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Table of Contents :
Elites, Institutions and the Politics of Poverty in Africa
Cornelias Ncube7
This paper analyses the impacts of integrating global south agricultural producers into the global markets through a case study of sugar outgrowers in Zimbabwe. The paper observes that the changed agrarian structure following the Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe has reconfigured the agricultural finance system as private commercial banks are now using plantation estates as conduits to provide loans to sugar outgrowers. Contractual arrangements between sugar outgrowers and plantation estates are mainly for production and marketing. The paper also finds agrarian relations to be iniquitous and exploitative largely in favor of plantation estates. Indeed, though constrained, capital formation has been an ongoing process among outgrowers and we argue that it is dependent in nature because of its reliance on credit provided by the plantation estate. Incomes derived from sugar production have mainly been channeled towards the purchase of agricultural inputs as well as the payment of milling charges. The study is premised on two sugar estates in Chiredzi, owned by a South African based transnational company. Primary data was collected using questionnaires on 50 outgrowers who are working with Tongaat Hulett, as well as through-in-depth interviews with key informants. The methodology involved thorough verification exercises which included respondent re-visits before being entered into CS-Pro for further cleaning then exported to SPSS for analysis.
This article discusses the twin notions of devolution of power and the democratic developmental state project in Zimbabwe. It argues that like Siamese twins, the two notions are organically connected both in theory and practice. They share key principles such as ‘socially inclusive development’, ‘democracy with social content’, ‘public accountability’, ‘citizen ownership’, and ‘effective leadership’ among others. The paper explores various ways through which the devolution of power can facilitate the construction of a democratic developmental state in Zimbabwe. While canonised and etched in the memory of the National Constitution that was birthed on the 22nd of May 2013, devolution has remained a platonic theory without content and substance. Similarly, despite being stated as the vision of the country in the Mid-Term Plan of Government of Zimbabwe (2011-2015) the democratic developmental state is not mentioned in the most current economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable, Social, and Economic Transformation (ZimAsset). This raises the questions of government’s commitment to both devolution and democratic developmental state projects in that country. The paper argues however that by promoting a responsive and accountable political leadership, enhancing democratic institutions and facilitating transformative economic policies, devolution can support the construction of a democratic developmental Zimbabwean state.
The problem of inequalities amongst youths in Africa requires structural transformation of the lifelong guidance policies in the labour demand and supply that continues to undermine youths’ contribution in society. The post-2015 MDGs agenda is again failing to recognise the problems of youths’ inequality in Africa. One of the critical analyses of inadequacies arising from inequality facing unemployed youths in Africa misses out the contextual analysis of structural transformation, economically. African governments and developed economies have realised the inadequacies. Strategic priorities of analysing youths’ (un)employment in Africa should understand social division, not necessarily to be confused with social inequalities. Discussions about youths’ inequalities include social policy of the social class analysis, including bureaucrats and policy makers. Youths are differentiated in forms of professional and managerial, intermediate middle-class, skilled non-manual, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations. In this paper, the politics of social policy is discussed on the basis that it offers more realistic and democratic processes. The pluralists, elites, economic determinism and institutionalism models are used to offer critical analysis of the structural causes and consequences of inequality amongst youths in Africa. The balance in the private and public sector is considered to understand social justice, empowerment and guaranteeing youths employment in the labour market. The paper finds that modelling structural transformation with socio-economic address to youths’ inequalities empowers youths, promotes rights and influences government policies to rethink social inequalities.
Communal conflicts are common in Igboland and efforts to resolve them have not been too successful. Previous studies have focused on how to resolve them using either modern or traditional institutions. How communal conflicts can contribute to electoral violence has not been adequately explored. This study, therefore, seeks to establish the nexus between communal conflicts and electoral violence in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo State, Southeastern Nigeria. Elections are important constitutional requirements for the enthronement and sustenance of any democratic political system. However, elections in Africa are largely characterised by violence thereby eroding the hope of emergence of positive democratic political culture. Though works on electoral violence in Nigeria identified imposition of candidates, slanderous campaign, electoral frauds, losing election, ethnic cleavages, religious differences and individual psychological disposition towards violence as being responsible, there is need to interrogate why communal conflicts tends to be on the increase during election periods and how the conflicts transform to electoral violence. Being glossed over by scholars, the tendency has led to the formulation of determinist theory of electoral violence negating other deep rooted factors that can contribute to election violence. Therefore, this article asks why every type of election produces violence, even, where contestants come from the same community. Can there be other factors outside the way elections are conducted that exacerbate electoral violence? Focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) were carried out on why Southeastern Nigerian serves as hotbed for communal conflicts. The study reveals that warring communities often seek to capture political power and to deploy such power in either execution or management of communal conflicts.
Zimbabwe has signed and ratified a number of regional and international instruments that call for gender equality in various spheres of life. However, in spite of the existence of these supportive instruments, the country has not fared well in advancing the participation of women in politics. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gender and Development barometer reveals that whilst women participation in politics is still below agreed benchmarks, Zimbabwe’s citizens seem to believe the country is doing well in that regard. This article argues that the discrepancy between the perceived and actual realities in relation to the participation of women in politics is not by accident but is founded on a systemic and calculated maneuver by politically dominant males to open up the political space when necessary and convenient for them. We argue, drawing examples from different political players, that the participation of women in politics has been more of manipulation than a genuine attempt to promote gender equality and equity. The article argues that whilst there have been some moves to bring about parity in numeric terms, there is a glass ceiling for women in terms of how far they can go up the political ladder. It is in this vein that we hypothesize that women have been sold a political dummy where through a raft of cosmetic measures they have been given an impression that they are equals in governance yet on the other hand recent political developments reveal that gender equity in governance remains a mirage for them.
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