Browsing: Counting the Costs of Electoral Impunity in Africa

Towards the end of 2022, as his country began preparations towards general elections scheduled to take place in the penultimate week of August 2023, Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, contracted an unusual bout of generosity denominated in United States Dollars. First, he disbursed US$500,000 to his ministers, comprising twenty cabinet ministers, thirteen deputy ministers, and nine provincial ministers supposedly as housing loans. Next, he doled out US$350,000 to directors of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). The 270 Members of parliament – both elected and nominated – each received $40,000.