HARARE – A group of retired military generals and former senior civil servants has disclosed that they held two meetings with President Emmerson Mnangagwa in May to urge him to abandon efforts linked to Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 (CAB3), warning that Zimbabwe’s Constitution “will not be sold to the highest bidder.”
In a statement issued on 2 June 2026, the group said they sought direct engagement with the President after raising concerns over what they described as the constitutional implications of the proposed amendment.
According to the statement, two formal meetings were held with President Mnangagwa on 18 May and 19 May 2026, but the discussions failed to produce any agreement.
“When we placed before the President our caution regards the danger of this constitutional amendment among them, the alienation of the citizenry from the constitutional order and eventual alienation of our membership in ZANU PF, his response was, in his own words, ‘whoever wins, wins’,” the group said.
The retired officials said the President’s response reflected the position of the highest levels of executive authority.
“That response speaks for itself. It lays bare the contempt with which the constitutional concerns of citizens and members of our party are regarded at the highest level of executive authority,” they added.
The group also renewed its opposition to Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3, arguing that the process surrounding the bill had been manipulated and lacked genuine public consent.
They alleged that citizens had been pressured into signing petitions supporting the amendment and claimed that state media coverage had systematically excluded opposing views.
“We stated without equivocation that the said process was choreographed, imposed upon the people, and its outcomes do not in any manner reflect the genuine will of the people of Zimbabwe,” the statement reads.
The former officials said they had previously petitioned Parliament to subject the proposed amendment to a national referendum, arguing that only Zimbabwean voters have the authority to alter the country’s constitutional framework.
“We called upon Parliament to subject CAB3 to a national referendum, as it is constituted by the representatives of the people themselves, to this day that call remains unanswered,” they said.
In a strongly worded warning, the group declared that constitutional principles could not be traded for political expediency.
“The Constitution of Zimbabwe is not for sale and will not be sold to the highest bidder,” they said, calling on citizens to defend the country’s constitutional order.
The statement was issued under the banner of “Generals and Former Senior Civil Servants of the Republic of Zimbabwe”, signalling growing dissent within sections of the country’s former security and administrative establishment over proposals widely viewed as being linked to extending President Mnangagwa’s political tenure beyond the limits set by the 2013 Constitution.
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