ZANU–PF Women’s League and the (Re)configuration of Political Power in Influencing Succession Politics in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter examines strategies that were used by the ZANU–PF’s women’s league in influencing succession within the party. Against the background of seeing African politics as masculine, the study argues that succession which culminated to the fall of late Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, was for the first time in the history of Zimbabwean politics seen ZANU–PF’s women’s league, being the key players. Informed by framing theory and post-colonial feminist theory, the study used The Herald as the case study to analyse strategies that the ZANU–PF women’s league used to politically communicate their succession position before the fall of Robert Mugabe through a coup in November 2017. Through the use of discourse analysis, the study found that the league framed itself as the custodians of the party, and it worked with the party’s youth league in solving the succession matrix.