"For enhanced civic participation in local governance": Calling tyranny to account in Harare

Abstract

The Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) is a social movement organization that operates in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. It seeks to represent the needs and priorities of all residents. At the national level, it tussles with a state that is repressive and intolerant of anything construed as protest. Locally, it questions the legitimacy of the municipal authority that was appointed by the national government after the elected city government was dissolved and the elected mayor dismissed. This paper explores CHRA's relentless bid to uphold the interests of Harare's residents and ensure "enhanced civic participation in local government", and includes three cases that illustrate how they seek to do so: contesting the legitimacy of the imposed authority; representing citizen views on budgetary processes (including demands for a rates boycott); and contesting the transfer of responsibility for water and sanitation to a new parastatal. It also discusses the Association's ways of working and repertoire of tactics, and brings out some salient issues that include questions of regime change, alliances, engagement and radicalization, and possible ways in which CHRA might become more effective. © 2009 SAGE Publications.