Robert Mugabe and Patronage Politics in Zimbabwe, 1980-2017

Abstract

This Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) dissertation analyses Zimbabwe’s former, and now deceased, long serving President Robert Mugabe’s patronage politics of 37 years, from 1980 to 2017. A lot is known, but less understood about the complexity of Mugabe’s longevity in power - largely because, most literature has concentrated on the hero/villain binary existentiality of his patronage politics, whilst ignoring his self-construction and the people’s perspectives about him. The quadruple complex, as a totality as this dissertation’s point of departure, aids the analysis on how Mugabe managed to consolidate and sustain himself in power. The focus of this dissertation is the prosopographical analysis of Mugabe’s hero-villain-self-constructed complexity, and what people said about him, through his neopatrimonialism political practices, and shows how the domestic and international institutions and actors played out when Mugabe was consolidating his power.:TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF ACRONYMS VII CHARPTER ONE 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 State of the Art Literature Review 1 1.2 Conceptualising patronage, patrimonialism and Neopatrimonialism 1 1.2.1 Evolution of neopatrimonialism in Africa 3 1.3 Robert Mugabe’s systematic neo-patrimonialism strategies 7 1.4 Robert Mugabe’s neo-patrimonialism within the state functioning 16 1.5 Case studies from African countries 21 1.5.1 Gabon’s Omar Bongo 21 1.5.2 Sudan’s Omar al Bashir 24 1.6 Research Question 28 1.7 Problem Statement 28 1.8 Justification 29 1.9 Research Methodology 29 1.9.1 Prosopography 29 1.9.2 Research design 33 1.9.3 Research Method 33 1.9.4 Data Generation Method 34 1.9.5 Method of Data Analysis 38 1.9.6 Challenges in the field 38 1.10 Structure of the dissertation 39 CHAPTER TWO 2 ROBERT MUGABE’S SYSTEMATIC NEOPATRIMONIALISM STRATEGIES 40 2.1 Mugabe and the security sector patronage politics 40 2.2 Capacities for violence and access to rents 40 2.2.1 The Army 41 2.2.2 The Police 45 2.2.3 The Intelligence 47 2.3 The Informal Security Sector 49 2.4 Personalised appointments of security commanders 54 2.5 Crises and threats to Robert Mugabe’s rule and the role of the security sector in quashing dissent 58 2.6 Shortcomings and the Breakdown of Robert Mugabe’s Neopatrimonialism 74 2.7 Some conclusions on the security sector 78 2.8 Robert Mugabe’s Utilisation of the Youths 80 2.9 Non-Military Business Complex 90 CHAPTER THREE 3 ROBERT MUGABE’s COMPLEX EXISTENTIALITY 96 3.1 Self-construction 96 3.1.1 Mugabe as a deity 97 3.1.2 Patriarch/administrator of the Zimbabwean estate (father of the nation) 98 3.1.3 Mugabe the Martyr 99 3.1.4 Nativist (son of the soil) 101 3.1.5 Mugabe the victim 103 3.2 Mugabe’s self-construction and his patronage for power sustenance: an analysis 104 3.3 Perspectives of Zimbabwean citizens on Robert Mugabe 107 3.3.1 The Optimists 109 3.3.2 The Radicals 118 3.3.3 The Cautionists 127 CHAPTER FOUR 4 ROBERT MUGABE’s INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND PATRONAGE POLITICS OF SURVIVAL 135 4.1 Robert Mugabe’s patronage politics with neighbouring countries 136 4.1.1 South Africa and Mozambique 137 4.1.2 Zambia and Botswana 142 4.2 Robert Mugabe and his regional patronage politics with regional bodies -SADC, IGAD, AU 146 4.2.1 Mugabe’s SADC Patronage Politics-Mozambique War 146 4.2.2 SADC Patronage Politics-The DRC War 147 4.2.3 IGAD Patronage Politics- Great Lakes Relations 148 4.2.4 Patronage politics at African Union /continental level 149 4.3 Robert Mugabe’s patronage politics with the international community 152 4.3.1 Robert Mugabe’s patronage politics with China and Western Countries Relationships 152 4.3.2 Mugabe’s patronage politics with rhetoric regards the UK, EU and America 153 4.4 Failure of international patronage, the sanctions agenda and return to domestic patronage. 165 CHAPTER FIVE 5 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 175 5.1 Introduction 175 5.2 Mugabe is not only a binary hero-villain leader but a much more complicated political actor 177 5.3 Institutions with the capacity for violence as enablers for regime consolidation and sustenance 178 5.4 Robert Mugabe’s power consolidation and sustenance through international relations patronage and oratory rhetoric 180 5.5 Is Zimbabwe a failed state? 182 5.6 Conflicts between parties and fragility of political environment as catalysts for regime consolidation and sustenance 183 5.7 Contribution to theory 184 5.8 Contribution to research 186 5.9 Implications for future research 187 6 REFERENCES 6.1 Literature 188 6.2 Newspapers and other online media sources 205 ERKLÄRUNG