Zimbabwe: on an unexpected trajectory?
Mnangagwa’s true test was always going to be his response to civil unrest.
This is a joint seminar of the Institute for Security Studies, Wits School of Governance and the Mandela Institute for Development Studies.
Since his inauguration, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has tried to show that the repressive and imprudent Zimbabwe of Mugabe has been consigned to history. But the herculean task of reviving a failed economy is making this message difficult to sell. The true test of the ‘new dispensation’ was always going to be how the government responded to civil unrest if Mnangagwa was unable to engineer rapid economic recovery.
In recent weeks, human rights violations by security forces and an internet shut down were reminiscent of the Mugabe era. Is this response a consensus position in the new government, and, if not, what are the implications of possible discord within the corridors of power?
Chair: Ringisai Chikohomero, Researcher, ISS Pretoria
Speakers:
Professor Eldred Masunungure, Department of Political Science, University Zimbabwe
Professor Patrick Bond, Wits School of Governance
Dr Nkosana Moyo, Mandela Institute for Development Studies
Prof Erin McCandless, Wits School of Governance
Derek Matyszak, Senior Researcher, ISS Pretoria
