Police block Bulawayo meeting as Harare venue torched 

A press conference on Zimbabwe’s constitutional future was blocked in Bulawayo on Tuesday, while a venue hosting a similar event in Harare was firebombed overnight, in what civic groups have described as a coordinated clampdown on dissent.

The Bulawayo gathering, titled “Constitutional Crossroads: Citizens Respond to Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Crisis” was shut down when police officers, Zanu PF supporters and hired bouncers stationed themselves at the entrance of the Bulawayo Club, preventing journalists and invited guests from entering. Police vehicles were also seen parked outside the venue.

The meeting had been expected to feature prominent political and civic figures, among them ZAPU leader Sibangilizwe Nkomo, war veterans’ representative Ethan Mathibela, opposition politicians Prince Dubeko Sibanda and Lovemore Moyo, Mfulongatshi Mpofu of the Mthwakazi Republic Party, Patrick Tayiya of the Democratic Official Party, and activists Mbuso Fuzwayo, Thando Gwinji, Samkeliso Tshuma, Benon Ncube and Silenkosi Moyo.

Hours earlier, the Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Trust offices in Harare, where a parallel event was scheduled, were gutted in a suspected arson attack shortly after midnight.

According to organisers, unidentified men hurled petrol bombs into the building, destroying the seminar room where the press conference was due to take place. The assailants reportedly abducted the night guard and locked the property’s gates with new padlocks before fleeing.

Later in the morning, another fire broke out at the Highfield home of Gilbert Bgwende, a member of the Constitutional Defence Forum, deepening fears of a wider campaign to intimidate voices critical of the government.

The Harare press conference was to be addressed by opposition and civil society leaders including Job Sikhala, Tendai Biti, Jacob Ngarivhume, and Jameson Timba. They were expected to condemn what they describe as a Zanu PF-driven attempt to unconstitutionally extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term beyond 2028.

The developments come just weeks after the ruling party’s annual conference in Mutare passed a resolution directing Parliament to consider legislative amendments allowing Mnangagwa to remain in office until 2030, a move that has triggered widespread political and public backlash.

In a strongly worded statement, the Zimbabwe Communist Party (ZCP) condemned the bombings and blockades as “cowardly acts” and “an assault on the working class and peasantry’s right to organise and express themselves.”

“The Zimbabwe Republic Police must immediately investigate, arrest, and prosecute those responsible,” the ZCP said. “The working class and peasantry have every right to engage, assemble and speak on matters that affect their lives.”

The party also rejected the proposal to extend Mnangagwa’s presidency, calling it “a manipulation of the Constitution to prolong the rule of a corrupt elite.”

“Zimbabwe is not Zanu PF. The power to rule does not come from a party or a person but from the working class and peasantry whose labour sustains the nation,” the statement read.

“Two more years will not rebuild Zimbabwe; it will only prolong the suffering of ordinary people. Our struggle is not about personalities — it is about class power. It is a struggle between those who produce and those who plunder.”

The ZCP urged citizens to unite “in defence of their democratic right to elect their representatives” and to “complete the liberation struggle by dismantling the neo-colonial and feudal systems that continue to oppress them.”