Social Media and the Concept of Dissidence in Zimbabwean Politics

Abstract

Zimbabwe’s founding president, Robert Mugabe, was ousted following a military coup led by now vice-president, Constantine Chiwenga (former Zimbabwe National Army commander) and foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo (then Major-General), with a civilian face of the incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa. Other than the toppling of political actors closely linked to Mugabe’s last days, largely christened Generation 40 (G40), three prominent names being Professor Jonathan Moyo, Savior Kasukuwere and Patrick Zhuwao, the regime has not registered any departure from the late Mugabe’s despotic rule. Miles-Tendi (“The Motivations and Dynamics of Zimbabwe’s 2017 Military Coup”, African Affairs, 2019) and Chap. 8 of this volume succinctly debunk the myth that Mnangagwa was propelled into power by what was largely described by the media and diplomatic circles in Zimbabwe and beyond as a military assisted transition, instead of what it really was: a military coup. The sharpening of dictatorship under Mnangagwa has worsened polarisation, which is extensively explored in Chap. 4. In fact, there is convincing evidence to show that Zimbabwe has regressed from civilian dictatorship to military dictatorship. For the first time since independence, and twice under Mnangagwa’s rule, civilians were shot at with live ammunition within a six-month period (August 2018 and January 2019) claiming at least 18 lives and injuring hundreds. At the centre of this is the death of independent media and independent journalism, which gave an alternative voice and view, as some journalists have become part of the regime’s propaganda drive. This change in the media landscape did not occur in a vacuum. In December 2017, the independent Alphamedia Holdings (AMH) group became the outright owner after a New York-based non-profit group, Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), ceded its shareholding, preferring to retain full control of the South African-based Mail and Guardian. The departure of MDIF forced AMH to reconfigure its approach to covering Zimbabwe’s complex politics, and this has seen the company’s owner, Trevor Ncube, becoming part of the state, and by extension part of the governance structure of the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front, under a controversial structure, the Presidential Advisory Council. There were strong indications that Mnangagwa’s son in law, Gerald Mlotshwa, is buying a stake in AMH, which will further undermine the paper’s independence. Ruhanya (Journal of African Media Studies 10: 201–214, 2018) has extensively looked at the political economy of private media, largely the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe that publishes the Daily News and AMH’s NewsDay/Southern Eye, the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, which helps to explain the reconfiguration of state actors and private media’s relations. These changes, to a greater extent, leave Zimbabwe with depleted space for articulating alternative views, with social media offering a ray of hope. It is within this context that this chapter is located.