By Takura Zhangazha*
On 7 July 2026, Zimbabwe's constitution has now officially been amended after president Mnangagwa signed the amendments into law. It was as generally expected.
Especially after the ruling Zanu Pf and its functionaries publicly insisted on it.
And their minister of Justice, Ziyambi Ziyambi, aggressively and speedily pushed it through the House of Assembly and the Senate and back in Parliament.
The elitist argument was that not only did Parliament have a right to do so but that it had undertaken a legal public consultation process that gave these changes 'legitimacy'.
A legitimacy in which it was argued there is no need for a national referendum (thanks to outsourced political consultants closely linked to national intelligence), the weak/co-opted state of the opposition political parties and a diminishing labour, social/civil society movement(s).
Not forgetting internal Zanu Pf factionalism in which 'original' war veterans of the liberation struggle have been fighting a losing factional war with emergent rich individuals who are representing the 'nationalists' in historical party ethos. Or as they are also referred to as 'zvigananda'.
Now that these amendments have been passed into law there will be many public and constitutional court legal arguments as to their veracity or legitimacy.
But they are now a technical political reality until such a time they are reversed in one way or the other. A development which is least likely to happen in the political short term.
I however am not a legal mind let alone a lawyer.
I can only read between the political and cultural end-effects of these constitutional changes.
The first and most obvious one being that the somewhat ritualistic custom of voting for our leaders is gone for at least the next four (4) years until 2030. Be it for the president, parliament or local councils.
The president, MP, councillor that you have, no matter their performance legitimacy, they (he/she/woman/youth) is the one you are stuck with for the next four years.
Your political or other opinion does not matter as a Zimbabwean. Unless they cross paths with the party that got them elected in 2023 which is the only organisation that has recourse to recalling them from office and causing by-elections if they were directly elected.
Or unless they resign and the same said political parties in parliament select from their proportional representation or other lists somewhere to replace them.
The second end-effect of these changes as related to the first means that Zimbabwe has entered a new political cultural phase of 'crass, corrupt elitism'.
One in which we have been falsely led into creating a political establishment where politics dines with private capital for mutual gain at the expense of the majority poor!
And I will not mince my words on this particular point. The now legally expected long duree rule of our current president, MPs and councillors can only potentially breed a mafia-like culture in our national political economy.
All in the name of the 'ease of doing business' 'vene-vayo' and an assumption that some sort of tried but historically failed 'trickle down economics' based on political patronage will keep the masses at bay.
The third end-effect of these changes is the potential decimation of organic, ideologically progressive political opposition parties in Zimbabwe.
Or to put it simply, the creation of a de-facto one party state with a sprinkling of wannabe or sponsored token opposition party members. Ones who will be esconced in parliament and local government pretending to be defending 'democratic space'.
While at the same time being direct beneficiaries of the undemocratic process that has brought us to where we are.
And being unable to effectively or meaningfully challenge the ruling Zanu Pf party status quo and its factionalism.
In conclusion, we now have a legal reality but also political/cultural attempt at a fundamental elitist and undemocratic change to what was already a problematic political culture in Zimbabwe.
Whereas a lot of Zimbabweans were generally used to the habit of elections, popular political contestations, they are now being told that they no longer have that direct right. Only their current MPs do until after 2030 or seven (7) years lapse.
This removes the state from the people and hands it in the long term to an elitist political establishment. One in which Zanu Pf factionalism shall predictably flare up and opposition complicity remain permanent. And the cycle will likely repeat itself as it did in 2017 when Mugabe was ousted. Even without the military.
For some of us, as we remember the late national hero Maurice Nyagumbo and how he titled his memoirs, "Some of Us Must Remain to Be With the People".
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
