EXPLORING THE KEY SUCCESS FACTORS IN IMPLEMENTING DEVOLUTION IN ZIMBABWE

ZEPARU Discussion Paper: Gibson Chigumira, Erinah Chipumho, Evengelista Mudzonga. November
2019, Implementing Devolution in Zimbabwe

The idea behind implementation of devolution in Zimbabwe is to deepen democracy and empower
citizens to make locally based development choices to improve the delivery of public services given
that the centralised system of government has some inefficiencies and decision making process may
be slow.

Human Rights Bulletin No. 69. January 2012

The Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination

This bulletin examines the right to equality and non-discrimination, important principles that should
be observed in a society that strives for the promotion and protection of human rights.

The principle of equality requires a state to take affirmative action in order to diminish or eliminate
conditions that cause or help to perpetuate discrimination.

Equality means that all people are equally entitled to human rights simply because they are human.
Qualities that make people appear different should not make them inferior or superior in relation to
these rights. This principle therefore advocates for individuals and society at large to value and
accept human differences.

Discrimination refers to the different treatment of an individual or a group of individuals to their

The term minority group refers to any identified group or groups of people who are subjected to
unfair treatment and discrimination. The group is characterized by different treatment from the
dominant group, by high visibility, and is highly conscious of their own group existence.

The following characteristics distinguish them: !

Distinguishing physical or cultural traits, e.g. skin colour or language (racial)

!Unequal treatment and less power over their lives (gender)

!Involuntary membership in the group (not by personal choice)

!Awareness of subordination and strong sense of group solidarity

Profile

Tshwa San live primarily in western Zimbabwe. Though the government does not keep official
statistics on the population of indigenous peoples, it is estimated that there are around 2,600 Tshwa.
Most traditional knowledge of hunting and gathering has been lost, however Tshwa continue to use
veldfood as a form of sustenance.

Historical Context

Until British colonization in 1890, Tshwa San primarily gained land through selfallocation. With the
arrival of European settlers and the establishment of various game reserves, including Hwange
National Park, many Tshwa were forcibly removed from their lands. The Land Apportionment Act of
1930 was an apartheid policy that limited the rights of land ownership for non-white populations.
Traditional forms of land ownership in Zimbabwe were officially abolished in 1951 with the Native
Land Husbandry Act, moving Tshwa to predetermined tracts of land. Following Zimbabwe
independence in 1980, ownership of Tshwa land transitioned to local authorities.

Current Issues

Some Tshwa San communities are struggling with food insecurity as laws banning hunting forced
them to trade in their lives as hunter-gatherers for subsistence farming. However, most neither
possess cattle or tools nor have the training to farm successfully, as they have been excluded from
the government’s 2009 farm mechanization programme. Some Tshwa elders have asked for
readmission to the Hwange National Park to return to a life as hunter-gatherers, as the government
seems to be unable or unwilling to aid Tshwa communities to become self-sufficient.

In 2015, much of southern Africa was affected by severe drought and hunger. Many Tshwa had to
eat the seeds they intended to use for the next season’s planting, thus furthering the food shortage.
The water shortage in the Tsholotsho District, where many Tshwa live was exacerbated through the
closure of numerous water facilities due to a lack of diesel fuel and parts. The Tshwa community has
also criticized the government for failing to understand their culture and traditions, as the
Constitution refers to their language as Khoisan, whereas the correct name of the language is Tjwao
(also Tshwao). Tjwao is under particular risk of extinction, as some sources suggest that there are
little more than a dozen people left who speak the language fluently, with the rest of the Tshwa
community speaking a diluted version. One of the issues highlighted by Tshwa leaders is the fact that
the few Tshwa children who are able to attend school are taught in Ndebele, and as a result many
are increasingly separated from their own culture. Attempts to introduce a Tjwao curriculum are
made more difficult by the lack of orthography and phonology for the language. Tjwao has no
written records and is currently not systematically passed from one generation to the next.
Additionally, the vocabulary reflects the Tshwa community’s traditional way of life in the bush, and

Tshwa San - Min

Prepared for United Nations Human Rights Council: March 2016, 2nd cycle of Universal Periodic
Review of Zimbabwe, 26th session of the Human Rights Council

Both the Tshwa and the Doma’s members overwhelmingly live under the poverty line and make up
some of the poorest people in the country.

The Tshwa face starvation and flooding issues that are worsened by government inaction and
incompetence

Further west in the Tsholotsho District, the San peoples are faced with the difficult decision of
leaving their homes in search of water. The Tshwa are an Indigenous group that is part of the larger
San community that is Indigenous to Southern Africa.

The Tshwa people of the Tsholotsho District, who also rely on the land they inhabit as a hunter-
gatherer community, have recently been uprooted from their traditional homes due to the overflow
of the Gariya Dam. This dam was built on Indigenous land during Zimbabwe’s colonial era, and has
now become hazardous to the lives of the Indigenous Peoples whom live in its vicinity.10 In January
and February of 2014 devastating floods caused many families to abandon their homes. Already in
poverty, many of the families are now suffering from starvation and homelessness. The cause of this
flooding was from the overflowing Gariya Dam that is estimated to have displaced around 400
families. They now find their livelihoods and economic prospects destroyed as a result of a dam that
was imposed on them before independence. The government was widely criticized for its minimal
reaction to the crisis, which violates of Article 32 and Article 24 of UNDRIP. The government of
Zimbabwe issued a declaration of disaster, which mandates that it seek regional and international
assistance, and in extreme cases set up a relief fund.11 However, the government took weeks to
implement any of these steps and eventually abandoned them. Despite continued widespread
damage and uprooted families, the declaration was left to expire only three months after the floods
in May of 2014.12 Food scarcity among rural communities like the Tshwa was critical, but the
Zimbabwean government made minimal efforts to distribute food, clean water, and other
necessities during this crisis.

C. Discrimination of the Tshwa and Doma Peoples. Civil and Political Rights (Violations of UNDRIP
Articles 1, 2, 16, 19, 21, 33)

Both the Doma and the Tshwa people are subject to extreme poverty and discrimination. They are
isolated to their rural communities and have limited access to news outlets, and lack a deep
understanding of their rights as Indigenous Peoples. Zimbabwe’s state-controlled media violates
UNDRIP Article 16, which calls for free and unbiased media coverage. According to the United States
Human Rights Report of Zimbabwe 2014, the government controls the news coverage and is highly
biased in its reporting of current events. Zimbabwe’s media laws give the government the right to
limit press freedoms in the “interest of defense, public safety, public order, state economic interests,
public morality, and public health.”16 This prerogative essentially eradicates freedoms of press or
speech, which harms the Doma and Tshwa communities.
In this effort to control the media, the government has refused to license community radio stations
since independence. Such stations would allow better communication between the government and
people of remote areas like the Doma and Tshwa, especially in times of need. However, the
government feels community radio stations would serve to undermine government authority.17
Without these radio stations the Indigenous Peoples of Zimbabwe have many more problems
accessing aid. They are unable to voice their independence and rights as Indigenous Peoples and are
unable to call for help when disaster strikes. This is all because such actions would disrupt the
government’s idea of public order and supposedly question its sovereignty. Such limitations are in
violation of UNDRIP Article 33 and Article 2.

D. Marginalization of Indigenous Languages (UNDRIP Articles 13, 14, 16)

The marginalization of Indigenous languages within the education system is also leading to declining
numbers of minority language speakers. Government-run media outlets use only majority languages,
excluding monolingual minority language speakers from accessing vital news and information.

In a recent conference evaluating the new Bill of Rights in the new constitution, Professor Bornface
Chisaka spoke about the need to improve education to help all learners and promoted the use of
local languages to include more children who cannot read mainstreamed languages.18 He claimed
the current education system continually fails the majority of learners and makes minority language
speakers more vulnerable. Due to these language barriers, requesting and receiving aid is even more
difficult for the Indigenous Peoples. Aid is very limited for the Doma, who are secluded in their
villages. Moreover, the poor economy is distracting much needed attention away from their plight.
Awareness education in Indigenous languages would benefit the Doma and Tshwa communities,
which have difficulty even requesting aid due to their lack of knowledge about it.

Education in Indigenous and minority languages is a difficult task. Many of these languages, such as
the San group of languages that includes the Tshwa language, are not written and do not contain
concepts such as counting or time.19 Advocates of minority language education hope that the
Ministry of Education can coordinate learning visits to Botswana and Namibia to see how their San
communities created Indigenous language syllabi. Such an action would be a first step toward
creating better communication and understanding of Indigenous rights.

In July of 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Office held a community building and rights
awareness workshop where Christopher Dube from the Tsholotsho District came to represent his
people. He says that knowledge of rights pertaining to land protection are not wellknown. He also
discussed the disappearance of his written language, saying in the report that “there are only 13
people left in his community that can speak their mother tongue”.20 Efforts like Dube’s are further
jeopardized by the aging population that can still speak these mother tongues. 5

Similar to Dube’s community, another Tsholotsho group is trying to preserve the Tshwao language,
but lost one of the fourteen elders that still speak it fluently.21 Time is running out for the
preservation of some Indigenous languages, and a lack of government support for these initiatives
makes the situation more serious. Zimbabwe’s Indigenous Peoples are stuck between being cast out
from society or forced to assimilate to the government’s vision. This is an injustice and violation of
their UNDRIP rights, and they must be informed about the rights they have and allowed to practice
their traditions freely.
San in Tsholotsho and Bulilima Mangwe districts

Tsoro-o-tso San Development Trust (TSDT) continued working with language, education, culture and
livelihoods issues with the Tshwa community of Tsholotsho district, north west of Bulawayo,
throughout 2019. TSDT was threatened with the cancellation of its Memorandum of Understanding
with the Tsholotsho Rural District Council in March 2019 due to apparent misunderstandings over
the organisation’s work and financing. Nevertheless, TSDT continued its work throughout the year,
collaborating with national and international research institutions such as the Ministry of Education,
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and
Plan International.

Plan International Zimbabwe, with the Tsholotsho Rural District Council and the Ministry of Primary
and Secondary Education, finished construction of the Mtshina Primary School in November 2019.
The school was built to serve San and Kalanga children in the area who lived far from other school
facilities.7

Efforts were made by TSDT to ensure children were able to get funds to attend school in
collaboration with local non-government organisations in Tsholotsho in 2019. TSDT continued its
recording and promoting of Tshwao (Tjwao), including holding a community “language party” in
April, bringing together Tshwao, Ndebele and Kalanga speakers to share languages and stories.

Plan International assisted the Tshwa in obtaining identity documents in 2019 as a sizable proportion
of Tshwa still did not have documents. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission held a consultation
with San community members in Bulilima Mangwe District in December where the San complained
of the continued lack of national identity documents, poor labour conditions and exploitation by
neighbouring communities.8

The Tshwa in Tsholotsho and Bulilima Districts do not have their own chief and instead serve under
chiefs from other ethnic groups. In 2019, the Tshwa were pushing for greater recognition of their
traditional leaders who do exist in some Tshwa communities. The government is examining
measures to implement this.

Cross-border interactions between Tshwa in western Zimbabwe and north eastern Botswana
continued to occur. There was some out-migration from Tsholotsho to other areas, including to
Bulawayo, with a small number of Tshwa seeking employment in Botswana.
There was a case of an alleged hate crime against a San youth in Tsholotsho in October 2019. The
young Tshwa died as a result of blood loss or a heart attack after a beating by non-San youths,
according to different sources.9

There were complaints of discrimination against Tshwa women by members of other groups. The
women stated they were subjected to rude comments and exploitative economic situations. Dozens
of San children were forced into working as goat herders and agricultural field hands by local non-
San farmers, usually without any compensation for their labor. The Ministry of Rural Development,
Promotion and Preservation of Natural Culture and Heritage met with Tshwa in Tsholotsho in
November

2019 to discuss issues involving cultural heritage promotion and protection of cultural resources. The
Tshwa in the meetings said that poverty alleviation and protection and promotion of the Tshwao
language were among their major concerns.

Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Amai Mnangagwa, continued funding community level interventions through
her Angel of Hope Foundation, focusing on education and livelihoods, which brought additional
national media attention to the San in Zimbabwe.10 The First Lady has carried out similar projects
with the Doma to promote education and health.11

DEVOLUTION AND DECENTRALISATION POLICY

A major objective of the policy is to promote in Zimbabwe “sustainable”, representative,

-was approved by Cabinet on 21 July 2020

This Policy facilitates the setting up of the context of the standards, regulatory provisions and the
monitoring framework within which the devolution process is to be unpacked.

Implementation of the Devolution Agenda will be broad-based and inclusive of civil society and the
citizenry whose bottom-up participation assisted with the design of envisaged processes

Hence, the devolution policy provides for separate capacity building initiatives targeted at local
citizens, in order to empower them to hold local officials accountable over the implementation of
approved regional development plans.
Devolution requires that sub-national tiers of Government reflect an aggregation of community
priorities and their development preferences

Tinashe C Chigwata (2019) Devolution demystified: Emerging debates and prospects for devolution
in Zimbabwe A discussion paper. The Zimbabwe Electronic Law Journal