NAME : DAMBUZA TANATSIWA

COURSE : POS 229

PROGRAM : HPOS

LECTURER : DR KUREBWA

T/A : MISS MUKUKU

QUESTION : Comment on the balance of power between state

and society in Zimbabwe. Use relevant examples to support your answer.

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The debate on the balance of power between state and society is highly debatable as to whether
there is really equilibrium or one has more power than the other. The state has tried to balance its
power with the society through constitutionalism, creation of civil society groups, and use of its
apparatus such as the army and police, judiciary and through cooption. Just like the state, the
society has tried to balance its power with the state through inter alia social media, the creation
of civil society groups, pressure groups, trade unions and political parties. It has also used
shutdowns, strikes, riots, stay aways and civil disobedience to balance its power with that of the
state. This essay seeks to investigate on how the state through its authority and influence has
managed to either balance its power with the society and vice versa. It will further elaborate on
what causes power imbalances even though the state and society try to use their capabilities to
maintain equilibrium and why they both want to maintain that equilibrium. This essay focuses on
political, social, and economic balance of power between state and society.

Balance of power refers to a situation of equilibrium in which no persons, group or an individual

is powerful enough to control or threaten the interests of the others. This is supported by Onslow
(2011: 11) who argues that balance of power is an equilibrium of power between the state and
society where neither one of them can abruptly threaten the goals and teleology of the other.
Weis (2013: 9) concurs with Sachikonye (2005: 19) that balance of power is equilibrium of
power sufficient to discourage or prevent one political party or group from imposing its will on
or interfering with the interest of the other and in this case it is the state and the society.
Therefore, in the context of this discussion balance of power is the equilibrator that is used by
either the state or society to maintain its own interest without being threatened by the other.

A state is simply defined as a politically organized body of society or the body politic under a
single government. According to Ranger and Bhebhe (2002: 1) the state is “an imposition on
society, and unless humanized and democratized, it relies on edicts, the military, coercion and
sanctions”. It is meant to take people out of the Hobbesian state of nature where life is short,
brutish and nasty. Therefore, a state is a political organization with a centralized government that
maintains a monopoly by use of force as its modus operandi within a certain geographical area,
in this case Zimbabwe. The essay will try and expose how the state has used its coffers of power
and authority to gain influence and balance its power with the society.

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The society is defined as a formal association of people with similar interests or an organization
or club formed for a particular purpose or activity. Webster (2007: 4) adds that a society as the
total union itself, the organization, the sum of formal relations in which associating individuals
are bound together and it can be seen as a the web of social relationships (Raftopoulos, 2001:
20). Chabal and Daloz (1999: 4) adds that society is characterized by likeliness, abstract nature,
permanency, difference, co-operation, interdependence, conflict, competition, accommodation,
and assimilation. As shown above, individuals, political parties, civil society organizations,
nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations, pressure groups and interest groups
are some of the components of the society which seek to deter a state from going against the
interest of the citizens through strikes, social media, shutdowns, and demonstrations among other
means of civil disobedience, cooperation and negotiation with the state. Therefore, these factors
are going to be discussed below.

Firstly, the state in the 1980s used ideology as a model of balancing its power with the society.
The ruling part y (ZANU PF) under Mugabe identified Zimbabwe as a Marxist-Leninist
or Socialist state. Raftopoulos (2002: 220) identifies the 1980s as years of hope and intimations
of disaster due to the policies that were meant for human development. These policies included,
inter alia, the Growth and Equity Strategy, ZIMCORD and Transitional National Development
Plan whose objectives included the establishment of a socialist state, rapid economic growth,
balanced development and equitable distribution of income and productive resources, economic
restructuring, development of human resources, rural development and worker participation.
According to Zhou (2005: 3) these socialist policies were meant to achieve a sustained high rate
of economic growth and speedy development in order to raise incomes and standards of living of
all our people and expand productive employment of rural peasants and urban workers,
especially the former. Chirimambowa and Chimedza (2014: 5) argue that this period pacified the
masses because their interest were being served by the state through the government`s emphasis
and fulfillment of its policies such as Gutsaruzhinji which promoted unity in what Mugabe called
‘one nation’ and ‘one country’ policy. This even saw the government working together with civil
society group in development and welfare programs such as AWC, ZCTU and ORAP. There
were also white-dominated organizations like the CFU, CZI, and EMCOZ which wielded a
strong policy influence over the state. Therefore, as shown above the state used socialist policies
that served the interest of both the state and the people which in retain balanced there power.

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Furthermore, the state also used its apparatus to balance its power with the society. The state
apparatus include the police, central intelligence and the army. This is evidenced through the use
of these forces during the Gukurahundi massacres (the early rain which washes away the chaff
before the spring rains) between 1983 and 1987. The CCJP (1997: 5) agrees with Cameron
(2017: 1) the government deployed the four brigades of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA),
the Police Support Unit (PSU), the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), a specialist ZNA
force (the Paratroopers) and the 5 Brigade not only to quell armed thugs, it was also deployed to
kill Ndebele civilians. This resulted in the death of at least 10 000 civilians (Cameron 2017: 2,
Makumbe 2001: 5 and CCJP 1997: 7). These massacres were meant to fulfill the government`s
idea of a one party state and to quell any opposition especially in Matebeleland where ZAPU
dominated. ZANU PF also wanted to merger with PF ZAPU through all forms of intimidation so
that they can merger to form a single party which was in favor of ZANU PF. This is supported
by Moyo (1993: 22-23) who argues that the objectives of the Unity Accord were not that clear
beyond ZANU PF`s desire to impose or otherwise to introduce a one party state which posed a
threat on the continued existence of ZAPU which won most seats in the Matebeleland in the
1980 and 1985 elections (Sachikonye 1991: 1) and Moyo (1990: 1) calls this a ‘Machiavellian
Moment’ either coercion or manipulation. Therefore, as shown above the government used its
apparatus to force PF ZAPU to merger with ZANU PF so that it can attain its end of a one party
system which balanced its power with the society because opposition was going to come from
within rather than from outside.

In addition, the state also used violence, intimidation and cooption during demonstrations and
elections to balance its power with the society. This is evidenced in the elections that were held
since 1985 up to date and in most anti-government protests especially since 1990s. In the 1985
elections the ZANU PF Youth League, Women League, the army and police killed, intimidated
and brutalized people before, during and after the July elections, which resulted in 2000 being
left homeless and scores dead in Matabeleland, the Midlands and Harare (CCJP 1997: 9). This
continued to happen persistently in the elections that followed for example in 1990; Patrick
Kombayi was shot by the CIO on his rally because of his bid to challenge Simon Muzenda in
Manicaland under to ZUM badge. The state in 1990 just like in other elections that followed
elections used violence to defy the winds of change (Masunungure 2009: 61) of which Moyo
(1993: 144) was very confident that these elections were a matter of Zimbabweans ‘voting for

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change’. The use of violence caused lower voter turnouts which resulted in ZANU PF winning
uto5handsomely in all the elections between 1985 and 1995 (Makumbe: 1991: 5). The
government also used force against the nurses who went on strike in 1995, ZCTU and students
who demonstrated against one party state, price hikes and ESAPs throughout 1990s. Since then
up to date the government has been using violence to quell any opposition which led
Masunungure (2014: 95, 2009: 79) to acclaim that ‘violence was in the ZANU PF DNA’ because
it always ‘militarized elections’ to maintain its power. Bratton et al (1998: 15) adds that ‘their
genesis lies in previous military and one-party arrangements, now adapted for survival in a more
open environment. Leaders have learnt how to manipulate the rules of the democratic game and
to stage-manage low-quality elections to their own advantage’. Therefore, as shown above the
state used force to quell any form of opposition against it such that the society does not interfere
or disturb its interests.

More so, the state used cooption and the formation of counter forces to balance its power with
the society. The government in the 1980s and 1990s tended to co-opt political parties, trade
unions, student unions and civil society groups to be under ZANU PF. This was meant to avoid
opposition and to create a one party state. This was known as kutevedza gwara remusangono
(following ZANU PF`s path and ideology). Moyo (1993: 23) argues that the government
deliberately marginalized all pre-colonial independent social movements in its seeking either to
destroy them or to include them under the ZANU PF umbrella. Trade unions, student
organizations, and women and youths groups, despite resistance here and there, were treated like
creations of the ruling party as if they had not existed on their own before independence. As if
that was not enough the government also created some counter organizations to challenge NGOs,
students unions, trade unions and CSOs to foster its popularity. Masunungure (2016: 11)
highlighted the role of ZANU-PF or Party-State in creating its own civil society community
standing in opposition to those agitating for democracy and human rights. For example,
Tarugarira (2011: 215) argues that ‘the formation of the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions
(ZFTU) in 1998 raised eyebrows, amid wide speculation that it was launched to counter the
effectiveness of the ZCTU. The political alliance between the ZFTU and the government could
not be doubted because its proponents were ZANU (PF) activists in the likes of war veterans.’
Other GONGOs include ZICOSU a rival to ZINASU, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Justice a rival of
ZLHR and ZFNGO, a rival to NANGO. These governmental oriented organizations receive wide

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and generous public media coverage and escape the arrests, persecution and harassment that visit
their rivals (Sibanda 2017: 9) which clearly shows that the government uses these organizations
to balance its power with the society.

The state has also tended to massage the law in its favor to balance its power with the society.
Under Mugabe, the government tended to amend the constitution anytime it feels so using its
parliamentary majority. It also passed some draconian laws to restrict some rights of the people.
This started with the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act; No. 7 of 1987 which made
Mugabe created an executive president. This gave the President the powers to declare the state of
emergency through the Emergency Powers Act and many other acts that followed. In her
documentary Mtetwa described the Mugabe Regime as different from other African regimes that
destroyed any opposition unlawfully because it first enacted laws and then refer to the law
whenever they act violently or brutally towards the citizens. In Zimbabwe there are twin
unpopular draconian laws that were enacted in the early 2000s to suppress the opposition. These
are POSA and AIPPA Acts. According to Mapuva and Mapuva (2014: 3) “through such
draconian legislation as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Mugabe regime has drastically
diminished democratic space and curtailed civil liberties.” This has led to the position political
parties, the media, civil society and even the churches are often harassed, harangued, tortured
and intimidated for simply disagreeing with the repressive regime. Thus the governments of both
Mugabe and Mnangagwa have paid lip-service to democracy and democratic elections, which
they have manipulated to their advantage and that of their party because they both used the same
laws to suppress and repress opposition and demonstrations led by CSOs and NGOs so that they
can maintain their power even at the expense of citizens` lives.

However, the society has also used the social media to balance its power with the state. Since,
the government banned public gatherings without notifying the police through POSA and AIPPA
and also since it is hard to acquire broadcasting license through the BSA the people in Zimbabwe
has taken an advantage of social media to plan demonstrations, civil disobedience and to leak
any government misconducts. Some of the pressure groups such as Tajamuka and This Flag led
by activists such as Mawarire have created hashtags (#) on twitter, whatsapp groups and
Facebook pages to mobilize people to rise against the government. For example, in 2016 they led

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one of the most popular protests and demonstrations throughout the country against the price
hikes and SI 64 of 2016. Besides the social media, the society has used the media to balance its
power with the state. For example, there are newspapers such as Newsday and Daily News that
are meant publish people`s concerns and counter the state owned newspapers such as The
Herald. This helps the society to freely air their concerns and cahiers without being identified by
the state but the state will only get their cahiers. Therefore, even though the state has tried to
suppress the rights of people through other repressive laws, the citizens has balanced their power
with it through the media which the state has not yet found a solution except to shut it down at
times.

Moreover, the society has tried to balance its power with the state through the creation of faith-
based organization which acts as watchdogs of the government actions, just for the government
to serve their interests. For example they tend to check how the government is being
accountable, responsive and transparent to the citizens. For instance, in the 1980s, the CCJP,
Catholic Bishops Council in Zimbabwe and ZACC which are all faith-based organization
consistently questioned and challenged the government about the Gukurahundi Massacres which
resulted in the government creating the Commissions of Inquiry (COI) such as the Dumbutshena
and Chihambakwe COIs even though the results are yet to be publicized. In the interest of peace
they have acted as middle wives during the negotiations between ZANU PF and PF ZAPU for
the Unity Accord. In addition Church groups like the Catholic Bishops, the Zimbabwe Council
of Churches (ZCC) and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) also opposed the
creation of a one-party state which was against the will of the people because if they wanted it
they could have legitimized it by voting 100% for ZANU PF (Dorman 2001: 83) .Hence, the
faith-based organizations act as a tool that is used by the society to balance its power with the
government through interest articulation and aggregation.

The society also uses the NGOs and CSOs to balance its power with the state. The term NGO is
a broad term and it includes International Nongovernmental Organizations, Trade Unions and
Student Unions among others. Masunungure (2016: 6) defines civil society as the arena in which
people come together to pursue the interests they hold in common not for profit or political
power, but because they care enough about something to take collection. These have greatly
challenged the government in terms of corruption and poor policies. For example, according to

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Moyo (1993: 31) due to the ESAPs and one party state agenda, groups which tend to support
ZANU PF almost as a ritualistic routine such as ZCTU and University of Zimbabwe students
became critical of the authorities whom they held responsible for public ills such as inflation,
unemployment, shortage of transport and housing which had become ubiquitous. Mutambara
(1991: 4) argues that the ‘Students Union voted against the establishment of a one-party state in
Zimbabwe. It was rejected as a phenomenon that leads to fascist dictatorship, fossilized and
bureaucratized political system, characterized by a cult of personality, monopolistic politics of
domination, inefficiency, corruption, and petit bourgeoisie primitive accumulation. The students
and the ZCTU also made a popular protest against the government after the Willowgate Scandal
in 1988 which resulted in the government Sandura COI whose recommendations led to the
resignation of at least five Cabinet Ministers (Sachikonye and Mandaza 1991: 51). Makamure
(1991: 2) adds that these organizations have been preaching from every platform that Marxist-
Leninism means the one party state, the one party state means ZANU PF, and ZANU PF means
corruption and if people hated this should rise together and ‘vote for democracy’ (Moyo 1993:
5). This inspired the formation of the MDC in the decade of the IMF Riots (Bonds and
Manyanya 2002: 10) by these groups against ESAPs which they nicknamed ‘Extended Suffering
of African People’ and against this was the militant Zimbabwe National Students Union
(ZINASU), protested perennially and opposed privatization (Zimunya 2007; Zeilig 2007).
Therefore, these CSOs have played a great role in balancing the power of the state and society
especially through protests, strikes and the formation of the MDC.

Furthermore, the CSOs, NGOs, faith-based organizations, trade unions and student unions have
allied to balance their power with the state. These groups have formed coalitions to represent all
the people in the Zimbabwean society especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They joined
hands to boycott the constitution referendum in 2000. The coalition according to Chimedza
(2014: 5) included the Zimbabwe NGO, the Human Rights Forum, ZCTU, the Women’s
Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCZ), formed in 1999; WOZA, the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA), formed in 1998, and the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), formed in 1999.
The most powerful of these was the NCA, which became an important platform for advocacy of
a new democratic constitution and led the ‘No Vote initiative’ against the referendum, proposed
and led by ZANU PF and with very few representatives from the NGOs. Thus, coming together
of these groups balanced their power with the state which led to the failure of the referendum.

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Last, but not least, the society has balanced its power with the state through its advocacy for the
respect of human rights. This saw the rise of the human rights activists and lawyers. This also
saw the rise of advocacy groups for Minority Groups and Women Rights. According to
Chimedza (2014: 7) in the 1980s a women’s movement rose to challenge the state’s double
standards on women’s rights after the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) rounded up and beat up
women because they were ‘loitering’ as ‘prostitutes’ during operation ‘Chinyavada/Scorpion’
incensed women activists promptly formed the Women’s Action Group (WAG) to challenge the
state’s paternalistic and patriarchal treatment of women. Since then, the women rights activist
groups snowballed resulting in the formation of WZC and WOZA that tirelessly fought for
women rights to be respected and embedded in the constitution. This was finally achieved in the
2013 constitution of Zimbabwe. Human Rights activism is greatly led by ZLHR which is a group
of lawyers that represents all the peoples whose rights are being violated by the state. For
example, Jestina Mukoko was represented by Beatrice Mtetwa for free after she was detained for
over 80 days in 2011. These Human rights activists therefore balances the power between the
state and society through demystifying all government`s mala fides.

In conclusion, the matter of whether there is balance of power between the state and society
remains an unresolved national question and unfinished business because no matter how the
society tries the state continues to defy the winds of change leaving itself with more power.
Thus, in as much as the society uses protests, civil disobedience, demonstrations, social media,
and strikes to balance its power with the state, it is useless because criticizing the state is
sacrilegious and opposition to it is transmogrified as a melodramatic nightmare actions which
deserve to be wiped out with repressive laws, army and police. This leaves the state more
powerful than the society since the society only has power to punish or reward the state during
the elections of which in Zimbabwe it is difficult since the elections are militarized by the
crocodile liberators, Swiss bank socialists, quack revolutionaries and grasping kleptocrats.
Therefore, as shown above there is no real balance of power between state and society as the
state`s interests seems to be triumphant almost every time when there is clash of interests
between the two.

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JOURNALS

Cameron H. 2017. The Matabeleland Massacres: Britain’s Willful blindness. The International
History Review 5(2) 1-20

Chirimambowa, C. T and Chimedza. T. L. 2014. Civil Society’s Contested Role in the 2013
Elections in Zimbabwe: A Historical Perspective: Journal of African Elections: Zimbabwe’s
2013 Harmonized Elections 13(2), 71-94

Masunungure, E V. 2011. ‘Zimbabwe’s Militarized, Electoral Authoritarianism’. Journal of

International Affairs 65(1), 1-28.

Masunungure E. V. 2016. The Changing Role of Civil Society in Zimbabwe’s Democratic

Processes: 2014 and beyond. Journal of International Affairs 3(1), 1-28.

Munhande, C and Nciizah, E. 2013. Perpetuating colonial legacies: Reflections on Post-

Colonial African States’ development trajectories: Observations from Zimbabwe 2(11), 10-15.

Sibanda V. 2017. Zimbabwe Post Independence Economic Policies: A Critical Review.

Researchgate: NUST Students Review 3(2), 1-15.

Tarugarira, G. 2011. ‘Workers’ Autonomy under Siege: An Analysis of the Challenges faced by
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