BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
closed, members of the Student Representative Council (SRC) were
arrested, and student grants were temporarily suspended. Shadreck B.O
Gutto, a Kenyan lecturer in the faculty of law was arbitrary deported on a
48 hour ultimatum under the Rhodesian Immigration Act No 18 of 1979
which gave the minister of home affairs powers to deport any person
without being obliged to justify the deportation^5. Bond (1998) maintains
that this draconian legislation was meant to suppress the students and
effectively making the university a parastatal institution^6.
Tekere openly criticized leaders of being the cradle of corruption and
was dismissed from ZANU PF and he went on to form the Zimbabwe
Unity Movement (ZUM). The incumbents made extensive use of state
security forces and the state owned media to suppress the ZUM chal-
lenge. Considering that ZUM was formed soon after the Unity Accord,
this was regarded as a negation of national unity. The term national
unity became synonymous with monolithic politics. ZUM was denied
access to media and most of its rallies were banned by state security
forces. Its supporters were harassed and in most cases detained by secu-
rity forces^7.
ZUM contested the 1990 general elections and won only two seats in the
Manicaland province. In fact, ZUM was not a credible political party
with the capacity to mount a serious challenge against ZANU PF. The
Central Intelligence Organization were clandestinely implanted as
members of the in ZUM in order to engender internal internecine.
As a result of these and Tekere’s alleged dictatorial tendencies, ZUM
disintegrated in the early 90s and it eventually died a natural death. A
plethora of small and ephemeral opposition political parties were formed
after ZUM. Most of them emerged immediately before elections and
disappeared immediately thereafter. Some of these parties have been
alleged to be counterfeit parties which were formed and financed by
ZANU PF in order to split votes in its favor and to deceive the electorate
and the international community into believing that Zimbabwe is indeed
a multi-party state.
(^5) Ncube “Constitutionalism, Democracy and Political Practice in Zimbabwe,” 171.
(^6) Patrick Bond, Uneven Zimbabwe: The Study of Finance, Development and Underdevelop-
ment (Harare: World Press Inc, 1998), 83.
(^7) See Jonathan Moyo, Voting for Democracy (Harare: Univ. of Zimbabwe publications,
1989) 88.