Abstract

Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 after nearly a century of British colonial settler rule but soon deteriorated into chaos, repression and economic dilapidation under the leadership of Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe engineered a major constitutional amendment that saw him amass absolute power by creating an executive presidency as head of state in 1987. The opposition was tortured and stifled through outwitting and outmanoeuvring them and the ordinary people were intimidated and lived in fear. Despite the many crises faced, Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF continue to extend life in government and maintain a reasonable control of the country.

This paper concludes that topmost on the reasons for survival through crises is Mugabe’s ingenuity in political marketing warfare and dynamic positioning of the party in accordance with the appealing themes and its systematic destruction of the opposition through a variety of tools, among them torture, blackmailing, propaganda and through instilling fear into the voters, creation of pseudo political parties, repressive constitutional amendments to ensure supreme power and dominance.

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