Families, orphans and children under stress in Zimbabwe

This paper evaluates a programme called FOCUS in Zimbabwe: Families, Orphans, and Children under Stress. The programme was initiated in 1993 and works with seven community groups, providing support to around 6500 children in 2000 households. The programme succeeds through committed community volunteers, who made over 93,000 visits to households in 1999. Communities are mobilised by building on existing practices, using natural entry points, and careful selection of local volunteers and supervisors. There is good community ownership, extremely low volunteer turnover, and reporting systems verify that aims and objectives are met. The programme maintains good ethics, addresses a range of children's rights, and is sustainable through a mixture of donor funds, FACT (sponsoring organisation) support and community support. Issues of concern include better recognition of psycho-social needs, prevention and protection from sexual abuse, reducing stigma and discrimination, increasing child-centred approaches and participation, and reducing gender imbalance among volunteers.     

Graffiti

Progress is a term subject to considerable popular appeal, postmodernist criticism, feminist ambivalence, and development debate. In this article, I mark the traces of 'progress' as desires expressed by women working on Zimbabwe's commercial farms and in clothing and food processing factories for what they do not have. The backdrop of the discussion is the historical record concerning women workers in Zimbabwe and representations of 'women' that appear in some of Zimbabwe's contemporary imaginative literatures. The research shows that 'progress' emerges in the factual and fictional accounts of 'women' workers of Zimbabwe as aspirations for altered gender meanings and identity.     

Informal sector taxes and equity: Evidence from presumptive taxation in Zimbabwe

Using a mixed‐methods approach, this article evaluates the equity implications of Zimbabwe's presumptive tax system, introduced in 2005 to raise revenue from the country's growing informal sector. The representative taxpayer method, which compares the hypothetical tax burdens of formal and informal sector taxpayers at varying income levels, shows that the presumptive tax regime undermines both vertical and horizontal equity. In addition, interviews with key informants from the tax authorities, other relevant organizations and informal sector operators were conducted to probe issues around collection, compliance and perceptions of fairness. The qualitative data suggest that weak enforcement, with more visible informal activities bearing the brunt of the tax burden, and selective (and sometimes politically motivated) application of the legislation, compromise equity further.     

Political transition and sexual and gender-based violence in South Africa,Kenya, and Zimbabwe: a comparative analysis

This article draws on research conducted in Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe that focused on violence in the context of political transition. The paper examines the relation between political transition and sexual and gender-based violence in the three countries. The paper argues that it is critical to recognise sexual and gender-based violence as bound to systemic gendered inequality if such forms of violence are to be addressed and mitigated when periods of violent conflict end.     

‘When does the end begin?’ Addressing gender-based violence in post-conflict societies: case studies from Zimbabwe and El Salvador

This article analyses gender-based violence in the country contexts of Zimbabwe and El Salvador, where distinct periods of conflict and turbulence led to nominal peace, but no recognisable reduction or improvement in the status of women. Women in these two societies continued to experience high levels of gender-based violence. We outline the experience and strategies of Oxfam America along with national partners in addressing gender-based violence in these post-conflict societies. The article draws from Oxfam America's experiences in El Salvador and Zimbabwe, where a campaign and advocacy approach promoted new policy responses and legislation as a result of changes in societal and political attitudes to gender-based violence. It outlines the strategies and partnerships used by the Zimbabwe and El Salvador campaigns, including community outreach, mass mobilisation, and legislative lobbying, to achieve a positive shift in national policies and practices, to prevent gender-based violence.     

Positioning God as the ultimate frame of reference in politics and everyday life: an analysis of radio Zimbabwe texts during a time of crisis

ABSTRACT

In the early 1980s, former President Mugabe was a celebrated nationalist hero at home and abroad. Towards the end of the 1990s, in some sections, Mugabe’s popularity plummeted in the wake of occupations by war veterans of white-owned farms. In the face of strident criticisms, the Mugabe administration used, among other tactics, state-controlled stations like Radio Zimbabwe for rebutting the disparagements and accentuating their own ideological positions. Informed by framing theory, this article uses qualitative content analysis to examine how God was presented as the ultimate frame of reference to support the beleaguered leader and his political party on Radio Zimbabwe between March and April 2011. Radio Zimbabwe vindicated Mugabe and ZANU-PF’s support of the land occupations by framing the occupations as just appropriations of a God-given inheritance to black Zimbabweans. Mugabe’s presidency was presented on the station as unassailable by constituting him as God’s messenger to Zimbabweans. Considering the survival struggles associated with the political and economic crisis post 2000, Radio Zimbabwe listeners were encouraged to turn to God in a manner that served to give them hope and to deflate attention from a government that was failing to provide basic services for them.     

The impact of inheritance experiences in orphans and vulnerable children support in Zimbabwe: A caregivers' perspective

Despite the predominant contemporary and traditional coping strategies adopted in Zimbabwe in the past three decades and beyond, challenges and issues related to inheritance continued to affect the livelihood of both orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their caregivers. This article is a qualitative phenomenological study seeking to examine the perceptions, views, and feelings of the OVC and their caregivers on their lived experiences in OVC care and support in Zimbabwe. The study focusses on the caregivers' perspectives of the impact of the inheritance experiences in OVC care and support within their tribal local rural communities. In‐depth narrative interviews were conducted with 30 caregivers, corroborated with 10 OVC purposively sampled in the Gutu District of Zimbabwe. The results showed that although the caregivers are doing their best in executing their strategies for OVC care and support, the manipulation and misappropriation of the inheritances from deceased parents or grandparents that were meant to benefit the OVCs are still widespread in the rural communities of Zimbabwe. In conclusion, the study recommends the need for an integrated stakeholders' approach in educating the local rural communities about their inheritance rights.     

“Worse than dogs and pigs?” Attitudes Toward Homosexual Practice in Zimbabwe

Politicians call them the “festering finger,” endangering the body of the nation; churchmen say God wants them dead; the courts send them to jail. Zimbabwe has declared that it will not tolerate homosexuality. Gays and lesbians feel persecuted and their rights are undermined. The controversy that was ignited in 1997 when the Zimbabwean government forced the closure of a fair booth by Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair continues to echo. At issue are fundamental questions of the scope of human rights protection in Zimbabwe and other African countries (BBC News, 1998 “UK more liberal on homosexuality, says survey.” (1998). BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8479624.stm  [Google Scholar]). Such issues have sparked endless debates on homosexuality in religion, politics, and other forums. This article seeks to explore the attitudes of both traditional Shona culture and Christian sectors in Zimbabwe. The goal is to find out if the practice is rooted in Shona tradition or if it can be seen as a new phenomenon emanating from Western political and Judeo-Christian influences on Zimbabwe. The article argues that the Zimbabwean attitudes toward homosexuality combine Christian and traditional morality. Finally, the article will discuss how Christian churches and traditional Shona culture come to terms with homosexual practice today.     

Exploratory Study of Public Relations Roles in Zimbabwe

This exploratory study examined the practice of public relations in Zimbabwe by surveying and understanding public relations roles typically practiced by Zimbabwean PR practitioners. Through the lens of systems theory, the research investigated whether the practiced public relations roles allow organizations to perform all three boundary spanning functions such as output, throughput, and input. The results confirmed prior theoretically and empirically derived typology of roles (technician, manager, strategist) from the African continent. However, the observed structures of public relations roles deviate from previous findings, indicating that Zimbabwean PR practitioners' professional roles may differ from those in neighboring countries.     

Civil society,social accountability and service delivery in Zimbabwe

Post‐2000, the deterioration of Zimbabwe's socioeconomic and political conditions is widely acknowledged as phenomenal and unprecedented. Consequently, government and local authorities are struggling to provide basic services. At the same time, civil society initiatives are promoting transparency and accountability in service delivery. The article explains how civil society coalitions and citizens are promoting and demanding accountability in the delivery of public services by local authorities. In particular, it focuses on four critical issues; namely local authority–citizen engagement, social accountability focus areas, social accountability tools and emerging social accountability issues. The article concludes that civil society‐led social accountability initiatives are effective under conditions of civil society capacity, institutionalization of social accountability by local authorities, and negotiating local political dynamics.