Resource Nationalism in Zimbabwe: Alternative Visions and Policy Realities

A new wave of resource nationalism washed through southern Africa in the 2000s, driven by rising popular demand for greater local participation in the mining sector value chain, more equitable redistribution of benefits from extractives and strengthened transparency and accountability on the part of local states and foreign-owned mining companies. In the context of heightened political contestation and improved commodity prices, a succession of policy innovations emerged in response to the interventions of diverse mining sector stakeholders and civil society activists. The results have often been disappointing, with the initial promise of an ‘alternative’ form of minerals-fuelled development promoted by non-state beneficiaries seemingly unrealised. To understand the challenges of current policy-making around resource nationalism we consider the case of Zimbabwe, a country which has been host to vibrant mining reform debates and experiments in new policy-making in the 2000s, but has experienced little transformation in resource governance practices. This article assesses the critical factors which have contributed to the generation and subsequent derailing of new approaches to resource nationalism during a period of exceptional growth in the country’s mining sector.