Link To Article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68095685
Nelson Chamisa, a 45 year old pastor, lawyer, and founder of Citizens Coalition for Change party (CCC), has resigned from his position as the leader of the CCC. In his 13 page resignation statement, he made comments about the Zimbabwe government being “corrupt”, “hijacked”, and that he will have nothing to do with “sewer” politics. This came after years of alleged corruption and fraud in multiple elections; in last year’s presidential election, he won 44% of votes while there was suspicion of foul play and bribery in Chamisa’s party. The current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, took power after a coup in 2017 while Chamisa has been in politics for over two decades. Chamisa has criticized Mnangagwa for a number of issues including the cholera outbreak and collapse of social services. Chamisa is not done however in politics saying, “giving up or giving in is not an option”, hinting that he will set up a whole new party and become a leader for a third time.
Africa is a region filled with corrupt governments today and has been for the past few years now. This story is another example adding to its poor reputation which shows no sign of change for a strong stable government in the near future. Similar to what I say later in this post, a lasting effect this could have is the region remaining as a shatterbelt one. There would be no positive result but rather only negative ones such as terrorism and violence that would affect countries globally similar to the Houthi rebels today. Africa could also be described as a power vacuum with no strong government, strengthening the argument that the emergence of coups and terrorist organizations will continue to be felt.
Connecting this article to class, I would relate it to the term, shatterbelt region. A shatterbelt region is a strategically oriented but deeply divided region caught up in struggle between realm powers or emerging regional powers. Zimbabwe and Sub Saharan Africa would classify as a shatterbelt region due to coups and corruption made by governments as seen in this article. Examples of this happening is the bribery that took place in the CCC party or how Mnangagwa replaced the former president following a coup rebellion.