Zimbabwe opposition accuses government of constitutional 'coup'

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa. [AFP]

Leading Zimbabwe opposition figures accused the government Wednesday of a constitutional "coup" after the cabinet approved amendments that would allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his term in office.

Sweeping changes to the constitution accepted by the cabinet Tuesday include extending the presidential term to seven years and follow a decision by the ruling Zanu-PF that Mnangagwa should stay in office for at least two years after his term ends in 2028.

Other provisions scrap general presidential elections, giving parliament the power to choose the president, and would allow  Mnangagwa to appoint 10 more senators.

The amendments are to be presented to parliament, which is weighted in favour of the Zanu-PF, but the opposition insists they also need to be put to a national referendum.

"The process that is currently happening in Zimbabwe is a coup by the incumbent to extend his term of office against the will of the people," opposition politician and fierce government critic Job Sikhala told AFP.

"We have got an incumbent who wants to railroad himself, using the tyrannical and dictatorial tendencies of his rule, into another two years to 2030," he said.

The ruling party's "2030 agenda" was on the cards for months before it was announced as a party position in October, and attempts to demonstrate against the plan have been met with a crackdown that put scores of people in jail.

The post-cabinet statement said the amendments it had passed would "enhance political stability and policy continuity".

But Jameson Timba, a Citizens Coalition for Change leader, accused the president and his party of using "formal processes" such as cabinet decisions "to entrench power without the free and direct consent of the people".

"What is unfolding in Zimbabwe is not constitutional reform. It is a constitutional coup," he said on X.

Calls for intervention

Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who had ruled the southern African country for 37 years.

He was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and again in 2023, but has been accused of allowing rampant corruption to the benefit of the Zanu-PF -- which has been in power since independence in 1980 -- while eroding democratic rights.

Sikhala's National Democratic Working Group said it had asked the African Union to intervene.

The continental body "cannot remain mute when a coup is in motion in one of its member states", it said, in a letter seen by AFP, claiming that "anti-coup peaceful campaigners are under severe repression, attack and arbitrary arrests".

Sikhala, a former CCC lawmaker, was arrested in South Africa last year for alleged possession of explosives. He says they were planted in his vehicle in an apparent assassination attempt he blamed on state actors.

Amid claims of infighting within the Zanu-PF, it was unclear whether anger over the attempts to keep Mnangagwa in power would spill over into protests. However, legal challenges at the Constitutional Court were expected.

"Zimbabweans have got the right to approach the courts of law," prominent lawyer Tendai Biti told AFP.

The proposed amendments were "outrageous and unacceptable", said opposition politician Trust Chikohora. "I am sure the people of Zimbabwe are not going to take this lying down this time.