Sokwanele is a popular protest underground movement based in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

that is involved in "anonymous acts of civil disobedience." They are pro-democracy, and they embrace supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organisations and institutions. Sokwanele is committed to challenging and confronting – through non-violent activism – the way in which the ruling party, Zanu-PF, governs Zimbabwe. Sokwanele's message has reached millions of citizens in Zimbabwe through their protest graffiti. Sokwanele is not affiliated to the opposition

Movement for Democratic Change Movement for Democratic Change or MDC may refer to: * Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), the former main opposition party in Zimbabwe ** Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai Congress 2006, the second MDC–T congress ...

(MDC) at all; in fact, the group's website very clear. Sokwanele means 'enough is enough' in Ndebele; the Shona equivalent of the name is ' Zvakwana'. Sokwanele communicates with its supporters primarily via a

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

that people can subscribe to online. They also have a website, and they run a regularly updated blog entitled ''This is Zimbabwe''. The government has imposed very tight restrictions on the media in Zimbabwe, and very few newspapers or radio stations that are critical of the government are permitted to operate. Sokwanele's communications provide a critical and impartial assessment of the government's actions, regularly reporting on corruption, human rights violations and bad

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the ...

. Sokwanele closely monitored, in the 22 weeks leading up to the

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

elections on 31 March 2005, the government's compliance with the

Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooper ...

(SADC) protocol 'Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections'. The protocol was agreed by SADC leaders in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

on 17 August 2004 and Zimbabwe was one of the signatories. Sokwanele circulated their weekly assessments through a special newsletter entitled 'Mauritius Watch'. Their final report based on the mounting evidence of non-compliance concluded that the elections were deeply flawed and did not satisfy the SADC principles and guidelines, and therefore could not possibly be considered 'free and fair'. They reached this conclusion before the elections took place. On polling day itself, Sokwanele blogged regular updates from

activists Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...

on the ground who alerted them to unscrupulous government activities which included refusing access to polling agents from the main opposition party, imprisoning MDC agents, incommunicado, after the vote; and controlling all forms of communication to and from the polling stations. They also reported on the difficulty that some voters had in trying to vote, and reports from voters of the presence of dead relatives on the voter's roll. On the basis of this evidence, after the voting was over, Sokwanele went on to produce a report that detailed the hour by hour events on polling day into how they allege the government comprehensively rigged the elections. More recently, Sokwanele has written several articles critical of the government's '

Operation Murambatsvina Operation Murambatsvina (''Move the Rubbish''), also officially known as Operation Restore Order, was a large-scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country. The campaign started in 2005 and according to Unit ...

(Operation Drive Out Trash).' Using

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professiona ...

, Sokwanele has also compiled a set of photographs depicting the impact of Operation Murambatsvina on ordinary Zimbabwean civilians.

References

{{Reflist Organisations based in Zimbabwe Politics of Zimbabwe Nonviolent resistance movements Human rights in Zimbabwe Protests in Zimbabwe

External links

References