#ZimbabweanLivesMatter is trending around the world.
If you don’t normally follow developments in Zimbabwe and want to understand what is happening, and why so many Zimbabweans both at home and far beyond are so angry and desperate, here's a thread with some background... 1/
WATCH | South African YouTuber calls out the Zimbabwean President for using gifts to gain support from the public.
📹Citizen Concerned, YouTube
Link to the full video included below!
A lot of international journalists across the continent and beyond have been asking me whether the opposition in Zimbabwe would vote in support of Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 when it comes to Parliament.
For those who have been asking that question, and for others who had the same question in mind, this video is your answer. This is an opposition Member of Parliament speaking, praising President Mnangagwa and supporting his political agenda. Susan Matsunga was elected in 2023 to represent Budiriro North (Mufakose).
She does not belong to the group of opposition Members of Parliament that were imposed by Sengezo Tshabangu, the charlatan who worked with others to disrupt Parliament and effectively hand ZANUPF a two-thirds majority.
She belongs to the Nelson Chamisa group, the group that came through Bereka Mwana. When we criticised Bereka Mwana at the time, we were insulted. I remember explaining that Bereka Mwana was bringing in people who were bootlicking the leader of the party but did not necessarily have the substance and gravitas required to become Members of Parliament or oppose bad governance.
So the more you bootlick the leader, the better your chances of getting into Parliament. She is a clear example of that. She was as militant as they come in defending the leader when he was making his festival of mistakes, and here you have her now supporting President Mnangagwa and his agenda.
The problem that we have in Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe, is that people follow personalities. They do not follow ideas. When an empty vessel is a personality they like, they are happy to sink with that empty vessel. If someone comes with ideas but they do not like that person, they would rather discard the good ideas than support them.
I want to make this prediction, and you can hold me to it. If it does not come to fruition, I will be very happy.
ZANUPF is assured of power for at least the next 18 years. Until Zimbabweans change their attitude of supporting personalities over ideas, ZANUPF will remain in power for the next 18 years. We do not know what will happen after that, but for now, that is the trajectory.
Some of you will ask why I say 18 years. It is because we are in 2026, and if ZANUPF gets Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 passed, it means the current president will remain in power for the next four years until 2030. The president who comes after him will then have two seven-year terms, that is 14 years. Add the four years from Mnangagwa, and that gives you 18 years. We do not know what will happen after that. Even if Mnangagwa is removed, for example through a coup, it will still be ZANUPF that remains in power.
Until Zimbabweans understand that the enemy is not the person they do not like but who comes with good ideas, and that they must support ideas over personalities, ZANUPF will remain in power.
Until Zimbabweans understand that politics is not like football, where you die on the hill of the team that you support, ZANUPF will remain in power.
Until Zimbabweans understand the importance of working together, regardless of whether they like each other, as seen in the idea of a team of rivals associated with Abraham Lincoln, ZANUPF will remain in power.
Until those who tell the truth are listened to, ZANUPF will remain in power. As long as people applaud and ululate those who tell them what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear, ZANUPF will remain in power.
I want to leave you with this food for thought. In 2000, when Robert Mugabe and ZANUPF were pushing for a new constitution, the then opposition leader stood firm, campaigned across the country, and slept in people’s homes, in huts, mobilising against that constitution. It went to a referendum, and Robert Mugabe and ZANUPF lost. The opposition leader and his team managed to convince Zimbabweans, and they won.
That moment showed what leadership, conviction, and grassroots mobilisation can achieve when people are organised around an idea. Today, I do not know who you can point to as the main opposition leader capable of doing the same, and that in itself is something Zimbabweans must seriously reflect on.
🔸Speaking to @SABCNews yesterday, it was important to highlight that the main reason Zimbabweans are opposed to the proposed constitutional amendments is the insidious attempt to re-introduce the Mugabe clauses. We enacted a new Constitution in 2013 to ensure that presidential terms are expressly limited so that no president can stay in power indefinitely.
Fast forward to 2026, @ZANUPF_Official wants to take us back to a place where we have an imperial presidency who has vast power, is not voted for by the people and who has extensive control over the judiciary and other key levers of the State. This is not acceptable. #NoTo2030
We need new leaders.🇿🇼
A powerful story of Zimbabwe’s lithium boom and its human cost: Darlington Vivito was shot dead while illegally mining at the Chinese-owned Bikita mine. The rush for EV minerals leaves locals poor and desperate.
— By Tawanda Karombo and Kimberly Mutandiro
https://t.co/HKsRJwUrjP
@daddyhope I’m always baffled by how much Zimbabwe and Uganda have in common. Whoever wrote the Zimbabwean script surely had some extra pages to do the Ugandan one!
The like of Geza annoy me by how much they keep with the regime and enable it; until their personal interests are threatened.