Protest mobilization, and demobilization: A Case Study of Civil Society Organisations in Zimbabwe

This study aims to examine civil society organisations’ protest mobilisation strategies and government and state authorities’ demobilisation tactics. The study uses Christian Davenport’s theorisation of killing social movements from the outside or the inside to understand state authorities’ demobilisation tactics, while James Scott’s concept of the ‘weapons of the weak’ is used to illustrate how civil society organisations exercise power and counter demobilisation tactics. The study draws from qualitative methods; data were collected from twenty in-depth interviews with activists from politics and governance civil society organisations in Zimbabwe. Participants were located through a combination of purposive and snowball sampling methods. Data were analysed thematically to identify patterns in how activists adapt to repression, and how the government and state authorities demobilise them. The key findings of the study reveal that activists cope with repression by organising protests covertly, utilising social media, relocating from their usual places of residence, lobbying the government, engaging with the courts and leveraging solidarity. The study highlights that government and state authorities’ demobilisation tactics inform these organisations’ mobilisation tactics and vice versa. Based on these findings, the study recommends that civil society organisations continue to diversify their protest and engagement strategies by combining covert mobilisation, social media and institutional lobbying to navigate repression effectively.