The articulation of the national question and practices in terms of the ‘will to power’ is the fundamental problem facing Zimbabwe at this historical juncture. By the ‘will to power’, we mean the corruption of the politics leading to a cultural domination in the Zimbabwean society of a logic to grab, conquer and retain power by the ruling party, opposition political parties and civil society actors in order to change society. In this context, politics and changing society is reduced to the narrow road to state house. The ‘will to power’ has superseded the ‘will to transform’ which reflects the logic to sustainably transform the embedded extractive and undemocratic political and economic institutions. The path to transform, as history shows, from Europe, North America and some parts of South America, has always been slow and convoluted, but produced robust inclusive democratic and economic institutions. This paper examines the fundamental national questions of the day and the possible strategies and programming interventions for civil society emerging from the national questions post 23 August 2023 elections. It identifies the will to power as the major challenge of the day. It starts off by analysing why the will to power is problematic and how it is manifesting as a national crisis and concludes by proffering recommendations on civil society programming in the context of the shifting political economy of the state in the past decade.
