To stem the tide of the current crisis before it totally overwhelms President Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF, he needs to immediately cease the brutal onslaught on civilians.
In mending the relations with Zimbabwe’s white community by roping in Kirsty Coventry and Bruce Grobbelaar, President Mnangagwa might just have pulled off a masterstroke.
Zimbabweans have every right to celebrate the end of Robert Mugabe’s long and disastrous reign, but they would be wrong to assume that this is the end of their political problems.
After the fall of autocratic ruler Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe faces a difficult choice between the stability of a transnational government or a potentially divisive election contest.
Zimbabwe’s ZANU PF sees itself as having brought democracy to the country and will not leave power. Unless civil society succeeds in pressing for change, the 2018 elections will bring none.
Opposition parties in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to prove themselves worthy to skeptical voters who, unlike in Western competitive systems, don’t trust them over former liberation movements.
The new forms of protest in Zimbabwe raise the possibility that the country’s long-simmering crisis may have reached boiling point. The time could indeed be ripe for a unique form of politics.