PANDEMIC CRISIS: OLD REPRESSIONS RENEWED AMID ANTI-COVID-19 LOCKDOWN IN ZIMBABWE, c.2020 - 2022

Abstract

This study discusses how during the Covid-19 pandemic, government agents in Zimbabwe controlled and supervised Zimbabwean citizens through repressive methods that were meant to entrench the position of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. It posits that since Covid-19 took place in a conflictridden Zimbabwean environment, it paved the way for new conflicts to emerge while the existing ones were reshaped. Furthermore, it argues that Covid-19 offers an interesting case to examine how international relations and geopolitical considerations influenced the initial stance and reaction to Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's initial reaction to the outbreak of the Coronavirus was largely dictated by its narrow foreign policy rather than epidemiological/immunological considerations. It concludes that the Covid-19 lockdown facilitated the Mnangagwa regime's intention to make Zimbabwe a de facto one-party state, as witnessed by the closure of democratic space under the guise of enforcing lockdown regulations.