Why predictions of Mugabe’s imminent downfall are wrong

Meanwhile, the other potentially rousing opposition party leader, the former vice president Joice Mujuru, is still in the early stages of building support for her new party organization.

Traditional civil society is crippled by lack of funding and is intellectually ill-equipped to deal with the unfolding political dynamic.

Young Zimbabweans should remember that protesting is not the only way to effect political change. It is striking that many of the young people taking to the streets and venting their anger online are not calling upon each other to register to vote in the next national election, scheduled for 2018.

None of the leading hashtag activists and bloggers are calling for youth, whose numbers make them Zimbabwe’s decisive demographic group, to massively register to vote. Young people, urban and rural, do not seem to be discussing among themselves whom they should support in the 2018 election, or what sort of political and economic agenda they want to see for their country.

What Zimbabwe needs now, most of all, is a well-thought-out and pragmatic approach to the 2018 election — one that will unite civil society, the opposition parties, online activists, and urban and rural youth. That is the key to finding a new path ahead.

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