Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The ink had barely dried on the gazetted Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill when the first batons were raised and the first bones were broken.
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Since Minister of Legal Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi gazetted the document on 16 February 2026, the Zimbabwean government has embarked on a campaign of savage intolerance that makes a mockery of the very laws it claims to be refining.
A constitution is supposed to be a sacred social contract between a people and their state, yet this current administration is treating it like a personal diary to be rewritten at the whim of the powerful.
By meeting intellectual dissent with physical barbarity, the state has not only exposed its own insecurities but has effectively decapitated the legitimacy of the entire amendment process before the first public consultation has even begun.
The law is clear that there must be a 90-day window for parliamentary public consultations to allow the views of Zimbabweans to be heard and recorded.
This period is not a mere bureaucratic formality; it is the oxygen of a functioning democracy.
It is intended to ensure transparency, credibility, and most importantly, the informed participation of the citizenry.
For this process to have any shred of authenticity, the people must be permitted their fundamental rights to gather, debate, and dissect the proposed changes without the shadow of a secret agent or the sting of a sjambok.
However, the regime appears terrified of an educated populace.
By crashing these discussions and silencing the people, the state has rendered the upcoming parliamentary outreach a hollow exercise in political theater.
Whatever “views” are eventually captured in the official reports will never be taken seriously as a genuine reflection of the national will.
The brutality witnessed over the past few weeks has been nothing short of medieval.
The weekend ambush of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) offices, where a meeting was being held to discuss these very amendments, remains a dark stain on the nation.
Seeing Professor Lovemore Madhuku and several other NCA leaders viciously attacked for the “crime” of civic engagement tells the world everything it needs to know about the current state of Zimbabwean democracy.
This follows a pattern of escalating violence, including the alleged abduction and torture of NCA members who were snatched after a meeting last week and dumped in Highlands.
When the state resorts to the “Twin Cab” culture of abductions to silence constitutional lawyers and activists, it is no longer governing; it is occupying.
The Constitution Defence Forum (CDF) has fared no better.
The state’s decision to forcefully bar the official launch of the CDF this past weekend was a blatant admission that the government cannot win the battle of ideas.
If the proposed seven-year term extension and the shift to a parliamentary-selected presidency were actually popular, the state would not need to mark the homes of activists with red “X” signs or deploy riot police to shut down press conferences.
The silencing of various legal minds was not merely an administrative hiccup but a calculated blockade of intellectual light.
In Harare, a planned public dialogue involving Lovemore Madhuku, Fadzayi Mahere, and Douglas Mwonzora was banned by the authorities.
This was followed by the prohibition of a similar meeting in Bulawayo that was scheduled to feature David Coltart and Jabulani Sibanda.
Both events were blocked at the last minute as they were intended to facilitate public discussion on the proposed constitutional amendments.
Even though organizers followed every legal requirement, the police cited vague and unsubstantiated security threats to justify the shutdown at the eleventh hour.
These were not just cancelled events but targeted operations to prevent some of the nation’s most articulate legal minds from explaining to ordinary Zimbabweans exactly how their fundamental rights are being auctioned away by a regime terrified of its own people.
This systematic muzzling of the nation’s brightest legal and political minds is a clear sign that the government is desperate to hide the truth about its self-serving intentions.
At the heart of this crisis is a blatant and illegal plan to bypass the requirements of a national referendum.
The 2013 Constitution was specifically designed to prevent the very thing we are seeing now—a sitting president benefiting from a term extension while still in office.
Section 328(7) is unambiguous; any change to a term limit cannot benefit the incumbent.
Yet, the administration is determined to ignore this safeguard, effectively staging a slow-motion constitutional coup.
It is not surprising that a regime which rose to power through the barrel of a gun in November 2017 would seek to maintain that power through the abuse of state institutions and the violation of the law.
If the people of Zimbabwe genuinely wanted their president to remain in office until 2030, there would be no need to beat them into submission.
The very presence of state violence is the loudest possible evidence that these plans were never born from the people but from a narrow clique intent on self-preservation.
The upcoming parliamentary outreach programs are already doomed to failure.
Based on the barbarity exhibited thus far, it is almost certain that these meetings will be disrupted by paid thugs while intimidation becomes the order of the day.
Ordinary Zimbabweans, having seen what happened to Professor Madhuku and the members of the CDF, will understandably fear attending these sessions.
When a grandmother in a rural village sees the local leadership threatening those who “poison the people” against the amendments, she will stay home or stay silent.
In such a climate of fear, the resulting data from these consultations will be worthless.
The entire process is rigged, just as the regime has survived through electoral fraud and the partisan abuse of the judiciary and the security forces.
Perhaps the most bizarre element of this tragedy is the government’s apparent obsession with its international image.
For an administration that spends millions on global public relations and re-engagement efforts, it is ironically the primary architect of its own pariah status.
There is no need for the state to manufacture ghosts and blame “detractors, sell-outs, or unpatriotic people” when the headlines of state-sponsored brutality are flashing across the world’s news screens.
The international community does not need a briefing from the opposition, activists, or journalists to see the bruises on the victims or the locked doors of the barred meetings.
The regime itself is the one tarnishing its own standing, and it should look in the mirror before pointing fingers at those who simply want the constitution to be respected.
A president who continues in office beyond 2028 through these tainted amendments will never enjoy the legitimacy of a true leader.
His additional tenure will be viewed, both at home and abroad, as the fruit of a poisonous tree.
If the government truly believed in the “vision” it is trying to sell, it would permit Zimbabweans to discuss and debate these proposals freely and openly.
The fact that it chooses the baton over the ballot and fear over freedom proves that it knows its plans cannot withstand the light of day.
The “crushing” of dissent is not a show of strength but a scream of weakness from a system that has lost the moral authority to lead.
The constitutional amendment process in Zimbabwe is not just flawed; it is deceased.
It was killed in the offices of the NCA and buried in the “safe houses” where activists are tortured.
Until the government stops the barbaric crackdown and allows for a genuine, peaceful, and transparent national dialogue, Amendment No. 3 will remain nothing more than a document of coercion.
Zimbabweans deserve better than a future built on the wreckage of their own rights.
They deserve a social contract that is signed with a pen, not enforced with a fist.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
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