Midlands State University is a government owned university in Zimbabwe. The university has 9 faculties (Agriculture, Arts, Commerce, Education, Engineering, Law, Science, Social Sciences and Medicine) offering a wide variety of courses and many specialist programmes. The university is accredited through the National Council for Higher Education, under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education of Zimbabwe.The main campus is located in Gweru the third largest city in Zimbabwe. The university adopted a multi campus system therefore it has a satellite campus in the mining town of Zvishavane and other campuses located in the city of Gweru.
This study explores the nature of discourses emanating from SABC News Online's framing of xenophobia and migrants from 2019 to 2022. Xenophobia is a recurring occurrence in South Africa. The media remains the locus point for fueling and extinguishing internal conflicts. News agencies serve as primary sources of information on the prevailing xenophobic sentiments toward migrants. Framing theory guides the study. Purposively selected stories are gathered from SABC digital archives. This study demonstrates that xenophobia is framed as a shame for South Africa and Africa. Xenophobia has undoubtedly led to turmoil in the Rainbow Nation. SABC News Online's coverage of migrant-related issues is marginalized.
Disaster management policy often privileges quantifiable impacts, yet non-economic losses and damages (NELDs) profoundly shape human and community well-being. This study examines NELDs in Chimanimani District, Zimbabwe, following Cyclone Idai, across four domains: (1) loss of life and health; (2) loss of place, belonging, and cultural identity; (3) disruption of social networks and collective memory; and (4) psychological and spiritual well-being. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines longitudinal ethnographic inquiry, in-depth qualitative interviews, and document analysis, the study explores the intangible, socially embedded, and culturally mediated dimensions of loss and damage that extend beyond material destruction. The findings reveal that extreme climate events generate significant emotional burdens and reshape social, cultural, and spiritual systems through which communities sustain collective life. By placing NELDs at the centre of analysis, the study advances a justice-centred approach to loss and damage, emphasising the need to embed distributional, procedural, and recognition justice in research and practice. Methodologically, longitudinal ethnography captures slow, complex, and culturally embedded losses, generating the nuanced insights necessary to inform context-sensitive policies and disaster governance that honour human dignity, cultural integrity, and social cohesion.
This paper reflects on encounters with two contrasting Zimbabwean rural communities of Birchenough Bridge and Honde Valley. The study explored rural communities’ experiences with Indigenous environment-driven community development. The paper positions the natural environment as a metaphorical teacher and moral educator. Rural communities build knowledge from these environments. The findings were gathered through collaborative Indigenous methodology. The findings show how features like trees, rivers, soils, and herbs shape knowledge, resilience, and ethics. These can inform social work education. Lessons from the communities support decolonizing social work education. The paper argues for incorporating rural environmental experiences into Global South social work curricula. This includes letting students learn from rural environments through supervised and structured rural placements. In conclusion, Social Work training institutions should partner with rural communities. This can help ensure more contextually relevant social work education and practice.
Access to social and economic opportunities, such as housing and property rights, remains gendered in many developing countries such as South Africa due to institutionalised forms of exclusion. Focusing on rural female-headed households (FHHs), this descriptive qualitative study explored the interconnectedness between housing and rurality challenges in Tyutyu Village, Bhisho, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study applied purposive sampling to select 10 female household heads to whom semi-structured interviews were administered. Thematic analysis was used to make sense of the data. The study found that FHHs experienced several housing-related challenges, such as persistent unemployment and poverty, unsafe and insecure housing and neighbourhoods, and the absence of a father figure. Based on the findings, the study recommends integrated and inclusive gender-aware housing policy responses to cater for the housing needs of FHHs.
This article seeks to unpack the nuances of violence in Zimbabwe's artisanal gold mining sector and how it impacts the wider community. Drawing on data gathered from Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews, the findings indicate that violence in the artisanal gold mining sector is primarily sustained by economic exclusion, a weak regulatory environment, and corrupt security arrangements. To this end, the study utilizes the rational choice model to demonstrate how situational cost-benefit calculations shape the choices of militant actors seeking to profit aggressively from chaos, leading to an upsurge in violence in the gold sector. In this regard, the study argues that economic exclusion and weak regulation create profitable opportunities that are protected by corrupt local security arrangements, resulting in violence, lawlessness, and instability across Zimbabwe's Midlands gold mining sector. Given the multisectoral nature of this violence, the research concludes by recommending measures aimed at stabilizing the mining sector, thereby diffusing artisanal mining violence.
