The use of Factionalism by Robert Mugabe to protect power 1980 to 2017

Abstract

This study serves to identify the ways that Robert Mugabe used to protect power. Its central concern is in the way he eventually became malevolent and compassionate at the same time. His use of Mugabeism is also a call of concern in this study, together with the ever growing corruption and self- aggrandizement of the ZANU PF party members. It tries to establish how factionalism was used successfully to consolidate power through aspects such as the elimination of threats to power, the use of heroism as a catalyst of factional politics, the constant use of tribalism as an agent of factionalism and how power politics later became the aspect that was used against Mugabe in the end. The study confirms how Mugabe victimised ZANU PF and how he later became a victim of ZANU PF. It elaborates on the use of strategies that were used to supress the public by virtue of operations such as Operation Murambatsvina, Operation Wavotera Papi and the Land issue. The study’s focal point is on the continuous use of both the political and tribal factions in order to perpetuate power by Robert Mugabe. For instance, how the Zezuru ethnic group remained as the only governing power in both the ZANU PF and the Zimbabwean Government, at the expense of other ethnic groups. It will show how factional disputes went out of hand as tension grew between the Lacoste under Mnangagwa and the Mujuru faction. However it will be disclose how factionalism was used as a shield to classify the citizens of Zimbabwe, at the expense of development and economic growth. The study will also look into how Mugabe embodied the party and became the law that was above the Zimbabwean constitution as well as that of the ZANU PF.