Discontinuance discourses as an organisation's strategic communication

Abstract

The old political adage of cutting the previous leader’s ‘umbilical cord’ and project a new and bright future for the citizens is a strategic communication move employed by a number of politicians. The military engineered ‘coup’ of November 2017 in Zimbabwe ushered in a Mnangagwa government. The government projected a paradigm shift from Mugabe leadership self-representing itself as a ‘Second Republic’ chanting discontinuance discourses. Discontinuance discourse has been used to (re)construct the vision and business operand for Zanu PF and the Zimbabwean government. The case for a reconstruction of Mnangagwa government’s discontinuance discourse as a strategic communication tool is critical for the understanding of how political parties in Africa respond to socio-political and economic challenges they encounter as they project a new government. Mnangagwa’s speeches addressing and utilising discontinuance discourse as a strategy were purposively sampled and qualitatively analysed. Data analysis is couched within the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis theory. The chapter argues that efforts by the Mnangagwa government to use discontinuance discourse as a strategic communication tool cemented continuations of Mugabe era.