IT is now clear beyond reasonable doubt that the current public consultation process by parliament is a fraud and a sham.
Across the length and breadth of the country, Zanu PF has carefully and methodically orchestrated a giant choreographed scam with the same basic structure and characteristics.
The first element has been the systematic use of violence and intimidation.
Across the country, known activists and democrats have been kidnapped, assaulted, or harassed.
In Chiredzi, Gilbert Mutebuki is fighting for his life, with his wife left terribly traumatised. He was refused the right to give testimony at the Chiredzi gathering. He was then followed, and his leg was literally cut. They left him for dead.
In Kwekwe and Mhondoro, the few who spoke against the constitution were followed up and assaulted. In Bulawayo, two youth leaders were assaulted and the Nketa meeting was prematurely abandoned.
The City Sports Centre in Harare on March 31 was a charade. As in all other places, thousands were bussed to the venue. The same crowd had been at Epworth in the morning.
They were fed fast food from Chicken Slice and Chicken Inn. They were made to sign hundreds of statements and affidavits, which they deposited in boxes provided by parliament.
Zanu PF was in charge. It was a youth chair who passed around the microphone – one who knew who to pick and what they were programmed to say. The message was the same orchestra of deceit.
“Allow the president time to complete his projects.”
But this is a man who has been in government since 1980. If he has not completed a legacy in 46 years, two more years will not help him.
“Elections are too divisive; we must concentrate on development.”
But it is regular, free, and fair elections that guarantee accountability and performance. In any event, this group has been in power since 1980 — they have nothing new to offer.
“MPs must elect the president, because South Africa does it.”
But South Africa employs a system of proportional representation, not first past the post — therefore its MPs carry a broader national mandate. Furthermore, the South African president does not enjoy the same imperial powers being granted to this president under the Constitutional Amendment No. 3 Bill, among them the power to appoint 10 senators.
It was painful to witness poor, marginalised and unemployed people being made advocates for those who are the very authors of their misfortune. The weaponisation and instrumentalisation of poverty and ignorance is a hallmark of authoritarian actors in dominated social formations.
Dictators across the world have systematically harvested the poverty and ignorance they themselves plant and nurture. Zanu PF has deliberately underdeveloped Zimbabwe as a means of reproducing its own power.
The intimidation and violence that played out at the City Sports Centre was surreal. The refusal to allow those in Bay 8 — where most democrats were stationed — to speak was pathetic and embarrassing. The assault on Doug Coltart was pre-planned and pre-paid. Some of us survived only due to the protection offered by fellow citizens.
There is no doubt that this process is intended to permanently muzzle and silence Zimbabwe. They are recreating a de facto one-party state. They have paid millions of dollars to destroy the democratic movement. But they seek to go further still — to turn Zimbabwe into a feudal monarchy: a Munhumutapa dynasty run and controlled by one family.
This ambition is ill-conceived and ill-advised. All it does is push Zimbabwe to the edge — to a point of no return.
The regime must understand that it cannot get away with its brazen, prehistoric agenda to seize power from the citizen. Citizens and the state itself will refuse and resist. The Munhumutapas — Kutamadzoka, Chigwangu, and others — will refuse this ahistorical abuse of the great Munhumutapa Empire.
It is not yet too late to withdraw this Bill. We urge its withdrawal.
Tendai Biti is the convener of the Constitutional Defenders Forum
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