Understanding the role of the media in Zimbabwe African Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) factional fights and the representations of the Lacoste faction in Zimbabwe public discourses

This thesis sought to critically examine the origins, nature and impact of ZANU PF factionalist tendencies and how a particular faction headed by former Vice President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa was represented in Zimbabwean public discourses. Drawing from comparative politics, history, media studies and Zimbabwean current affairs, this interdisciplinary narrative detailed how the new media played a central role in precipitating factional implosion in the liberation war based political party (ZANU PF). Clearly, ZANU PF internecine conflicts in and outside the state controlled and new media had far-reaching socio-economic and political ramifications as rival ZANU PF factions resorted to dirty strategies and tactics to try and weaken and outwit each other. These political machinations took the form of slandering, use of hate speech, dissemination of fake news, assassinations and poisoning among others. As the battle for factional supremacy raged on, the Zimbabwean economy continued on a downward spiral due to inter alia policy contradictions and uncertainty but at the end, November 2017 saw Mugabe being unexpectedly deposed in a coup after 37 years in power. This study went on to identify a number of factors that were working against Mugabe’s patient and heir apparent – Mnangagwa, as he sought to take over the reins of power. These included inter alia the presence and close proximity of the G40 faction linked to the first family but opposing the former vice president, his tainted political record as a result of his involvement in the Matabeleland massacre of the Ndebele ethnic group in the 1980s, allegedly masterminding and engineering electoral fraud in 2008 and having been Mugabe's right hand man for almost four decades. On the other hand, findings from this study suggest that Mnangagwa’s liberation war credentials and his close association with the military and the war veterans played a pivotal role in assisting him to land the presidency following Mugabe’s forced resignation or what was defined by many as a coup. While the Lacoste faction eventually prevailed over their G40 rivals, the study concluded that ZANU PF factionalism negatively impacted on governmental decisions, policies and systems and the aftermath of the military coup continues to pose serious challenges to Zimbabwe’s political future however defined