Robert Mugabe

Elections have long been held as a stabilising approach to political transitions in established Western democracies.

A secret history

In 2011, I wrote an opinion piece titled, ‘#revolutionminustheAK47’. In it, I shared the story of Vikas Mavhudzi, a 39-year-old Zimbabwean man who was harassed and spent five months in jail on charges of ‘subverting a constitutional government’. His crime was writing on Cde.

In some economic policies like land reform, Mugabe’s management has had some positive effects, even though the reform has not been completely successful.

Since coming to political power, the anticolonial movements of Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa have remained in control of the former settler colonies’ societies. At best their track record of running the countries they helped liberate is mixed.