THE law is an ass.
It has no intrinsic values, nor does it have any inherent moral content. It’s a tool; a weapon.
And there are mercenaries, men and women ready, willing and able to lend service to other men and women of wicked intent and evil schemes.
These can argue anything, the absurd even.
They write laws, they interpret laws and they enforce laws under the guise of constitutional office and just “doing my job”.
They are undertakers; enablers; conspirators; accomplices.
Then there is the other side.
The law can be engineered into a tool for justice; for the fair regulation of the interaction and affairs of a people; for the collective progress of a society.
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And there are men and women, ready, willing and able to lend service to these ideals.
Why possibly would a person choose the former variety of the law and legal operation?
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi chose that route when he presented himself as a willing legal mercenary to shepherd on his boss’ behalf, a coterie of proposed amendments to the Constitution under Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 3 Bill of 2026, that go above and beyond the treacherous resolution 1 at the 2024 Zanu PF national people’s conference.
Men and women who oversee Zimbabwe’s governance in Cabinet on February 10, 2026 chose to join Ziyambi and lent their souls, wits and all to Zimbabwe’s most audacious constitutional scheme yet since the November 2017 coup.
The struggle for a new constitution has been long and odious, from the women’s movement of the 1980s, to the economic-led discourses of the early 1990s, to the civil society-led movement that culminated in the referendum of 2000, to the political party-led processes that eventually birthed the 2013 Constitution.
There are so many Zimbabweans who died for a new Constitution, literally.
They are dead and buried.
Imperfect as that 2013 document was, at long last we had made remarkable progress.
The ink was yet to dry when by 2017 we were witnessing a reversal of gains with the first regressive amendments to the Constitution.
2021 was to see another round of the same breed: controversy, regression, manipulations, process violations and so on. Now 2026, we are back at it again.
But now it is different.
It is not an exaggeration to say the 2017 coup and the now-approved Cabinet memo detailing proposed amendments to the Constitution of Zimbabwe are the most defining constitutional moments in Zimbabwe’s history since 2013 when that Constitution was voted for by 94,4% of our people.
Men who came to power through a coup are now moving to remove the powers of the miliary to “uphold” the Constitution — as if anyone had told the coup plotters in the first place that the army had any business stepping into civilian governance and taking over power.
They now want to change the electoral system: remove popular participation in electing a president and place the responsibility on Parliament — a borrowed concept from electoral systems that operate at a totally different wavelength to ours.
They want a seven-year term for the President and Parliament — a total of 14 years if one does two terms.
They are incentivising parliamentarians to vote for an extended presidency for selfish reasons.
They now want to bring back even greater opportunities to manipulate the voters roll and engage in gerrymandering.
They now want to remove transparency by removing the public interviews in the selection of all judges of the Labour Court, Administrative Court, High Court and Supreme Court, having removed such transparency in the appointment of the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President under Amendments 1 and 2.
They want to expand Senate by allowing the President to appoint 10 senators —whatever benefit that brings to Zimbabwe!
They want to eliminate the Zimbabwe Gender Commission.
I dare say, of all the actions of President Emmerson Mnangagwa since the coup in November 2017, this is the darkest move in his governance agenda.
Whatever rules of engagement we thought as a nation we had agreed to in 2013 and whatever route we had decided for our nation, Mnangagwa and team have arrived to change course at will.
When we write a constitution, we do so for the nation and country.
Far from cosmetics, a constitution is an existential issue.
How can a group of men and women be so evil to bury the prosperous future of a nation for short and immediate power gain?
Oh, what vanity; oh, what iniquity!
Long after Mnangagwa and all those who will mutilate the Constitution are dead and buried, there shall remain a country called Zimbabwe.
Surely, what possible wisdom could there be to take Zimbabwe decades back to the day of imperial presidency, nebulous “tap-on-the-shoulder” judicial appointments, manipulated elections, long-term presidency and other such dictatorship-like trappings?
There is nothing admirable, defensible, honourable and legal about this entire process.
This is not good or proper law; this is not good politics.
This is not societal progress.
There is no economic, social or political benefit to Zimbabwe as a country from this constitutional manipulation.
This whole process is not people-driven, is anti-people, is anti-progress, is a naked breach of the social contract, is a subversion of the will of the people and violates the spirit of the Constitution.
The Constitution has a spirit; it is not just about the words written on paper and what the dictionary says they mean.
There is something called unconstitutional constitutional amendments; there is something called the basic structure doctrine.
When a constitution has been mutilated out of recognition, it is no longer the original document; it is something else.
These regressive amendments are not what Zimbabweans want or asked for —not even the poor, helpless, hapless long-suffering foot soldiers of Zanu PF forever played by their elite masters.
However, Zanu PF spin doctors come and justify their own annihilation by their masters — for whatever pay and reward, and however Zanu PF, Mnangagwa and Ziyambi drink champagne to celebrate their victory over the people, they have just committed a grave betrayal to Zimbabwe’s future that will take long to reverse.
On days like these, I am ashamed to be a lawyer in Zimbabwe and I am ashamed of my government.
I am proud I never voted for them, but I am ashamed of them.
Yet for my country, people, beliefs and values, I will remain an active, vigilant and resourceful citizen in search of the Zimbabwe we want.
Many other citizens too.
And I have faith that Zimbabwe will be found through the mobilisation, action, and perseverance of its patriotic children.
