Abstract
This research shows the history of political conflicts in Zimbabwe, the
merits of the political struggle for power in this country since the British
colonial period, especially after the British administration announced that
Zimbabwe is a local colony of the British Crown in 1923, as the settlement
process against the wide white deprive local people to own and lease land
and low income, as well as the 1961 Constitution, which granted access to
the white powers in accordance with the authority of the top menu for the
existing lower allocated to blacks.
These events and factors led to a national rejection in Zimbabwe,
which crystallized in the form of parties and political organizations through the
two major parties: Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) led by Joshua
Nkomo, and African National Union (ZANU), led by Robert Mugabe.
The features of political struggles for power started in Zimbabwe
during the elections in 1962 which made the whites (50) seats guaranteed to
them by the Constitution, and deprived blacks of those seats, a matter which
led the national leadership to engage with the government's white led by (Ian
Smith) in long discussions of settlement of this question which ended with the
expulsion of the country's native citizins from the local authority for ever. That
phase had revealed the dimensions of the struggle for power that was limited
between white settlers and national leaders.
But after independence, especially after the elections of 1979 which
allocated (80) seats for the local population, compared to (20) seats for whites
and the formation of the first black majority government in the country, the
features of another struggle for power between nationalists themselves
appeared, as the outcomes of the elections in 1979 which did not satisfy
some of them and led bishop Mozhuiroa to establish a new party known as
the African National Council party which won the elections, But this led to
question the legitimacy of the elections and declared a state of civil
disobedience to that government, and repeat the elections in which Robert
Mugabe won in 1980, ending by that the phase of the conflict.
The phase of cohabitation between the national party (ZAPU) and
(ZANU) came to an end, with Mugabe's reach to power after he has declared
a one-party politics, which made it more powerful than the first, especially
after the deportation of some his rivals, like Joshua Nkomo outside the
country, the liquidation of other rivals, and the declaration of the presidential
system in the country.
In 2000, another phase of power struggle appeared with the
emergence of a new opposition against the rule of Mugabe, under the name
of the movement for Democratic Change, which compete with Mugabe in the
elections of 2002, and elections of 2008, an issue which has raised a big
storm in the country, ended after the intervention of some African leaders with
Mugabe's concession the opposition as a partner in government after he
changed the form of political regime in Zimbabwe from presidential to
parliamentary, he stayed as the President of the Republic while the leader of
the opposition (Morgan Tsvangirai) became the Chairman of the Zimbabwean
government.