionel, Mpofu, Joshua, and Munslow, Barry, ‘Nationalist Politics in Zimbabwe’, in Review of African Political Economy, 18, 05–08 1980, pp. 44–67.Google Scholar

^{page 554 note 4} Mittleman, loc. cit. p. 11.

^{page 555 note 1} Isaacmans, Mozambique, p. 42.

^{page 555 note 2} Sklar, Richard calls Mozambique a ‘guided democracy’, lacking multi-party electoral competition, but providing for the accountability of rulers to the people. ‘Democracy in Africa’, in African Studies Review (Los Angeles), 26, September–October 1983, pp. 11–24.Google Scholar

^{page 555 note 3} Astrow, op. cit.

^{page 555 note 4} Minister of Justice, in A., Sachs (ed.), Principles of Revolutionary Justice (London, 1979), p. 53, published by the Mozambique, Angola, and Guiné Information Centre.Google Scholar

^{page 555 note 5} Ibid. pp. 6 and 19.

^{page 556 note 1} Minister of Home Affairs, Assembly Debates, 5, 13 July 1982, col. 628, and 7, 13 July 1983, col. 416.

^{page 556 note 2} See Zvobgo, Eddison, ‘The Abuse of Executive Prerogative: a purposive difference between detention in black Africa and detention in white racist Africa’, in Issue: quarterly journal of opinion, 6, Winter 1976, pp. 38–43Google Scholar, for a spirited contrast of human rights abuses by the current Minister of Justice and Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. He maintain then that repression was ‘haphazard’ and given to ‘spurts of limited duration’ under black rulers, as opposed to being permanent and comprehensive in settler régimes. The outrages of Idi Amin were dismissed as ‘un-African’.

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