The role of civil society organisations in promoting political tolerance: a case of crisis in Zimbabwe coalition

Abstract

The study sought understanding on CSOs role in promoting political tolerance and focused on CiZC mandate between 2008 to 2020. Problematic and persistent political polarisation in Zimbabwe increase conflict and violence against divergent political views creating need for exploring the phenomena with a view to glean new propositions to political tolerance. The researcher’s choice of qualitative methodology was informed by his need of a methodology that traced, explained and gave meaning to growth of crooked political conduct and vices. Main findings revealed that CSOs where ineffective in promoting political tolerance due to political strong liaisons with MDC and disregarded inclusion of all players and caused further polarisation in a volatile conflict situation. CSOs used human rights programmes for posturing to prove and justify continued funding to enrich themselves and sought relevance with zero consideration for communities’ represented nor development from programs they requested funding for. The research concluded that CSOs were honeycombed with activist’s personal interests of ‘crisispreneurs’ than group interests that served need of communities. It recommended establishment of multi-sectoral guidelines that determined and regulatedroles of of civic interest groups in communities affected by conflict to avoid bias.