Abstract
Hate speech by political parties including the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front party hereafter ZANU PF has been cited as one of the major causes of political intolerance and violence rocking the Zimbabwe political landscape since independence. The coming in of a new leadership was accompanied by a promise for paradigm shifts in party and government policies, hence the claim for a “new dispensation” and a “second republic”. However, critics and other political players have argued that there is nothing new as the hostile and violent attitudes towards the opposition have remained intact. It is from this context that this chapter interrogates Emmerson Mnangagwa, other leaders and supporters’ speeches with the intention to expose the disturbing dissonance and trouble the discourses of change in Zimbabwean politics after the fall of Mugabe from the helm of power. Premised on the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis, the discussion seeks to explain how power relations are enacted in discourse. From the speeches, the opposition is still viewed as enemies who should be eliminated, as highlighted by death threats for its members and political arrogance embedded in declaration that the ruling party will not accept electoral defeat. It is argued, in this study, that language use by political parties has profound effect on the supporters’ behaviour, especially how they relate with opposition members. There is need for political parties to refrain from hate speech so as to promote tolerance, otherwise the forthcoming plebiscites, just like the previous ones, would be marred by violence and controversy. In as much as the current ZANU PF leadership was part of the “old dispensation”, it has equally failed to break from its tradition characterised by intolerance and use of violence as the modus operandi as evident in the speeches of the top leadership and its supporters.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alexander, J., & Tendi, B. M. (2008). A tale of two elections: Zimbabwe at the polls in 2008. Politique africaine, 111(3), 111–129.
Auwal, A. M. (2018). Social media and hate speech: Analysis on comments on Biafra Agitations and youths and Arewa Youths’ ultimatum and their implications on peaceful co-existence in Nigeria. Media and Communication Currents, 2(1), 54–74.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other essays. University of Texas Press.
Bates, T. R. (2008). Gramsci and the theory of hegemony. Journal of the History of Ideas, 36(2), 351–366.
Badza, S. (2008). Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections and their implications for Africa. African Security Review, 17(4), 1–6.
Boone, C., & Kriger, N. (2010). Multiparty elections and land patronage, Zimbabwe and Cote d’lvoire. Commonwelath and Comparative Politics., 48(2), 173–2002.
Campbell, A., Guvin, G., & Miller, W. E. (1954). The voter decides. Row, Peterson.
Dube, P., & Ndebele, L. (2018). Group animosity and social identity in Lovemore Majaivana’s music. In I. Muwati, T. Charamba, & C. Tembo (Eds.), Singing the nation and politics: Music and decade of crisis in Zimbabwe, 2000–2010 (pp. 188–205). Midlands State University Press.
Fairclogh, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity Press.
Kaderi, A. S. (2014). Political history, political violence: Peace-building citizenship interventions. In S. Niyozov & P. Tarc (Eds.), A rice compendium…working with, against and despite “best practices” educational conversations around the globe (pp. 75–81). Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
Kayambazinthu, E., & Moyo, F. (2002). Hate speech in the new Malawi. In H. Englund (Ed.), A democracy of Chameleons: Politics and culture in the New Malawi. Elanders Gotab.
Kriger, N. (2005). ZANU PF strategies in general elections, 980–2000: Discourse and coercion. African Affairs, 104(414), 1–34.
Macheka, M. T. (2022). Political violence and faceless perpetrators in Zimbabwe: Reconceptualising a peace building strategy. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1), 1–13.
Mapara, J., & Wasosa, W. (2012). Self-inflicted tragedies: An assessment of the impact of language use by political parties in post-independence Zimbabwe. Journal of Research in Peace, Gender and Development, 2(13), 286–292.
Masunungure, E. V. (2009). Defying the winds of change: Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections. Weaver Press and Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Masungure, E. V. (2011). Zimbabwe’s militarised electoral authoritarianism. Journal of International Affairs, 65, 47–64.
Mbofana, T. R. (2018, August 9). Zimbabwe’s ‘new dispensation’ that never was! https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-142714.html. Accessed 20 March 2018.
Melber, H. (2017, December 14). Zimbabwe: Stopping a dynasty does not mean democracy. https://www.dandc.eu/en/article. Accessed 17 November 2020.
Moyo, T., Gonye, J., Hlongwana, J., & Kangira, J. (2013). Remembering or re-membering? Life-writing and politics of narration in Morgan Tsvangirai’s autobiography: At the Deep End (2011). Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2), 15–26.
Muzondidya, J. (2009). From Buoyancy to crisis, 1980–1999. In B. Raftopolous, & A. Mlambo (Eds.), Becoming Zimbabwe: A history from pre-colonial to 2008 (pp. 167–200). Weaver Press.
Ndakaripa, M. (2000). Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections: Funding, public resources and vote buying. Review of African Political Economy, 47(164), 301–312.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (2009). Making sense of Mugabeism in local and global politics: “So Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe”. Third World Quarterly, 30(6), 1139–1158.
Neisser, E. (1994). Hate speech in the new South Africa: Constitutional consideration for a land recovering from decades of rational repression and violence. South African Journal of Human Rights, 10(1), 33–356.
Palmberg, M. (2004). Music in Zimbabwe’s crisis. In S. M. Thorsen (Ed.), Sounds of change: Social and political features of music in Africa (No. 12, pp. 18–46). Sida Studies.
Ranger, T. O. (2004). Nationalist historiography, patriotic History and the history of the nation: The struggle over the past in Zimbabwe. Journal of Southern African Studies, 30(2), 215–234.
Sachikonye, L. (2011). When a state turns on its citizens: Institutionalised violence and political culture in Zimbabwe. Jacana Media.
Schelder, A. (2002). Elections without democracy: The menu of manipulation. Journal of Democracy, 8(1), 127–141.
Sithole, M. (1999). Zimbabwe: Struggles-within-the-struggle (1957–1980). Rujeko Publishers.
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP). (1997). Breaking the silence, building true peace: A report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands, 1980–1989. Legal Resources Foundation.
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. (2013). General recommendation on combating racist hate speech, CERD/C/GC/35.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2003). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, D. Schifrfrin, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 352–371). Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Wasosa, W. (2018). Singing for self-defence or fanning political violence? An analysis of selected songs by pro-MDC musical groups. In I. Muwati, T. Charamba, & C. Tembo (Eds.), Singing the nation and politics: Music and decade of crisis in Zimbabwe, 2000–2010 (pp. 157–170). Midlands State University Press.
Ziburawa, M. (2018, August 15). The second republic: Trapped between a dream and a nightmare. https://www.newsday.co.zw. Accessed 19 March 2020.
Internet Sources
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/9/6/robert-mugabes-most-famous-quotes. Accessed 20 July 2022.
https://www.brainyquote.com. Accessed 20 July 2022.
https://newzimbabwe.com. Accessed 20 July 2022.
https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-. Accessed 20 July 2022.
https://reliefweb.int. Accesses 15 March 2021.
https://wwww.youtube.com. Accessed 15 July 2022.
https://www.veritaszim.net. Accessed 27 April 2022.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wasosa, W. (2023). The “New Old Dispensation”: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Selected ZANU PF Speeches in the Post-Mugabe Era and Implications on Zimbabwe’s Electoral Process. In: Mavengano, E., Chirongoma, S. (eds) Electoral Politics in Zimbabwe, Volume I. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27140-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27140-3_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-27139-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-27140-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)