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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Ambiguities of Democracy: The Demobilisation of the Zimbabwean Ex-Combatants and the Ordeal of Rehabilitation, 1980-93 |
Author: | Musemwa, Muchaparara |
Year: | 1995 |
Periodical: | Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |
Issue: | 26 |
Pages: | 31-46 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
Subjects: | employment veterans Politics and Government Military, Defense and Arms History and Exploration Law, Human Rights and Violence |
External link: | https://d.lib.msu.edu/tran/254/OBJ/download |
Abstract: | After independence in 1980, 36,000 former guerrillas in Zimbabwe had to be demobilized. In spite of a large-scale programme called 'Operation SEED' (Soldiers Employed in Economic Development), introduced by the government in 1981 for the reintegration of the excombatants, the number of unemployed excombatants increased steadily to more than 25,000 between 1981 and 1993. This article critically explores the demobilization process in Zimbabwe and its impact on the ordinary excombatant who, at the end of the war, found himself with neither sufficient resources nor the necessary social backup to reintegrate fully into the civil society he had struggled to liberate. It describes the government's demobilization payment and its shortcomings, and the creation of cooperatives as a vehicle for social rehabilitation. The article also addresses the exfighters' concerns, fears and crisis of expectations as well as the measures they took to salvage their own situation, such as the formation of the Zimbabwe War Veterans Association (ZWVA). Special attention is paid to the social integration of female excombatants. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |