In southern and eastern Africa, incumbency is trumping, so to speak, human rights. The unspoken rule is that the former liberation movement leaders will support each other’s rigged elections and violent repressions, or at least acquiesce in silence.

There are few places that have suffered as much as Zimbabwe this century. Hyperinflation peaked in November 2008 at an estimated 89.7 sextillion percent year-on-year (that is 89 followed by 21 zeros). In layman’s terms, this means that prices doubled every day, the country awash with money, the printing of which enabled the creation of small fortunes by the privileged few with access to foreign exchange bought with the local currency.

For the unlucky majority, savings simply evaporated, mass shortages ensued and those who could, fled to South Africa and farther afield, their only connection with their homeland being monthly remittances, today a staple of Zimbabwean economic life. Inflows from the six million or so Zimbabweans in South Africa and elsewhere exceeded US$2.5 billion in 2025, some 16% of foreign exchange receipts.

Instead of productive participation in an economy once known for its ingenuity, service culture, and frugality, Zimbabwe became known for the excesses of its elite, living life on the hog and the expense of the poor. And the number of those poverty-stricken increased as the economy declined from a per capita income of $1 789 in 1998 to $803 ten years later. Today, it is just $1 417, well below the sub-Saharan African average of $1590.

Those visitors to Harare who say the economy is really booming are obviously unfamiliar with the daily struggle of the vast majority of those who remain, eking out a living on the margins in the informal economy, out of sight and out of mind. After independence in 1980, Zimbabweans exchanged the unbridled racism of the Smith years with the merciless elitism of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) government, and adopted power and bigotry without the productive investment, frugality, and efficiency of the colonialists.

Now, while the world sleeps, authoritarianism is about to get worse.

Amendment

On Monday, 16 February, following a cabinet meeting chaired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the government announced the publication of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill (No 3) 2026. This announcement commenced a 90-day public consultation period before it goes to parliament.

The Bill proposes that the president will no longer be directly elected, but will instead be chosen by members of parliament, where, due to a long history of gerrymandering and election rigging, the ruling party is almost certainly assured a majority. There are also changes to the checks and balances on executive power.

Among the Bill’s 21 proposals, the presidential term of office is to be extended from five to seven years, meaning that the next election will be pushed out to 2030. It gives the president the power to appoint 10 more senators, bringing the number to 90, removes the public interview process for judicial appointments, and moves the voters’ roll from the (nominally) independent electoral commission closer to the heart of government in the Registrar-General’s office.

Those who have had the temerity to air our criticisms of the constitutional power grab have been arrested, harassed, and had their freedom of movement and expression limited by the state.

Civic society leaders, students, war veterans, lawyers, and workers have been under attack. Professor Lovemore Madhuku, a prominent opponent of the Bill, was heavily assaulted by thugs in his office in the presence of the police.

The Constitution Defenders Forum, a prominent civic society organisation, which has been campaigning against the amendments, has had its leaders arrested and detained for holding private meetings to discuss the constitutional bill. Its offices have been barricaded, and its leaders are under constant surveillance.

Leaders of the Zimbabwe National Students Union have been arrested and detained, and offices have been raided.

Only last week, the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Jessie Majome, was unceremoniously removed from her post after she had dared to hold a press conference in which she attacked the Bill.

On the 30 and 31 March 2026, Parliament held public consultative meetings around the Bill. In broad daylight, ZANU-PF flooded these meetings and ensured that no alternative voices spoke against the proposed Bill.

The few who dared were either arrested or seriously attacked.

At the City Sports Centre in Harare, prominent civic society leaders were denied the right to speak. They literally had to flee for their lives from this venue.

Doug Coltart, the son of Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart, was not so lucky. Cornered by party thugs, he was assaulted and, as if to add petty crime to injury, his mobile phone was stolen.

State of Emergency

Zimbabwe is now under a de facto state of emergency, a slow-boil coup aimed at authoritarian consolidation through a blatantly unconstitutional Constitutional amendment.

All this is to be achieved, the government hopes, without a national referendum, where there is a history of citizen participation and militancy. In February 2000, a constitutional referendum unexpectedly rejected President Robert Mugabe’s proposals, notable for giving power to the government to seize farms. This was taken as a personal rebuff by Mugabe and signalled the political arrival of the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change.

Zimbabwe’s current Constitution was adopted by 94.5% of Zimbabweans after such a referendum in March 2013.

Now the nation faces a constitutional crisis that will determine whether we remain governed by the will of the people or slide back into unchecked executive dominance. The proposed amendments attack the existence of the social contract that has existed in Zimbabwe since 18 April 1980, when the Union Jack was lowered.

The government has tried to sell this as part of the need to ensure continuity of government. But this is precisely what Zimbabwe doesn’t need, given what the ruling party has done to the economy and to its people over the last 45 years. Zimbabweans will continue to resist, but as recent “consultations” over the proposed constitutional changes demonstrate, the government has already militarised and racialised its campaign.

Democrats were originally campaigning for a referendum and a delay in the constitutional consultation process beyond the 90 days. However, given the levels of violence and intimidation, the position of the democrats is simply that the Bill must be withdrawn for the sake of peace and legitimacy in Zimbabwe.

Two cases have also been brought in this regard before the Constitutional Court. Jurisprudential gymnastics are expected from a court that is staffed to buckle to political pressure.

As the United States leads an about-turn away from the pursuit of values in foreign policy towards monetising its interests, the world is a poorer place. Europe offers some hope, given its own experience of the horror of totalitarianism. But it is distracted by the war in Ukraine and the threats of American estrangement. China, Russia, and Iran, among others, support a regime, since it represents their view of the world seen through a lens of useful idiocy and extraction.

So, we look back to the region.

Being on the right, democratic side of history offers leaders across the region the opportunity to create leverage globally if they can solve problems through diplomacy. The opposite also holds.

Tendai Biti is a former Finance Minister of Zimbabwe, a leader of the Constitutional Defence Forum, and a member of the Platform for African Democrats.