Citation

Maringira G, Masiya T. Afr. Secur. Rev. 2017; 26(4): 399-412.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Institute for Security Studies, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10246029.2017.1294090

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The military poses an ongoing threat to modern democratic rule in some African countries, especially in the Zimbabwean context. This paper reveals the ways in which Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) generals have played a political role in the Zimbabwean elections, an issue which is both a political threat and a security threat to the state. It is argued that the ways in which ZNA generals engage in the political process goes against Section 208(2) of the constitution of Zimbabwe, which summarily states that the military must be apolitical. In substantiating this argument, the paper presents and analyses various public speeches made by army generals. It is contended that the army generals' support of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and President Robert Mugabe has to be understood as a 'mutual accommodation', i.e. the generals are offered privileges in return for the political protection of the ruling regime which negatively impacts the security of the vote.

Language: en

Keywords

civil–military relations; military professionalism; politics; soldiers; Zimbabwe National Army