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<p>There has been a huge call for Zimbabwe to engage in a national dialogue to resolve the country’s economic crisis. The country’s reserve bank governor recently introduced a new currency known as Real Time Gross Transfer dollars or ‘RTGS dollars’ as a measure to address its currency problem.  For more on the dialogue issue, the newly introduced currency, and role South Africa and SADC should play in resolving Zim crisis; CNBC Africa spoke to Former Zimbabwe Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara.</p>


Zimbabwe needs bold reforms, productivity not a new currency – Arthur Mutambara

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<p>Zimbabwean Politician Temba Mliswa says MDC Alliance’s court petition challenging the 2018 Presidential elections results would not have been allowed under Robert Mugabe’s administration, showing that democracy is now alive in Zimbabwe. The Independent Member of Parliament for Norton Constituency and former Zanu-PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


MDC Alliance court challenge shows that democracy is now alive in Zimbabwe – Temba Mliswa

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<p>Zimbabwe has yet to settle following its disputed election, the first one Post-Mugabe&#8217;s rule, where President Emmerson Mnangagwa received majority vote. How are the markets responding to the nation-wide unrest? Joining CNBC Africa for more is Neville Mandimika, Africa Strategist, RMB.</p>


Tracking market, investor reaction to Zimbabwe’s disputed election

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<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has been arrested as he fled to Zambia to seek asylum, his lawyer said. CNBC Africa’s Chris Bishop provides more insight.</p>


Zimbabwe police arrest opposition leader Tendai Biti

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<p>Just before midnight the result came that incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa had won more than 50 per cent of the vote to stay on in power. It&#8217;s a result that was disputed by the opposition, almost from the moment that it came from the lips of the head of the Zimbabwean electoral commission, Justice Priscilla Chigumba. MDC Spokesperson, Morgan Komichi, jumped on stage to object.</p>


Emmerson Mnangagwa declared winner in #Zimbabwe poll

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<p>Zimbabwe is on edge as it waits to find out who will run the country for the next five years.</p>


#Zimabwevotes: MDC Alliance condemns military after violent clashes leave 3 dead

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<p>Zimbabwean voters are casting their ballots in the country&#8217;s general elections today but some based in South Africa did not make the journey to vote back home.</p>


Why this SA based Zimbabwean did not make the journey to vote

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<p>Wilf Mbanga, Editor The Zimbabwean joins CNBC Africa to give an update on the ongoing #Zimbabwe elections amid reports of voting delays in some urban areas.</p>


Zimbabwean opposition raise alarm over voting delays

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<p>Former Zimbabwean President and founding member of Zanu Pf Robert Mugabe revealed to the media his preferred candidate of the historic elections, first without his name on the ballot paper.</p>


Mugabe reveals his preferred candidate

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<p>Zimbabweans head to the polls today, with the two main contenders, ZANU Pf’s Emmerson Mangagwa and MDC’s Nelson Chamisa each confident of a victory. These will be the first elections with-ought Robert Mugabe. To find out the views of Zimbabweans living in diaspora CNBC Africa went out into the streets of Johannesburg.</p>


Zimbabweans in SA speak out on first post-Mugabe election

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<p><em>Zimbabweans in the diaspora are heeding the call by President Mnangagwa to come back home to invest and rebuild the economy. A consortium made up of Zimbabwe&#8217;s Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group (DIDG) and South Africa&#8217;s state-owned rail transport group Transnet delivered the first batch of rolling stock equipment to National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), as to strengthen trade and the recapitalisation of the country’s railway programme. However there has been concern that the equipment delivered is second hand and out-dated. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Daniel Sango caught up with DIDG Chairman Donovan Chimhandamba to discuss more details on the $400 million US dollars recapitalisation deal.</em></p>
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Zimbabwe diaspora, Transnet win $400mn NRZ tender

<p>Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has fired from parliament 11 allies of former leader Robert Mugabe, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa continues a purge of officials that publicly supported his old boss and wife Grace.</p>
<div id="attachment_291244" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-291244" class="wp-image-291244 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emmerson-Mnangagwa_GettyImages.png" alt="" width="850" height="565" /><p id="caption-attachment-291244" class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Emmerson Mnangagwa: Getty Images</p></div>
<p>Mnangagwa came to power in November after 93-year-old Mugabe was forced to resign following a defacto military coup.</p>
<p>Mnangagwa has spoken against retribution but local media reports say a ZANU-PF restructuring process around the country was targeting those who publicly backed Mugabe and Grace, whose tilt at power resulted in the military intervention.</p>
<p>According to a transcript of parliament procedures from Thursday, deputy speaker of parliament Mabel Chinomona said ZANU-PF had notified the house of assembly that the 11 no longer represented its interests, triggering their dismissal.</p>
<p>Some of the legislators were cabinet ministers in Mugabe’s government. In November ZANU-PF fired five top Mugabe allies from parliament, including Jonathan Moyo, a fiercely combative mouthpiece for a faction that backed Grace Mugabe’s rise.</p>
<p>Many of Mugabe’s political allies were either arrested by the military in a series of spectacular raids in the early hours of Nov. 15 or fled to neighboring countries.</p>
<p>In private, Mnangagwa’s allies worry that some of Mugabe’s supporters could regroup and campaign against the new president in elections that will be held in four to five months.</p>
<p>Moyo told Reuters last week that the international community must help remove the “military government” that has taken power or risk the country descending into chaos.</p>
<div class="Attribution_attribution_o4ojT">
<p class="Attribution_content_27_rw">Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Michael Perry</p>
</div>


Zimbabwe ruling party fires 11 Mugabe allies from parliament

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-hamill-254226">By <em>James Hamill</em></a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-leicester-1053">University of Leicester</a></em></p>
<p>Zimbabwe’s new President <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41995876">Emmerson Mnangagwa</a> has been cautiously welcomed with the hope that he will place Zimbabwe on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/mnangagwa-has-the-capacity-to-focus-on-the-new-zimbabwe-but-will-he-88254">more democratic trajectory</a>. He has spoken of a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/can-emmerson-mnangagwa-a-mugabe-ally-bring-change-to-zimbabwe-12134023">new democracy “unfolding”</a> in Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>But this is wishful thinking.</p>
<p>There are three major barriers to a decisive break from the corrupt and dysfunctional political system that has been playing out in Zimbabwe: the ruling <a href="http://www.zanupf.org.zw/">Zanu-PF</a>, its president and what’s been their main sustainer – the military.</p>
<p>None would want to oversee real change because facilitating democratic rule with real contestation for power would mean running the risk of electoral defeat. This would endanger the networks of self enrichment that have been put in place over decades.</p>
<p>Instead, the next few months will see Zanu-PF, Mnangagwa and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwe-beware-the-military-is-looking-after-its-own-interests-not-democracy-87712">military</a> continue to block democracy as they seek to hold onto the power.</p>
<h2>The nature of Zanu-PF</h2>
<p>Zanu-PF presents a formidable obstacle to democratic progress in the country. Zimbabwe has maintained the outward appearance of a multiparty democracy since <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/4/newsid_2515000/2515145.stm">independence in 1980</a>. But it’s effectively been a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/towards-the-oneparty-state-in-zimbabwe-a-study-in-african-political-thought/BD356807617492EBE85877DB6CD815C7">one-party dictatorship</a>.</p>
<p>The party brings a zero-sum game mindset to politics: it must always prevail, and its <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/06/09/bullets-each-you/state-sponsored-violence-zimbabwes-march-29-elections">opponents must be crushed</a> rather than accommodated. Opposition parties formally exist but they have not been allowed to win an election. Should such a possibility arise – as it did in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-are-elections-really-rigged-mr-trump-consult-robert-mugabe-68440">2002, 2008 and 2013</a> – elections will be rigged to preserve the status quo.</p>
<p>Zanu-PF provides the most egregious example of the culture of exceptionalism which has characterised the liberation party in power. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li>the belief that its entitled to rule indefinitely,</li>
<li>its refusal to view itself as an ordinary political party,</li>
<li>its conflating of party and state, and</li>
<li>its demonising of other parties as ‘enemies of liberation’ seeking to restore colonialism or white minority rule.</li>
</ul>
<p>The way in which Zanu-PF has colonised the state over almost four decades means that there is a vast web of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057070.2013.862100?src=recsys">patronage networks</a> that have been entrenched to facilitate the looting of the state’s resources. Democratic change and clean government pose a mortal threat to these networks and such privileges are unlikely to be surrendered without intense resistance.</p>
<h2>The new president</h2>
<p>Mnangagwa’s ominous record makes it difficult to build a persuasive case that he represents a new beginning.</p>
<p>He served as <a href="https://theconversation.com/mnangagwa-has-the-capacity-to-focus-on-the-new-zimbabwe-but-will-he-88254">Mugabe’s “chief enforcer”</a> until November 2017. He was pivotal to the collapse of the rule of law and the implosion of the Zimbabwean economy. And he has been a central player in the <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20161116-Zimbabwe-Early-Warning-Report.pdf">gross human rights abuses</a> that have characterised Zanu-PF rule. This includes the killings in <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=zi-tWekXbD8C&amp;pg=PA19&amp;lpg=PA19&amp;dq=%22the+early+rain+which+washes+away+the+chaff+before+the+spring+rains%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=dWX2SIUj7r&amp;sig=0aDLpmmQfN93e_RNJuKcBmGGEYI&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwioi-joj6LWAhWE7hoKHRF_C7wQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&amp;q=%22the%20early%20rain%20which%20washes%20away%20the%20chaff%20before%20the%20spring%20rains%22&amp;f=false">Matabeleland killings</a> in the 1980s. This is a past for which he has refused to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-11-27-op-ed-mnangagwa-and-the-gukurahundi-fact-and-fiction/#.WjFR4Ux2trQ">acknowledge any responsibility</a>.</p>
<p>His more conciliatory language has not matched his actions. After becoming president he appointed an administration of cronies, military hardliners and ‘war veterans’.</p>
<p><span class="caption">The appointments appeared to consolidate the power of the now dominant faction of Zanu-PF: the old guard securocrats who routed Grace Mugabe’s equally malign <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/G40_(Zanu-PF_Faction)">G40 faction</a> through the barrel of a gun rather than democratic processes.</span></p>
<p>Having waited such a seemingly interminable length of time to land the top job, it is difficult to envisage Mnangagwa now placing his hard earned spoils at the mercy of <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/politics/2017-11-20-justice-malala-dont-fool-yourself-zimbabwe-wont-be-fixed-by-mugabes-ex-cronies/">a programme of democratisation</a>.</p>
<h2>The military</h2>
<p>The Zimbabwean Defence Force’s role in the removal of the president means that it has secured a place for itself as a privileged political actor and overseer of the entire political system.</p>
<p>The defence force has never been a neutral custodian of constitutional rule. Instead it has always been a highly politicised extension of the ruling party, a party militia in effect.</p>
<p>Previously its role was confined to repressing the ruling party’s opponents and maintaining the party’s dominance. The principle of civilian rule was respected even if this model of civil-military relations failed to meet any reasonable democratic standards. But with the coup, the military crossed a line. They determined the outcome of power struggles within the ruling party itself.</p>
<p>In the same way that the military has been politicised, the political system has been heavily militarised. This can be seen in the several key military veterans who have been appointed to the cabinet as well as Mnangagwa being the military’s candidate for the presidency. Essentially this is the civilian face of quasi-military rule in Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>To see the military’s removal of Mugabe as an overriding good ignores the fact that it has no concept of the national interest, or that it views that national interest as synonymous with its own and Zanu-PF’s.What this points to is an effective “barracks democracy” emerging in Zimbabwe. The military has secured a veto over the leadership of the ruling party and over the wider political process. It also reserves the right to reject election results that it does not approve of, or to take action that could prevent such results materialising in the first place.</p>
<p>It is dangerously naïve to expect such a force to help facilitate genuine democratic transition when its entire raison d’etre has been to preserve one-party rule (under a leadership of its choosing), to disable meaningful opposition and to <a href="https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2017/09/15/military-looted-diamonds-report/">preserve its own corruption networks</a>.</p>
<h2>Unsettling prospects</h2>
<p>True democratisation – as opposed to merely maintaining the procedural forms of democratic government – is anathema to Zimbabwe’s ruling party, its president and the military.</p>
<p>It is evident that their task is threefold over the next few months. They have to secure support for a measure of liberalisation; arrest political enemies for corruption rather than tackling corruption <em>per se</em>; and provide a smokescreen of a largely vacuous democratic rhetoric.</p>
<p>The hope is that this will be sufficient to secure aid, investment and an endorsement by external donors while virtually nothing changes in the actual power relations inside the country.</p>
<p>Anyone committed to democracy in Zimbabwe -– whether inside or outside the country – should begin mobilising against this project sooner rather than later.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-hamill-254226">James Hamill</a>, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-leicester-1053">University of Leicester</a></em></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-three-barriers-blocking-zimbabwes-progress-zanu-pf-mnangagwa-and-the-military-89177">original article</a>.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/2017/12/28/zimbabwe-ex-army-boss-sworn-mugabe-gets-diplomats-rights/</p>


Op-ed: The three barriers blocking Zimbabwe’s progress

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<p>Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, appointed senior military officials to top posts in his new cabinet and chose a veteran cabinet minister to head the finance ministry.</p>


Mnangagwa, military share spoils of victory

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<p>IFP leader, Mangoshuthu Buthelezi also gave us his views on the unfolding situation in Zimbabwe and the trend of African leaders lingering long after the party is over. He joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


ANC helped prop up Mugabe’s govt past its sell-by date – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

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<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s Robert Mugabe, who has resigned as president, leaves behind a ruined economy and Mnangagwa needs to apologise for allowing that to happen says  Zimbabwean entrepreneur and newspaper publisher, Trevor Ncube.</p>


Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa needs to apologise for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

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<p>Trevor Ncube, Zimbabwean businessman joins CNBC Africa to discuss the new economic promise for Zimbabwe beyond Robert Mugabe.</p>


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ANC helped prop up Mugabe’s govt past its sell-by date – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa needs to apologise for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

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G40

Zimbabwe needs bold reforms, productivity not a new currency – Arthur Mutambara

MDC Alliance court challenge shows that democracy is now alive in Zimbabwe – Temba Mliswa

Tracking market, investor reaction to Zimbabwe’s disputed election

Zimbabwe police arrest opposition leader Tendai Biti

Emmerson Mnangagwa declared winner in #Zimbabwe poll

#Zimabwevotes: MDC Alliance condemns military after violent clashes leave 3 dead

Why this SA based Zimbabwean did not make the journey to vote

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Mugabe reveals his preferred candidate

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Zimbabwe diaspora, Transnet win $400mn NRZ tender

Zimbabwe ruling party fires 11 Mugabe allies from parliament

Op-ed: The three barriers blocking Zimbabwe’s progress

Mnangagwa, military share spoils of victory

ANC helped prop up Mugabe’s govt past its sell-by date – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa needs to apologise for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

Media has an important role to play in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

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