Official portrait of Emmerson Mnangagwa edited by Giovana Fleck/Global Voices, used with permission. Welcome to Undertones, your source for in-depth insights into global events and trends that shape our world. At the Civic Media Observatory, we turned our focus to Zimbabwe and the intricate dynamics surrounding its elections. As the nation was preparing for a pivotal moment, we delved into the strategies, narratives, and challenges that are shaping the political landscape. What kinda legacy are we to leave for the coming generation? Yes, I hope to see a better life, but it's an imagination They talk about Democracy, mi look all I just see is hypocrisy The dialogue is turning into a fallacy The verses above are from the song Dzimba Dzemabwe, sung by the Zimbabwe reggae artist Wallace Chirimuko, also known as Winky D. This song opens his new album Eureka Eureka. Since its release, authorities have issued a stern warning against playing certain of Winky D’s tracks. “I have been warned. I have been cautioned and they said if you sing that particular song there is going to be (a) disaster”, said the artist in an interview to the publication New Zimbabwe. The regime’s censorship of Winky D’s music is not unique. As noted by our Civic Media Observatory researcher, it is one example of authoritarianism coming from the country’s leading party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU PF). Emmerson Mnangagwa, the party’s leader, was re-elected as president in an election that ended on Saturday, August 26. Nelson Chamisa, of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, was Mnangagwa’s main opposition and has accused the government of “blatant and massive fraud”. The ruling party has been in power since the country's independence in 1980 and has never supported multi-party democracy. The ZANU PF, which has close cultural and political ties to the Chinese Communist Party, is a fervent believer in one-party control. Late Wednesday, hours after voting should have ended, vote sheets were still being printed. At the same time, police reports came out stating that over 40 workers of monitoring organizations such as the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network and the Election Resource Center were arrested. Zimbabwe's political scene is characterized by a tense power struggle, with the ruling party employing various tactics to maintain its grip on authority. Banning opposition rallies, suppressing political activists, and reports of brutal violence paint a grim picture of the pre-election environment. A surprising element in Zimbabwe's political landscape involves the government's manipulation of cultural expressions to promote its agenda. Musicians like Winky D are censored or coerced to endorse the ruling party. Music is seen as a tool for political influence, as the government seeks to appeal to the youth demographic. : The tweet implies that Winky D faces potential unpatriotic labeling if he continues singing anti-ZANU PF regime songs. President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Patriotic Act, criminalizing activities that undermine sovereignty and national interests. The item suggests that artists should sing patriotic songs, interpreted as support for the ruling party, rather than exposing corruption and oppression. “Criticizing the government and ZANU PF is anti-patriotic and must be punished” See the full analysis here. Those practices are justified under the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Act of 2022, popularly known as the Patriotic Act. This legislation employs overly broad provisions, including criminalizing attendance at meetings where sanctions and military operations are discussed or planned with the intention to undermine, disturb, topple, and overwhelm civil society. On December 23, 2022, the Act was initially published as a Bill in the Government Gazette. The Bill was approved by the National Assembly's lower house on May 31, 2023, and by the Senate on May 7, 2023. On July 14, 2023, the President signed it. As noted by our researcher: “Mnangagwa's regime is bent on closing down civic space and crushing any form of dissent. Punishments provided for by the Act include striking off one's citizenship, being denied the right to vote, and the death penalty”. By conducting analysis on civic discourse on X (formerly Twitter), we found posts pushing the idea that “Criticizing the government and ZANU PF is anti-patriotic and must be punished”, and “Following the ZANU PF party's ideology is the only way to be patriotic”. The same type of discourse was found across different ZANU PF supporters and party members, such as Mavis Gumbo. Gumbo, who once served as group public relations executive to the Premier Service Medical Society, defends that schools should hold ZANU PF Ideology courses.