Chivayo backs CAB3, says Mnangagwa deserves 'eight more years'

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Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo has publicly endorsed the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill (CAB3), arguing that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has transformed the country since November 2017 and deserves continuity in leadership.

In a lengthy statement titled “Eight Years of President ED Mnangagwa and I Will Bet My Last Dollar on Eight More”, Chivayo defended Mnangagwa’s record and said Zimbabwe had undergone significant political and economic changes under his administration.

Chivayo said his support for CAB3 was rooted in personal experience and what he described as witnessing Zimbabwe’s transition from economic collapse and political uncertainty to a period of rebuilding and renewed investment.

“I was there. I watched it happen. I lived through what Zimbabwe was before November 2017, and I have lived through every single year since,” he said. “So when I speak about President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and what his leadership has meant for this country, I am not speaking as a praise singer paid to clap. I am speaking as a witness.”

He said he remained in Zimbabwe during difficult economic periods and continued investing despite facing personal and legal challenges.

“A witness who built a business in this country. A witness who employed Zimbabweans in this country. A witness who went to prison in this country, came out, and still chose to invest in this country,” he said.

Chivayo described the pre‑2017 period as one marked by severe economic hardships, including fuel queues, cash shortages and declining investor confidence.

“I am talking about the Zimbabwe of fuel queues stretching three kilometres. The Zimbabwe of cash shortages so severe that people slept outside banks to withdraw their own money,” he said.

He claimed Zimbabwe had become internationally isolated before the change of leadership in 2017, saying investors and professionals had lost confidence in the country.

“That was Zimbabwe before November 2017. Do not let anyone rewrite that history for you,” he said.

Reflecting on Operation Restore Legacy, the military intervention that led to former President Robert Mugabe’s resignation, Chivayo said he believed Mnangagwa would open Zimbabwe to investment and reform.

“I remember watching the tanks on the streets of Harare and thinking — for the first time in a long time — that something was actually shifting,” he said. “When President Mnangagwa stood at State House and addressed the nation as the incoming leader of Zimbabwe, I said, ‘This man is going to open Zimbabwe.’”

Chivayo said critics who doubted Mnangagwa’s leadership in 2017 had been proven wrong, arguing that the President understood business, geopolitics and investment‑driven development.

“A man who understood that Zimbabwe’s salvation was not going to come from ideology — it was going to come from investment, infrastructure and institutional reform,” he said.

He said his endorsement of CAB3 was intended to support continuity under Mnangagwa’s leadership, insisting the President still had more to accomplish.

The statement comes amid growing national debate over CAB3, with supporters arguing it will strengthen governance continuity, while critics warn it could weaken democratic accountability and alter succession dynamics. The matter continues to dominate public discourse through platforms such as Zimbabwe political X‑spaces.