It might be hard to accurately identify the onset of the post-2000 economic crisis in Zimbabwe, but it was after the introduction of the economic structural adjustment programme (ESAP) in the 1990s when the formal economy started collapsing (Muzondidya 2009; Raftopoulos 2009). The ESAP was designed by international financial institutions, implemented by the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) government, and opposed by the Zimbabwean labour movement (Ibid.). With time, it catalysed the economic crisis that later became intertwined with political, urban, healthcare and financial crises. In slightly more than 20 years since the late 1990s, Zimbabwe has witnessed major transformations, most of which have been devastating to people’s incomes, livelihoods, health, living conditions and well-being.
There has been extensive research into various aspects of the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe and its impact on people. In the past few years, three important and insightful books about different manifestations of the crisis and transformations during the crisis in Zimbabwe have been published: The political life of an epidemic: cholera, crisis and citizenship in Zimbabwe, by Simukai Chigudu; Building from the rubble: the labour movement in Zimbabwe since 2000, edited by Lloyd Sachikonye, Brian Raftopoulos and Godfrey Kanyenze; and Seeking urban transformation: alternative urban futures in Zimbabwe, written by Davison Muchadenyika. Several themes unite these books: they are predominantly about urban phenomena, consequences of the economic and political crises, citizenship experiences, and social (in)justice. Several themes cut across the three books, including social injustice and painstaking – and at times desperate – attempts to challenge the political and governance systems to achieve social justice, be it with regard to infrastructure, housing, healthcare or labour rights. Despite looking at different aspects of socio-economic and political life in the country, the three books independently come to a similar and important conclusion: it is only through social mobilisation and collective action from below that qualitative changes may be achieved in Zimbabwe, despite its rigid and restrictive political system and continuing socio-economic inequality.
Socio-economic consequences of the economic and political crises have been explored from the labour perspective, which is crucial, as Zimbabwe’s labour movement used to be one of the strongest civil society actors before the 2000s. Building from the rubble: the labour movement in Zimbabwe since 2000 is the third book about the history of trade unions in Zimbabwe commissioned by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), and is written and edited by experts on the Zimbabwean labour movement, Lloyd Sachikonye, Brian Raftopoulos and Godfrey Kanyenze. The book addresses the issues regarding the development of the Zimbabwean labour movement, work relations, and associated processes in the context of broad structural economic, political and social changes after 2000. The authors indicate that the study of trade unions should not be exclusively centred around political economy but should engage other theoretical approaches which include cultural, anthropological and political issues, such as worker identity, livelihoods, displacement, changing modes of governmental politics, and urban and rural politics.
The authors ground their research in the history of the labour movement in Zimbabwe and associated economic and political processes that informed the development of the ZCTU. Their book starts with the description of relations between trade unions and the government in the 1980s–90s and the rise of the strong, influential and independent labour movement which opposed the imposition of one-party rule by ZANU–PF and the ESAP in the 1990s. It then outlines the formation of the broader social movement in which trade unions played a crucial role in the formation of the major opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999. In that period, the foundations of relations between the state and trade unions were laid. As the authors suggest, this relationship was characterised by a condescending approach on the part of the predominantly rural liberation struggle protagonists towards the largely urban labour movement resistance, which later allowed the government and ruling party to stigmatise the labour movement as an actor intent on attacking national sovereignty and serving the interests of foreign actors.
The crisis in Zimbabwe, which started in 1997 and considerably worsened from 2000, was characterised by rapid deindustrialisation, informalisation, shifting employment patterns and devaluation of labour. As Kanyenze points out, ‘no country outside a war situation has gone through such a sustained downturn’ (75). He uses the economic progress framework, i.e. structural change towards a more effective use of means of production that sustainably improves the economy and people’s livelihoods, to analyse the development of the Zimbabwean economy from 2000 to 2017. He notes that economic management at the time was not systematic but rather haphazard and shaped by ‘authoritarian populism’ (122), which further worsened the economy and finance, causing massive hyperinflation which, in its turn, was reversed during the power-sharing period between the ruling party and the MDC. At that time, during the Government of National Unity (GNU) from 2009 to 2013, the economy partly stabilised, albeit for a short time. As the ruling party regained its full political powers, the economy spiralled downwards again, accompanied by succession tensions within the ruling party which climaxed in the ‘soft coup’ in 2017. Overall, massive deindustrialisation led to the increasing dependence on basic commodities and a complete rupture with the pre-2000 economic structure. Labour was adversely affected by such economic processes: even employment in the formal sector, to a large extent, became informalised. Unemployment and underemployment became a major problem in the context of the virtual absence of social safety nets. Other socio-economic issues that came to characterise the Zimbabwean economy post-2000 included wage theft (denial of wages); significant decrease of incomes; lack of incentive to work; devaluation of pensions, savings and insurance; precarious (if any) employment; corruption; and poverty levels above 70% from the mid 1990s. All of these were major concerns for the labour movement, as they signified severe problems with socio-economic and labour rights.
Political contestation between the labour movement and the government was unprecedented at that time, especially before 2008, as corruption and political patronage further contributed to the crisis. The labour movement was severely affected by the deindustrialisation, informalisation and contraction of the working class, which resulted in declining membership and contributions to unions as well as in the government’s crackdown on the labour movement due to its linkages to the MDC. In 2009–13, during the GNU, when ZANU–PF and the MDC shared power, the economic and political situation partially recovered. However, this recovery brought little improvement for the labour movement; and when post-2013 the economy once more stagnated, the conditions for labour again deteriorated. The challenges that the labour movement faced were so hard that Lloyd Sachikonye remarks in the book that ‘it was remarkable that [the labour movement] still survived’ by 2017 (142).
Structural changes in the economy triggered changes within trade unions that then had to adapt to the new circumstances. The problems that the ZCTU faced included the steady decline in its membership base and the decreasing political influence of the labour movement. The ruling party limited the ability of unions to exercise political power and created fragmentation among workers by establishing a pro-ZANU–PF splinter trade union organisation. The dramatic decreases in membership and workers’ earnings negatively affected both ZCTU’s financial viability and political power. Despite that, workers still saw benefits in belonging to the ZCTU, such as connections with international trade union organisations, funding for training and equipment, and international worker solidarity. Still, as the authors note, the dominant attitude to the organised labour is a pessimistic one.
New forms of work organisation emerged and spread because of economic informalisation and shifts in the labour market which put workers at a disadvantage. Building from the rubble specifically considers the fluid work regimes and employment patterns in agriculture, mining and manufacturing. All three sectors witnessed significant changes in the size and skill of their workforces. Deindustrialisation is a crucial factor that shaped these new work regimes. For instance, the book notes a tendency towards a labour-intensive production in agriculture, intense labour in an unsafe environment in the artisanal mining sector, and modernisation challenges in manufacturing. Change of employers and production relations resulted in greater exploitation of workers, both permanent and casual. Work conditions became even more precarious and disadvantageous, especially for women. The authors also highlight the fluidity of work identities and diversification of livelihood sources. Economic informalisation became the key characteristic of this ‘new’ economy in agriculture and mining. In manufacturing, production constraints were so significant that the sector utilised less than half of its productive capacities, although there was a penetration of new technologies which, however, was not systematically studied.
The authors specifically study the effects of the economic crisis on women, youth and the disabled. These groups were especially affected by the crisis and related changes in the economy and have been widely excluded from the dominant narrative; and they are particularly vulnerable to unemployment, underemployment and the informal sector, with their related low productivity, low-income jobs and poor working conditions. The informal economy is dominated by women and has been perceived as ‘illicit’ from colonial times, which contributes to the feminisation of poverty. As a result, marginalisation of the informal sector leads to gender-based and structural obstacles for enterprises owned by marginalised groups who have limited access to the formal labour market, particularly in the context of crisis – women, youth and people with disabilities. Unpaid work and care, typically carried out by women, also had an impact on industrial relations and the labour market. While such work is important in sustaining the market economy, it is rarely recognised as such by the government, employers and society. The economic crisis, poverty and wage theft added to women’s gendered roles as caregivers, and many participated in industrial strikes alongside their husbands, transforming both industrial relations and social norms. Despite that, as the authors note, there are still barriers to women’s proportionate participation in trade unions. In spite of efforts made to attract youth, participation of young people in trade unions is also rather limited for many reasons, such as lack of specific programmes and funding, victimisation by employers, and marginalisation in decision-making.
Political and legal processes and shifts also shaped the development of industries from the ESAP period. Although relevant legislation was introduced, this had limited positive outcomes for the working class that was still negatively affected. Moreover, the authors observed that there was no political will to reform the labour legislation in accordance with the constitution and international labour regulations. ZCTU’s and other actors’ efforts to create a new constitution resulted in the 2013 constitution, with its significant section on labour rights. Judicial intervention on labour issues, however, was largely pro-capital, as it suited the neoliberal interests of the government. The overall approach to economic development came at the price of labour rights, and a comprehensive labour law reform was not introduced.
Sachikonye, Raftopoulos and Kanyenze stress that the labour movement should rebuild its workplace base and structures from below, create new social bases in the informal sector and new forms of production relations in residents’ associations and social movements, and use its 1990s experience to form a new robust labour coalition at the national level.
The authors give a comprehensive and highly informative account of the labour movement’s struggles during the crisis in Zimbabwe. It is crucial to understand what happened to powerful civil society actors, like trade unions, how their approaches and activities changed, and what the way forward for them might be. I think, however, that the book could have focused more on the challenges and prospects of grassroots organisation in the informal sector and significantly transformed industries. Although organised labour is challenging to achieve when the formal economy and ‘proper’ employer–employee relations have all but collapsed, there are less conventional – for Zimbabwe – forms of organisation. The ZCTU made early attempts to engage the informal sector by establishing the Informal Economy Desk and facilitating the formation of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, but these activities and achievements are hardly mentioned in the book. Understanding new forms of work organising, and engaging with such organisations as labour organisations, might be a key to overcoming worker identity issues, building a coalition of actors interested in social and economic justice, and integrating new actors in the labour movement. Without engaging the informal sector, it is questionable how the country’s labour movement, based on formal employment, can stay relevant much longer in the context of the overwhelming economic crisis and informalisation due to its decreased membership base. Although these problems are not rare for trade movements in countries that face significant economic informalisation and the regulations trade unions operate under are not always flexible, it might be time to reconsider the definitions of ‘work’, ‘labour’, and ‘job’ to include more people in social justice and labour activism.
Livelihood changes in the course of the economic crisis had far-reaching consequences for individuals, for organisation and for political actors, and the economic and political crises created many other crises. In The political life of an epidemic, Simukai Chigudu studies the politics of the 2008–09 cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe using an approach of ‘one disease, many crises’. He looks at the ‘many faces’ of cholera in the political, economic and social contexts and makes a trifold argument: that the cholera outbreak was an expression of a failed government political and economic strategy; that the outbreak had multiple ontologies that created fragmented and contentious politics of different actors (organisations, communities and individuals); and that in historical memory the epidemic remained a health, political-economic and social crisis as well as a crisis of expectations and social identity, and that it created a politics of ‘disposability’, adaptation and expectation as dominant political subjectivities.
Chigudu starts his analysis with a discussion of the long-term causes of the devastating cholera outbreak in Harare townships as well as short-term factors that contributed to it. The author stresses that the urban order in colonial and postcolonial Harare has always been dictated by political control and social inequality and that these crucial issues have never been properly addressed, which resulted in the devastating effects of the outbreak. Social inequality structures laid during the colonial period became even more accentuated during the crisis in the 2000s, and many urban residents lost livelihoods and slid into poverty. Township residents became particularly prone to diseases, including water-borne diseases like cholera, not only because of malnutrition but also because of poor water and sanitation services. Chigudu studies infrastructural and institutional factors that triggered and magnified the cholera outbreak by maintaining unfavourable and dangerous public health conditions, such as poor public service delivery, that facilitated the spread of the disease and curtailed an effective and prompt public health response. He suggests that the political conflicts and continuous economic crisis created a ‘perfect storm’ for the spread of cholera. He focuses on three key infrastructural factors: the collapsing healthcare system, mismanagement of water reticulation systems, and dramatic livelihood changes that exposed people to food insecurity and malnutrition.
Chigudu makes an insightful and important argument about ‘multiple ontologies’ and their impact on the humanitarian response. Different actors had different understandings of what kind of emergency the cholera outbreak was. As a result, the epidemic became a site of political contestation between actors at the national and international level with regard to governance, security and humanitarianism. The opposition MDC and some international actors framed the outbreak as a sign of a failed state run by ZANU–PF and as a result of human rights violations. The government presented it as ‘biological warfare’ used by the West to stimulate regime change. Chigudu suggests that this polarisation should be read as a political debate between ‘state failure’ and ‘national sovereignty’: the debate was not conducive to promptly addressing the emergency, which required rapid measures. The polarisation delayed and impeded the humanitarian response, which had detrimental consequences. Indeed, while such polarisation is not rare, in the situation of the ‘perfect storm’, its consequences were particularly disastrous. Many human rights organisations and political opponents in Zimbabwe were castigated by ZANU–PF as ‘agents of the West’ – a narrative that aimed at delegitimising their activity as well as human rights narratives. But when people’s basic survival in the face of the terrifying epidemic was at stake, the politicisation of the problem further contributed to inequality and injustice, and undermined the humanitarian response.
As Chigudu suggests, the coordination of the humanitarian response was characterised by competition for leadership, authority and legitimacy between different governmental and humanitarian entities. Despite that, they came together under what Chigudu calls the ‘salvation agenda’, which became the basic agreement that allowed actors to reconcile competing interests, experiences and interpretations of the crisis and to offer the necessary approach to cholera. Still, this approach was not able to address the underlying socio-economic causes of the cholera outbreak, and the ‘salvation agenda’ perpetuated and, in some ways, worsened social inequalities while passing the moral responsibility for the epidemic to the technical, international and supposedly apolitical humanitarian apparatus.
I found Chapter 5 particularly important, insightful and compelling, as it considers the views of township residents who were affected by the outbreak and provides a grassroots perspective. Chigudu notes that their attitudes to the government were extremely negative: they believed that the government could – and indeed wanted to – harm them with the brutal disease and could disregard them in times of severe need. The residents saw their lives as ‘disposable’, both during and after the epidemic. The outbreak was a marker of how marginalised these communities were. Residents’ narratives were dominated by suffering, violence and abandonment, but victimhood was not the only dimension there. As the author argues, the outbreak also provided a context for residents to challenge the state and demand higher-quality and timely public service delivery, shaping substantive forms of citizenship, i.e. rights to access to public services and infrastructural development. He also notes that despite all the dire healthcare, socio-economic and political challenges that people faced, they demonstrated an impressive ability to adapt to difficult circumstances.
Simukai Chigudu brilliantly demonstrates how the study of the cholera epidemic gave insights into a range of issues about the nature of the Zimbabwean state, structural inequalities, historical memory, political subjectivities, and narratives in public institutions and civic life. Chigudu places the Zimbabwean cholera outbreak in a comparative perspective and suggests that the book is relevant with reference to other major epidemics in Africa. Finally, he warns that there may be further health crises in Zimbabwe which are likely to disproportionately affect the poor, but also sees possible solutions in the potential of a vibrant Zimbabwean society.
Chigudu’s book is a fascinating and critical account of the politics of an epidemic. I find two aspects of it particularly strong and impressive: his discussion of the politics of different actors and the challenges of the coordinated response; and the recounting of residents’ lived experiences of the outbreak and the attitudes of the state. It is particularly important that Chigudu showed that people were not merely victims of the disease and of the state’s actions, but that they acted as citizens demanding public services and made a claim to substantive citizenship. However, I wish the author had given more attention to the gender dimension of the outbreak, as women and girls in some cases are likelier to contract the infection due to their domestic roles (Rancourt 2013). Gender is an important factor in social (in)justice, and women were marginalised by both colonial and postcolonial governments: looking at the outbreak through a gender prism might therefore be insightful.
Urban development, politics and citizenship are the subject of the last book reviewed here. Seeking urban transformation: alternative urban futures in Zimbabwe is written by Davison Muchadenyika, an urban planner with extensive experience in academia, non-governmental organisations and development agencies. Muchadenyika looks at the quest for affordable and accessible housing and infrastructure provision in urban Zimbabwe. The book explores people’s lived experiences of struggles to remake cities in a manner informed by actions of state and city authorities, socio-economic and political conditions, and mechanisms of collective action.
It is very important in his analysis of urban transformations that Muchadenyika focuses not on the negative impacts of multiple crises on urban development but on processes within and on the margins of cities that are expressed through the collective action of people and their interaction with planning institutions in post-2000 urban Zimbabwe. The author seeks to answer the question of how urban transformations happen, and argues that such transformations are driven by the collective action of the urban poor, who realise that existing planning institutions cannot meet their housing and infrastructure needs. He suggests that the nature of transformation is determined by mechanisms of collective action, informed by such characteristics of social movements as autonomy, governance and resources. Muchadenyika argues that urban transformations are underpinned by existing political opportunities, and in Zimbabwe it was evident in the context of the fast-track land reform and politics of urban control between the two rival political parties. Finally, he suggests that the reactions of state institutions to social movements affected the nature and patterns of urban transformation.
Muchadenyika’s research is based on three key concepts: urban transformation; social movements; and radical planning. The first of these refers to a systemic and social change in urban areas that changes lived experiences of people through spatial, political and socio-economic reconfigurations. It particularly focuses on ensuring access of the marginalised groups to urban services, such as housing and infrastructure. Social movements (in this case, housing cooperatives and the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation) are important actors in urban transformation: they engage in struggles with the authorities through sustained interaction, and strive to achieve social justice for marginalised groups and ensure their access to housing. Urban transformation is achieved through ‘radical planning’ – an approach to planning which considers the needs of the poor in order to achieve social justice in the urban context, especially in terms of housing, even though radical planning agendas and actions of social movements may contradict state authority and laws. The theoretical framework of Muchadenyika’s study is transformative theory, which builds on the concepts of social movements as agents of urban transformation and radical planning as means of urban transformation.
The author starts by outlining the developments in urban planning from 1890 to 2018 in order to establish the uses of planning as means of changing people’s urban experiences, to understand what stimulated the emergence of social movements in urban housing, and to provide a background for the understanding of urban transformation. Muchadenyika argues that Harare’s housing policies have been inadequate for decades, and that this inadequacy triggered the rise of social movements that aimed at achieving social justice through the provision of low-income housing. He looks at metropolitan Harare specifically and discusses its historical development. The author suggests that, being a product of colonial planning, metropolitan Harare was still affected by colonial urban planning regulations and housing development. As seen above in Simukai Chigudu’s book, inadequate public service provision, including housing, planning and infrastructure, can have extreme and devastating impacts on people and can lead to many deaths. While what Muchadenyika studies is not an emergency, he displays the continuous battle for such a fundamental human right as a right to adequate housing. He outlines urban politics and governance over the period 2000 to 2018 to show how the political construction of local authorities affected the activity and nature of social movements around urban housing. Developments in governance also inevitably affected the patterns of urban planning.
Muchadenyika specifically considers urban transformation in Harare and focuses on housing development. He indicates that – mostly due to the efforts of social movements – around 100,000 housing structures were constructed largely for the urban poor, undermining conventional approaches to housing and planning. These processes were shaped by the actions of social movements, which used different techniques to engage with authorities, such as confrontation, negotiation and presenting radical alternatives, and by the responses of the authorities in the form of negotiation, engagement, and creating supportive policy frameworks.
The author also turns to developments in Chitungwiza, one of Harare’s dormitory towns. He characterises it as a fractured city, since planning and housing there have been heavily contested as a result of the weakness of the municipality which was abused by politicians, officials and residents alike. This arrangement virtually led to chaos in the housing and service delivery system, and eventually 22,000 housing structures were built by social movements. These developments are, however, considered ‘illegal’ by the local authorities and government.
The third case study of urban transformation is Epworth, an informal urban settlement more than a century old, and its transition to formality. Muchadenyika argues that democratic representation is crucial for decision-making and action that lead to transformation of settlements, and insists that the grassroots formalisation process is the right way to transform informal settlements not only for Epworth but also for other settlements in African urban areas, as it allows residents to enhance community cohesion, housing and planning literacy, and, of course, create a regularised settlement. In the end, urban transformation is not limited to a spatial dimension: it is also about shifts in power relations between residents, local authorities and government, and about qualitative changes in planning approaches through action learning.
The author emphasises that in metropolitan Harare, urban transformation is defined by shifts in service provision (for example, housing and infrastructure, particularly for the poor), changes in power relations among key actors, and recognition of grassroots planning initiatives; and it is the nature of social movements which affects specific transformations. There is a parallel with the activity and transformation of the labour movement explored above in the book by Lloyd Sachikonye, Brian Raftopoulos and Godfrey Kanyenze. It is organisation of people from below that allows them to campaign effectively and demand their socio-economic rights. This book will be interesting to a wide audience, including students of urban development, urban politics, Zimbabwean politics and urban planners. It gives readers insight into grassroots urban transformations and the role of social movements in changing the contours of urban planning and fighting for social and spatial justice in cities.
Seeking urban transformation covers a variety of aspects of urban planning and politics and gives a nuanced analysis of housing issues. I find the use of the radical planning approach in the study and the focus on the role of social movements in combating social injustice particularly important and informative. It is vital to understand collective action and citizen mobilisation in a context where the authorities do not provide public services in order to ensure that people’s rights are met. The book could have given more attention to some important urban processes which were linked to urban planning and political control in Harare, such as political patronage in housing, public transport and marketplaces which was rampant in some areas of Harare (see Kriger 2012; McGregor 2013) and shaped the relationships among residents, local authorities and political parties in the 2000s and early 2010s. Another core issue that deserves more attention but is outside the scope of this study is the demand for the reconfiguration of urban space to accommodate the changing and urgent needs of people now reliant on informal economic activities, such as street vending, informal trade and home industries. Such economic activities have presented massive challenges for the local authorities and city planners.
All three of the books address the problems of social injustice that became manifestations of the deep economic and political crises in Zimbabwe after 2000. The roots of social inequality can be traced to the colonial period but, despite efforts at postcolonial development, these inequalities remain entrenched in Zimbabwean society. Grassroots collective organisation and action are what the authors see as the source of possible solutions to deep issues of human rights violations, including socio-economic, healthcare, water and sanitation, housing rights, and ultimately political and economic improvements. While many experiences of citizenship in Zimbabwe have been unfair, negative and traumatising, as seen in these books, there have been others that have showed that qualitative change may be achieved, substantive citizenship may be reclaimed, and organised citizen action and organisation may be sustained despite drastic political and economic conditions. In many situations, human rights are hard to claim, especially if a government sees people as ‘disposable’, as ‘foreign agents’, or as a ‘nuisance’, and social justice is even harder to achieve; but society in Zimbabwe has shown over many years that collective organising, especially from below, may and does bring substantial and substantive change. While Chigudu highlighted that there was a collective aspiration of substantive citizenship during the cholera outbreak with regard to functional state institutions providing public services to people, he notes that ‘[t]he success or failure of this aspiration, however, is another matter’ (202). Sachikonye, Raftopoulos and Kanyenze point out that grassroots organisation is vital for sustaining the organised labour that can campaign for socio-economic rights of the working class, as happened in the past. And Muchadenyika shows how collective action in the form of housing cooperatives, through radical planning, can reshape rigid and restrictive formal urban planning and deliver people’s socio-economic rights, whether their methods are considered legal or illegal by the authorities. Although these three books indicate that there is no clear path to effective collective action, which depends on the political and economic context as well as on the capacities of people and what they campaign for, what is clear is that realisation of socio-economic and political rights can potentially be achieved through grassroots movements even in oppressive and inflexible systems of politics and governance.