Dear #Zimbabweans,
Chokwadi chemahara! Why are we still entertaining @edmnangagwa and his criminal gangs? How much more BS must we tolerate before we say enough is enough? Ngavaende sekuru ava nyika yaparara mhani! 💔💔💔
It’s time to act, family. The destruction must stop.
Fellow Zimbabweans, comrades in Arms, and men and women of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces,I have read with grave attention the document that has emerged from the Barracks titled "OPERATION CODE NAMED: PEOPLE'S ARMY". The message is clear, direct, and unmistakable.
The Barracks have spoken. As a retired senior officer who served this nation with honour for decades, I salute the courage of the serving senior officers, officers, and NCOs who have put their names, careers, and lives on the line to issue this situation report. They have done what true soldiers must do when the Constitution is being mutilated, when elders are being exploited, and when the institutions we built with our blood are being turned into instruments of personal enrichment and tribal patronage.The document exposes what many of us have watched with growing alarm:
The incapacitation of the C-in-C and the capture of state institutions by external forces.
The blatant bribery of senior officers with farms, cash, cows, and promises.
The erosion of professionalism in the Army, Air Force, and other arms.The dangerous privatisation of state companies and the inflation of tenders.
The recruitment of villagers and the sidelining of merit in favour of loyalty to one man and one faction.
These are not rumours. These are the observations of men and women still in uniform who took an oath to defend the people and the Constitution, not to protect individuals or their godfathers.Let me be clear: The Barracks have spoken.
They have drawn a line. They have said they will not be used to mutilate the people's Constitution. They will not salute self-promoted generals who have abandoned the customs and traditions of the ZDF. They stand with the people of Zimbabwe.
To the serving members of the ZDF: Remain disciplined, remain professional, but above all, remain loyal to the Constitution and the people, not to individuals who have lost their way. History is watching. The people are watching. To the political leadership: The game of divide-and-rule, bribery, and extension of power at the expense of the nation must stop.
The soldiers have told you plainly they are tired of pathetic conditions of service while billions are being looted. They will not do your dirty work.Aluta Continua.The voice of the Barracks is the voice of the institution.
Let those who have ears hear.
Retired Lieutenant General Winston Sigauke Mapuranga.
I reject the derogatory term “amakwerekwere” completely. It is a slur used to insult fellow black Africans simply for being from another country. If loving and respecting other black Africans makes me a “kwerekwere”, then I am proudly one and I will never apologise for that.
I am against illegal immigration and have said so clearly and consistently. South Africa has every right to secure its borders and enforce its laws. But I will not support xenophobic hatred or the dehumanisation of innocent people who are here legally simply because they are black Africans from other countries.
Discrimination based on nationality or skin colour is wrong. We must deal firmly with illegality not turn fellow Africans into enemies. South Africa’s problems will not be solved by attacking people who look like us.
Let’s focus on the real issues: rule of law, border control, and building a better country for all South Africans without descending into tribalism or xenophobia.
Enough with the slurs.
If parliament can't even be truthful on the submitted emails you think it will have the probity to select a president? There has to be personal & irreversible individual costs so that no one in future will ever contemplate playing with people's livelihoods!
This week could become one of the most consequential moments in Zimbabwe’s post-independence history. Forty-six years after independence, Parliament is set to debate Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3, a proposal that would fundamentally reshape Zimbabwe’s political system and alter the way power is exercised and transferred.
Among its most controversial provisions is the proposal to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term of office beyond 2028 to 2030, granting him an additional two years as president beyond the ten-year limit currently prescribed by the Constitution. The Constitution, as it stands, limits a president to two terms of five years each, a maximum of ten years in office.
This Bill will put an end to Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga's hopes of ever becoming President of Zimbabwe if it becomes law because his political pathway will have been closed.
The Bill also seeks to increase the presidential term from five years to seven years. Even more significantly, it proposes replacing the direct election of the president by the people with an indirect system in which the president would be elected by Parliament. If enacted, Zimbabweans would no longer cast ballots directly for their head of state. Instead, Members of Parliament would now choose the president.
The proposed amendments go further than that. They will expand the number of individuals entering Parliament through presidential appointment rather than direct election, increasing presidential influence over key institutions of the state. This would further concentrate power in the executive and reduce democratic accountability.
If this Bill becomes law in its current form, the consequences could extend far beyond President Mnangagwa himself. With the ruling ZANUPF party holding a dominant parliamentary majority and the opposition fragmented and weakened, the likelihood of meaningful resistance inside Parliament appears limited and academic, short of a miracle.
The mathematics of the proposal are straightforward, if the bill passes this year, ZANUPF will be assured of the presidency for the next 18 years without fear of any meaningful opposition.
If President Mnangagwa receives the additional two years, his tenure would extend to 2030. Under the proposed constitutional framework, a successor chosen in 2030 would serve a seven-year term until 2037. If re-elected for a second seven-year term by parliament, that president would remain in office until 2044.
In practical terms, this means that from 2028 onwards, Zimbabwe will go for sixteen years without a direct presidential election. The presidency would effectively be determined by Parliament rather than by the electorate. Given the current political realities, this would significantly strengthen ZANUPF’s ability to retain control of the presidency for decades to come and also control the fiscus, which is the feeding trough.
This concern is heightened by the effects of constituency delimitation carried out before the 2023 elections. The distribution of constituencies now disproportionately benefits ZANUPF strongholds while reducing the electoral weight of opposition areas.
The reality is that ZANUPF currently enjoys a substantial parliamentary advantage. If Parliament becomes the body that elects the president, that advantage becomes even more politically significant.
The debate therefore goes beyond Emmerson Mnangagwa. It is about the future architecture of the Zimbabwean state. It is about whether power should continue to derive directly from the vote of ordinary citizens or whether it should be transferred to a parliamentary process dominated by political parties.
For many Zimbabweans, this is not simply another constitutional amendment. It is a defining question about the future of democracy, accountability, and political competition in the country.
Those who believe the Bill will be stopped point to divisions within ZANUPF itself, particularly opposition from elements aligned with Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga. Yet even if internal resistance succeeds in blocking the proposal, the contest remains largely an internal ZANUPF struggle rather than a challenge emerging from a strong opposition movement. The political debate is taking place almost entirely within the ruling establishment.
That is why this week matters. The decisions taken in Parliament will shape Zimbabwe’s political landscape not merely for the next election cycle, but for a generation.
History often turns on moments that seem ordinary while they are unfolding. This may be one of those moments. If the amendments pass, Zimbabwe will enter a fundamentally different constitutional era. If they fail, it will represent one of the most significant setbacks to an attempt to restructure the country’s political system since the adoption of the 2013 Constitution.
Whatever one’s political views, this is a week that deserves the attention of every Zimbabwean. The choices made now may determine how political power is acquired, exercised, and transferred for many years to come.
In a week when Zimbabwe’s central hospitals do not have the most basic drugs, when roads are riddled with potholes, when unemployment remains estimated at well over 90% in the informal economy, when corruption and looting are rife, when many households go for days without running water, and when a dysfunctional government appears to be at war with itself, Parliament will be debating whether this record deserves an extension of power.
Instead of debating how to fix the healthcare system, create jobs, restore public services, tackle corruption, or provide clean water, legislators will be debating whether the political leadership responsible for this state of affairs should be given more time in office through Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3.
The question before Parliament is simple. Does this record justify extending presidential tenure and changing the rules of the political game, or should they at least attempt to uphold the principle that Zimbabwe is a democracy and reject the Bill?
Any serious student of Zimbabwean politics understands the reality. With the opposition weakened and largely ineffective, the prospects of stopping the Bill through conventional parliamentary means appear slim. Short of a major political rupture within the ruling establishment, or some form of intervention from forces opposed to the extension project, many Zimbabweans are now hoping against hope.
This week may well determine whether Zimbabwe remains a country where citizens have a realistic opportunity to change their leadership through the ballot box, or whether the door closes even further on that possibility.
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is that there is no conventional opposition that is visibly strong enough to stop this Bill. The traditional opposition has been weakened to such an extent that many Zimbabweans who have never been members of ZANUPF now find themselves looking towards Vice President Constantino Chiwenga as the only figure within the system who might be capable of mounting any meaningful resistance.
Yet even if he were to prevail in this internal struggle, it would not represent a fundamental change of direction. It would still be ZANUPF. It would still be the same political system, the same party, and largely the same state architecture, only with a different face at the top.
That is the real tragedy of Zimbabwean politics in 2026. The destruction of a credible and effective opposition has left many citizens with no alternative centre of political power to rally behind. As a result, hopes that would ordinarily be invested in an opposition movement are now being placed in a faction of ZANUPF itself.
Zimbabweans are effectively watching an internal contest within the ruling party and hoping that one faction is strong enough to stop Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 from becoming law. That is how narrow the political space has become.
It is heads, you get ZANUPF. Tails, you still get ZANUPF.
It is also important to note that the Members of Parliament who will be debating this Bill have a direct personal incentive to support it. Under the proposed changes, they too stand to benefit from a two-year extension of their own terms in office. In other words, they are not being asked to make a decision that affects only the President. They are being asked to vote on a measure that could also prolong their own stay in Parliament.
This creates an obvious conflict of interest. The very individuals tasked with deciding whether the extension is in the national interest are themselves among its beneficiaries. For many Zimbabweans, this raises a fundamental question about whether Parliament can impartially adjudicate a matter from which its members stand to gain politically and financially.
Put simply, the Bill does not merely extend the tenure of the President. It also extends the tenure of many of the politicians who will be voting on it. That sweetener cannot be ignored when analysing the politics surrounding Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3.
That is why it is important to understand why President Mnangagwa and his allies, are opposed to subject the bill to a national referendum.
For many citizens, the hope that this Bill can be stopped increasingly resembles the words spoken by Emperor Haile Selassie and later immortalised by Bob Marley, a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained.
Whether that pessimism proves justified remains to be seen, but the fact that millions of Zimbabweans are now pinning their hopes on a battle within ZANUPF rather than on a democratic alternative tells its own story about the state of the nation.
#PauseForThought
Every year, sometimes twice a year, I look forward to going home to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is home. It is where my umbilical cord was buried. It is where my roots are. It is where, God willing, I hope to spend my twilight years.
In a few years' time, when I finally decide to return for good, I will pack my belongings, my work tools, my Partial Discharge detectors, Hipot testers, Tan Delta test sets, transformer testing equipment and all the other instruments that have been part of my working life, load them into a container and head home to be among my people.
But every time I visit, there is one thought that I can never completely silence.
What would happen if something went terribly wrong? When I'm driving through places like Zai Rimwe, Mutekedza or Mupatsi on my way to rural Njanja, I sometimes catch myself thinking about the unthinkable.
What if there was an accident out here?
Would someone be able to call an ambulance?
Would an ambulance come?
If the situation was serious, would there be access to an air ambulance?
If people were trapped in a vehicle, would the fire brigade arrive in time?
Where would the injured be taken?
Would the nearest hospital have the equipment, medicines and resources needed to save a life?
These are not political questions.
These are human questions.
They affect the wealthy businessman in a luxury vehicle just as much as they affect the pensioner travelling on a rural bus.
A million dollars in the boot of a Rolls-Royce means nothing when a person is trapped under twisted metal and every minute counts.
In those moments, status disappears.
Politics disappears.
Connections disappear.
All that matters is whether help is coming.
Whether the ambulance arrives.
Whether the rescue team arrives.
Whether the hospital can do what it was built to do.
Living in the UK has taught me many things. Life here is far from perfect, but one thing that gives people peace of mind is knowing that if tragedy strikes, a system exists. Ambulances, fire services, air ambulances and hospitals may not be flawless, but they are there. People know that when they dial for help, help is on its way.
That sense of security is priceless.
Healthcare and emergency services are not luxuries.
They are not political projects.
They are among the most important investments any nation can make because every single one of us is mortal.
No title, no office, no amount of wealth, no security detail and no political influence can prevent an accident, a stroke, a heart attack or a medical emergency.
Life can change in a second.
That is why I believe we should all be talking more about hospitals, ambulances, rescue services and emergency preparedness.
Not because we expect disaster.
But because we all hope to survive it if it comes.
This is not criticism.
It is concern.
It is the concern of a son of the soil who loves his country and wants the same peace of mind for Zimbabweans that people in many other countries take for granted.
Some things are worth putting ahead of everything else.
Saving lives is one of them.
END.
“Someone sat down and decided to systematically dismantle the very institutions of our society. They were never attacking one political party, but every pillar of constitutional democracy — the courts, the media, civil society, parliament, and every progressive voice.”
— Gift Ostallos Siziba
Big retailers are the real winners from SA’s anti-migrant protests, says lawyer Brian Kagoro. Demos have closed down foreign-owned small spaza shops in townships amid claims they’re taking local jobs. But Kagoro predicts large chains, like Shoprite, will pick up the market share and profit. He also points out many Zimbabweans cross the border to buy South African goods but reckons that could be slashed if SA businesses set up in Zimbabwe and offer services there instead. Makes sense?
#Kagoro #TownshipEconomy #Spaza #Migrants #Zimbabwe #InformalTrading #SmallBusiness #SouthAfrica #Zimbabweans