The Beginning of an End? Online (and Offline) Popular Resistance against Mugabe's Strained Legitimacy in the Post-GNU Zimbabwe

This article uses conveniently sampled social and online media data to analyse the amalgamation of dissenting voices and movements in the post Government of National Unity (2009-13) in Zimbabwe. It is in the context of the protest movements that rocked the country in the year 2016, as political activists and the masses sought to challenge and strain the ruling party's legitimacy. The paper analyses the discourses and performative acts of resistance, such as street and online/offline protests by different groups. It asserts that Zimbabwe's late former President, Robert Mugabe's long-drawn-out crisis of legitimacy was being explicitly exposed. This strained legitimacy was explicit in Mugabe and his government's increasing resort to coerce Zimbabweans to be patriotic through legislation such as the mandatory National Pledge for all schools. This coercive approach was also notable in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's (RBZ) attempts to issue bond notes meant to be a form of currency restricted to Zimbabwe's borders. These attempts as will be shown only served to render the relationship between Mugabe and the citizenry confrontational with generalised calls for him to step down from power. The paper reads these widespread forms of dissent through the work of Gramsci and Althusser.