you are actually lucky to have a brave man like him.”10 It is also the reason that the Police
Commissioner Chihuri, can state: “This country came through blood and the barrel of the gun and
it can never be re‐colonised through a simple pen which costs as little as 5c.”11 Zimbabwe post
colonial history, particularly since 2000, is replete with such declarations.
With the Zanu PF elite having spread its tentacles in several key areas in the economy such as the
land and the diamonds, the party must nevertheless continually confront the disparities between
its elite and the growing number of the poor in the country. This it has done, since 2000 in
particular, through a combination of coercion and a repertoire of election mobilization strategies
relating to various aspects of the liberation struggle. In 2000, faced with the prospect of losing
state power, Zanu PF mounted the ‘Third Chimurenga’ around the land question, with the
momentous effects that these events have had, while in 2011 the election campaign has been
constructed around the sanctions issue and the indigenization of the economy, the ‘Last
Chimurenga’, about which more will be said below.
One of the problems with the many commentaries of the GPA that have been written by the civic
groups, is that thy have overlooked or underestimated the fact that the agreement,
notwithstanding its multiple problems, has provided certain parameters of accountability for
Zanu PF. This has taken various forms that have had different levels of effectiveness. In cabinet
and parliament, Zanu PF have had to deal with serious contestations over their interventions,
that have then provided markers of the ways in which the Mugabe regime has obstructed the full
implementation of the GPA. Even in the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee
(JOMIC), which has been heavily criticised for its ineffectiveness, the operations of this body have
served as an ongoing negotiation forum for the parties to the GPA, ‘operating by way of a
“continuing dialogue” between the parties.12 In the constitutional process which has seen many
delays, logistical and funding challenges, the arrest of the co‐chair of COPAC MDC‐T MP Douglas
Mwonzora, and varying levels of intimidation, the outreach programme has nevertheless
provided an important means for Zimbabweans to air some of their views on constitutional
reform. A report by Freedom House and the Mass Public Opinion Institute published in March
2011 observed on the COPAC process:
10
Pindai Dube,’ Mugabe will rule Zimbabwe forever: Mnangagwa.’ Daily News, 25 March 2011.
11
The Editor, ‘Through the barrel of a gun.’
www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?view=article&catid=64&id=35906%3Ath Accessed on 12/03/11.
12
Joram Nyathi, ‘Jomic: misplaced expectations.’ www.newzimbabwe.com/blog/?p=725&print=1 Accessed on
30/10/09.
8