Zimbabwe's paradoxical new dispensation. political harm, endemic impunity and unending silences, 2017-2020

Abstract

This article attempts to audit the capacity and commitment of Zimbabwe's post-Mug-abe government to reconcile Zimbabweans and heal the country's historical wounds and haunting legacies of politically motivated violence. Following the November 2017 military-assisted transition, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's newfound rhetoric signaled a rejection of the violence and combative politics of his predecessor, the long-serving President Robert Mugabe. In spite of having been a key enabler to President Mugabe from the Zimbabwean liberation struggle days in the 1970s to the postcolonial era, President Mnangagwa re-presented himself as a transformative politician who wanted to deescalate domestic political tensions by calling for peace and inclusivity in the management of national affairs. He also urged his fellow cit-izens to disregard the politically motivated pains of the past and collectively move on under the all-embracing triadic national banner of unity, peace and development. 165Terence M. MashingaidzeBrazilian Journal of African Studies | Porto Alegre | v. 6, n. 11, Jan./Jun. 2021 | p. 151-165In spite of this conciliatory, though amnesia-riven rhetoric, that sought to unify the country's competing and antagonistic political constituencies, in reality, the Mnan-gagwa-led government, popularly defined as the New Dispensation, perpetuated the high-handed Mugabe era tactics of violence, abductions, and enforced disappearances against political opponents. It is therefore argued that the changeover implied in the ideal of a New Dispensation amounted to sheer populist gesturing because Zim-babwe has largely remained enmeshed in the impunity and appeasement gridlock of state-instigated spasms of violence against political opponents, interspersed with official silences and denialism.