The Zimbabwe Elections of July 2018: “A missed opportunity or the defining moment of the second republic”

The SARChI in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy organised a policy dialogue to interrogate Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections of July 2018. The policy dialogue which took place on 14 August 2018 at the School of Public Health (UWC) interrogated several questions relating to both the electoral process and outcome.

The speakers were Prof Brian Raftopoulos (a leading Zimbabwean scholar and activist), Dr Tyanai Masiya (School of Public Management and Administration, University of Pretoria) and Dr Godfrey Maringira (Research fellow, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, UWC). The policy dialogue was facilitated by Dr Tinashe Chigwata who is researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute. What strongly came out of the dialogue is that the elections were not just about electing a new President post the Mugabe rule.

There were also about the economy, political stability and international reengagement after years of isolation. Thus, it was crucial that both the electoral process and outcome receive domestic and international endorsement to acquire the much needed legitimacy. Unfortunately, both the electoral process and outcome have been disputed and were subject to a court challenge. The Zimbabwean Constitutional Court has however endorsed the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.