Zimbabwe: Stay Aways Won't Work in Fragile Zimbabwe - Political Analyst (2025)

End of last March 2025, Zimbabweans stayed away from their workplaces and businesses, turning urban areas into ghost towns.

According to a political analyst, University of Zimbabwe lecturer and political analyst Eldred Masunungure, citizens did not protest in the streets as called for by Blessed 'Bombshell' Geza, a war veteran fighting to remove the current administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, accusing him of failure to run the country.

Masunungure, in an interview with NewZimbabwe.com this Wednesday said the March 31 stay away did not happen because "people are rational enough to know the dangers inherent in confronting the coercive arms of the state which the leadership is ready to deploy as a first rather than last resort."

Protests are banned in Zimbabwe.

Masunungure said, "people responded to Geza's call for an uprising by staying at home which is a form of protest in itself."

However, last week's call by Geza for an 'indefinite' stayaway was ignored by many because it was "unstrategic" as it collided with the welfare and survival needs of the ordinary Zimbabweans, the vast majority of whom live through vending and other informal jobs.

"As such, participating in an indefinite stay-away is suicidal, hence they defied the call. It is plain common sense," the UZ Professor explained.

Masunungure highlighted that the other dimension to the failure of this stay-away has been the lack of an organisational vehicle.

"The so-called 'Geza movement' is essentially a solo effort by Geza himself and in politics, this is not sustainable.

"The reality of present day politics is that there is no organisational political home for those who are not inclined towards Zanu PF."

He further said there were many political orphans in Zimbabwe, especially after the collapse of the opposition political parties; Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and later, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

"That's the tragedy of Zimbabwe's opposition politics today, the lack of a viable and trusted organisational vehicle to accommodate the multitudes of political orphans.

"The answer to this is self-evident; the formation of a viable and sustainable political organisation with trusted and astute leadership," he stated.

For the past quarter century, Zimbabwe has been locked in a transition characterised by comprehensive fragility such that there is fragile politics.

"A fragile economy, a fragile social order and fragile diplomatic relations.

"A defining feature of this type of fragility is the systemic uncertainty where hardly anyone, including those at the apex of the state, know where the country is going."

Masunungure described Zimbabwe as a country which is just muddling through.

"The industrial-scale corruption, sky-high unemployment, high inflationary pressures and a volatile currency, social decay, the personalisation of the State and its resources via massive patronage, are all manifestations of this fragility," he added.

He suggested that, for Zimbabwe to come back to life, it requires a replication of the 2009-2013 Government of National Unity (GNU), which many Zimbabweans regard with nostalgia.

He, however, doubted if this would be achieved in a context where effectively, there is a one party regime and where other non-State actors like the civil society are subdued through various legal and extra-legal mechanisms.

He mentioned the combined effects of the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Amendment Act and the carnage attendant on President Donald Trump's assault on USAID, which he believes is to drastically weaken civil society and its capacity to act as a source of countervailing power to the State.

Masunungure pins his hopes on the progressive tendencies in the church to lead a national dialogue process resulting in a GNU-like solution.

"Of course, this will require the active input of the regional leadership, principally in the SADC," which is led by President Mnangagwa (chairperson).

"The bottom line though is that Zimbabwe is likely to be in this state of uncertainty, confusion and even chaos for the foreseeable future," said Masunungure.