Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The grand theater of Zimbabwean politics has pulled back its curtains once again, presenting a spectacle as painfully predictable as it is insulting to the collective intelligence of the nation.
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We are being asked to believe that the Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill, popularly known as CAB3, enjoys a groundbreaking, organic groundswell of legislative and public support.
Minister of Justice Ziyambi Ziyambi recently boasted that there was robust, “unprecedented” debate in Parliament.
The state apparatus has gone into overdrive to brandish statistics trumpeting that out of 182 MPs who debated, 111 supported the bill as a whole, and 139 were positively disposed toward it.
But behind these sanitized figures lies a well-orchestrated facade of manufactured consent, a choreographed display of robotic obedience, and a deeply cynical political strategy designed to mask a singular, unpopular goal.
For starters, the overwhelming support by MPs from the ruling ZANU-PF party is nothing to write home about.
It is an open secret that these legislators operate under the heavy, suffocating shadow of the party whipping system, where any deviation from the prescribed line carries severe political consequences.
During the just-ended parliamentary debate, it was on public record that these representatives were handed prepared statements and talking points to regurgitate.
Rather than engaging in genuine legislative scrutiny, most of these legislators read their contributions directly from smartphones, mindlessly repeating the same rigid narrative: “disruptive elections, the need for stability, and the need for the president to finish his projects.”
The scene from the August House resembled a bad sci-fi movie where programmable robots simply replayed a pre-written script.
This was not active participation; it was a single presentation awkwardly divided between 111 individuals.
The illusion of consensus becomes even more disgraceful when we look across the aisle at the supposed “opposition” MPs who threw their weight behind CAB3.
These individuals are undeniably compromised, trading their constitutional mandates for material patronage.
Who can forget the gaudy spectacle of ZANU-PF beneficiary and controversial tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo doling out luxury cars and cash to legislators like Susan Matsunga for merely praising President Emmerson Mnangagwa?
Just days ago, this pattern repeated itself when Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP Samantha Mureyani was handed a luxury vehicle and US$50,000 in cash from the very same source after backing CAB3 in Parliament.
To make matters worse, a significant chunk of the opposition MPs currently sitting in Parliament owe their very presence and political survival to Sengezo Tshabangu, the self-imposed and seemingly perpetually “interim” secretary general of the CCC.
Backed fully by the ZANU-PF Speaker of the House of Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, and a compliant judiciary, Tshabangu systematically recalled legitimately elected opposition legislators and imposed his own proxies.
Those who remain in Parliament live in constant fear of the recall axe should they dare to stand against Tshabangu’s overtly pro-ZANU-PF stance.
Consequently, there is absolutely no weight to be given to what these compromised opposition MPs have to say.
Their voices are bought, paid for, and tightly controlled.
In this bleak landscape, we must pause to applaud the few genuinely courageous opposition legislators, such as Blessing Ropafadzo Makumire, Joana Mamombe, and Maxwell Mavhunga, among others.
These individuals will forever be remembered by history as having stood firmly by the people of Zimbabwe, refusing to bow to intimidation despite the very real possibility of being recalled at the hands of an unhinged Tshabangu.
With all this intimidation and bribery out in the open, it makes absolutely no sense for Ziyambi Ziyambi to boast of robust, unprecedented debate.
If the regime is so confident in this alleged legislative enthusiasm, why did Ziyambi flatly reject a secret ballot for the final vote on CAB3?
The answer is obvious: it is far easier to control the narrative when voting is conducted in the open, where every MP is carefully monitored, and every deviation can be punished instantly.
The exact same ugly spectacle played out during the Parliamentary Public Hearings.
ZANU-PF supporters were bussed in to flood a handful of venues crammed into a meager four-day schedule across the country, delivering coached and choreographed contributions.
Simultaneously, the ruling party and its affiliates pressured citizens to sign pre-written letters and petitions during the 90-day public consultation period.
This was never organic support; it was a highly organized, stage-managed process.
Now, headlines trumpet that Mnangagwa loyalists have been “defeated” and have started making concessions, as Ziyambi indicates that some unpopular clauses will be dropped.
The claim that removing these clauses is a sign of capitulation or “listening to the people” is completely misleading and misguided.
Having been in power for 46 years, we know exactly how ZANU-PF operates.
They are masters of pretense.
They have deliberately engineered a tactical retreat to create a veneer of a vibrant, open democracy where public views are allegedly respected.
Let us not lose sight of the core truth: CAB3 was born directly out of ZANU-PF’s “Resolution No. 1,” which seeks to extend President Mnangagwa’s term in office beyond his two-term limit, pushing it from 2028 to 2030.
This was the singular mandate given to Ziyambi in his dual roles as Minister of Justice and ZANU-PF Secretary for Legal Affairs.
Why, then, did the bill contain 22 separate clauses, ranging from scrapping the Zimbabwe Gender Commission to allowing traditional leaders to join political parties?
These extra clauses were never an accident.
They were deliberately included as sacrificial lambs—designed to be dropped later to deceive Zimbabweans and the international community into believing the consultation process was genuine.
This explains why the party whipping system miraculously vanished when MPs spoke out against scrapping the gender commission or politicizing traditional leaders.
Those ZANU-PF legislators were never punished because CAB3 was never about those issues.
It has always been about “Resolution No. 1.”
The clause extending the president’s term is the one item that will never be sacrificed.
Despite the clear constitutional demand for a national referendum for any amendment extending an incumbent’s time in office, the government flatly refuses to hold one.
They know fully well that the people of Zimbabwe do not want the president to stay past 2028, and no amount of stage-managed theater can hide that reality.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08