How poverty is being weaponized to exploit Zimbabweans to defend their own oppression

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

The image of hundreds of women in their distinct white robes racing through the streets of Gweru to board waiting state-owned ZUPCO buses is a haunting spectacle that captures the profound tragedy of the Zimbabwean condition.

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It is a scene that has become all too familiar across the country as the ruling elite maneuvers to consolidate power through the Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill, commonly known as CAB3.

These citizens, many of whom are members of the Apostolic sects, rural villagers, and ZANU-PF supporters are not running toward a future of prosperity or democratic freedom.

They are running toward their own further subjugation.

Their destination is the ongoing Parliamentary public hearings on CAB3, where these groups will regurgitate a choreographed narrative while silencing or even brutally attacking those with divergent views.

The scenes at yesterday’s public hearings at the City Sports Centre in Harare were the most egregious examples of political intimidation.

Rowdy ruling party supporters violently blocked opposition figures, activists, and prominent legal experts from delivering their presentations on the Bill.

​Zimbabweans watched in horror as human rights lawyer Doug Coltart was manhandled and viciously assaulted by ZANU-PF members.

During the altercation, a party Central Committee member was seen snatching a phone from his hands.

When Coltart attempted to retrieve the device, the group attacked him, resulting in his spectacles being broken in the process.

This orchestrated political theater and barbarity is a calculated attempt to silence the legitimate voices of millions of Zimbabweans who recognize that these proposed amendments are a death knell for the little that remains of the nation’s democratic foundation.

The amendments contained within CAB3 are nothing short of a direct assault on the will of the people.

By seeking to extend the presidential term from five to seven years and removing the right of citizens to directly elect their leader, moving that power instead to a Parliament that does not represent the people through proportional representation, the state is effectively disenfranchising the very people it claims to serve.

This is a brazen attempt to bypass the constitutional safeguards that were put in place to prevent the rise of lifelong autocracy.

The Constitution explicitly prohibits a sitting president from benefiting from a term extension unless a national referendum is held, yet the current administration seeks to bulldoze through these changes using bussed-in crowds as a facade of popular support.

However, the most tragic aspect of these shameful spectacles is that the impoverished are the ones weaponized to silence and attack their own fellow Zimbabweans.

The sons and daughters of the ruling elite are never found at these public hearings or political rallies, as they are preoccupied with shopping and holidaying abroad.

Instead, the front lines are occupied by the unemployed youth, the mother who cannot afford medical care for her child, and the man struggling to provide a meal for his family.

These are the very people manipulated and exploited to suppress those seeking to liberate them from the grip of the oppressor.

We must look deeper into why anyone would defend a process that is so clearly designed to harm their own long-term interests.

The reality is that they have become victims of a system that has perfected the weaponization of poverty.

In a country where the economy has been decimated and the majority of the population lives in a state of perpetual desperation, the ruling party has turned basic survival into a tool of political control.

For many of those women in Gweru, the hooligans in Harare, and others like them nationwide, the choice to board that bus and savagely attack voices of divergence is not political.

It is a choice dictated by the stomach.

When you have nothing, the promise of a small food parcel, a bit of protection for a street vending site, or even just a free meal is enough to compel participation in a charade.

This is the politics of the stomach at its most cruel, where the hungry are forced to applaud the very people who took the food off their tables.

​The atmosphere of these public hearings is further poisoned by the presence of feared party officials, as seen in Kwekwe.

These officials do not attend to listen or to contribute to a genuine democratic dialogue.

They are there as overseers, acting as silent intimidators to ensure that the bussed-in supporters play their part and stick to the script.

Their mere presence serves as a reminder that the eyes of the state are always watching.

It is a form of psychological surveillance that ensures compliance through the unspoken threat of “play ball or else.”

This is not a consultative process.

It is a choreographed performance where the actors are coerced into participating in their own disenfranchisement under the watchful eyes of their captors.

This phenomenon of the oppressed assisting their own oppressors is not unique to Zimbabwe.

History provides chilling precedents of how power can be used to turn a population against its own interests.

During the struggle for independence in Kenya, the British colonial administration created the Home Guards, recruited from the same communities that were fighting for liberation.

These individuals were used to police and suppress their own brothers and sisters in exchange for land and status.

They became the instruments of a system that sought to keep their nation in chains.

Similarly, in Vichy France during the Second World War, many citizens and officials actively collaborated with Nazi occupiers, believing that by aiding the oppressor they could secure a better position for themselves in a new world order.

In both cases, the result was the same.

The collaborators became complicit in the destruction of their own people’s freedom.

Perhaps the most extreme example of this tragic dynamic is found in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, where the SS utilized prisoners known as Kapos to supervise and control other inmates.

These individuals were given slightly better food or living conditions in exchange for carrying out the brutal instructions of their captors.

It is a stark illustration of how a system of total control can strip away a person’s dignity until the only thing that remains is the primal urge to survive at any cost.

Even in colonial India, the British managed to maintain their grip on a vast population by using Indian soldiers, the Sepoys, to enforce imperial rule and suppress domestic uprisings.

These soldiers were paid to be the boots on the necks of their own kin, demonstrating how economic dependency can be used to buy the loyalty of the oppressed.

​In Zimbabwe today, the tactics have evolved, but the underlying logic remains the same.

By controlling the resources and the means of survival, the state has created a culture of patronage that forces the vulnerable to become foot soldiers for their own oppression.

The “Mapositori” and other bussed-in supporters are being used to create a false narrative of consensus, allowing the government to claim that the people want these constitutional changes.

They are used to drown out the voices of legal experts, human rights defenders, and even veterans of the liberation struggle who have warned that CAB3 will lead the country toward a deeper crisis.

These amendments also threaten to weaken the military by changing its mandate from defending the Constitution to merely upholding it, a subtle but dangerous shift that removes a critical layer of accountability.

​Furthermore, the Bill proposes to allow traditional leaders to engage in active politics, a move that will further compromise the neutrality of community leaders and turn them into partisan agents of the ruling party.

The scrapping of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission and the changing of how judges are appointed are further steps toward the total capture of the state apparatus.

By moving the voters roll to the Registrar-General’s office, the independence of the electoral process is further eroded.

Each of these changes is a brick in the wall of a new authoritarianism, and yet the state continues to use the poorest members of society to provide the mortar.

​It is a tragedy of immense proportions when the very people who have the most to lose from a shrinking democratic space are the ones being bussed in to cheer for its demise.

The resistance to CAB3 is not just a political battle.

It is a fight for the soul of the nation.

It is a struggle to ensure that the “one man, one vote” principle remains the foundation of Zimbabwean governance and that the president is held accountable to the citizens rather than a hand-picked Parliament.

Those who are fighting against these amendments are fighting for a better Zimbabwe for everyone, including those women who were seen running for the buses in Gweru.

The current trajectory is one that leads toward a darker future where power is concentrated in the hands of a few and the voices of the many are permanently silenced.

This cycle will only break when citizens refuse to trade their constitutional rights for a meal, recognizing that the very hands feeding them are the ones impoverishing them.

As long as survival is a daily struggle, the state will always find people ready to be used as tools of their own suffering, making collective resistance and economic independence the only viable path to freedom.

The true test of a nation’s character is how it treats its most vulnerable, and right now, the Zimbabwean state is failing that test by using the desperation of its citizens to dismantle the very laws meant to protect them.

The images of bussed-in supporters are not a sign of political strength, but a sign of a moral vacuum at the heart of the ruling elite.

It is time for the nation to wake up to the reality that a bus ride and a meal are a poor trade for the future of a country.

• 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