Opinion / National
Chiwenga is the next President of the Republic of Zimbabwe
2 hrs ago |
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General Constantino Chiwenga is the next President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Not maybe. Not possibly. Not if circumstances permit. Not subject to amendment bills, parliamentary arithmetic, or the preferences of commercial networks that have confused their bank balances with political permanence.
Next.
Full stop.
And let me be equally clear about the timeline. 2028. Elections. As scheduled.
As constitutionally mandated. As the people of Zimbabwe are entitled to.
Not 2030 nonsense. Not 2031. Not after a referendum that nobody asked for, nobody wants, and that over ninety percent of Zimbabweans have already rejected in their hearts even before the ballot paper is designed.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe the same Constitution that CAB3 is designed to mutilate is unambiguous.
Section 328 is unambiguous.
The two-term limit is unambiguous. The requirement for a referendum to extend a sitting president's term is unambiguous.
2028.
Not a day later.
On what CAB3 nonsense actually is.
I have said this before and I will say it again until it is heard in every corner of this republic.
CAB3 is not a development instrument. It is not a continuity agenda. It is not about Vision 2030 or boreholes or solar panels or hospital refurbishments worthy as some of those programmes are.CAB3 is a blocking mechanism.
It has one primary political function to prevent General Constantino Chiwenga from ascending to the presidency through the direct popular vote that he would win.
Everything else the economic arguments, the development continuity narrative, the liberation history revisionism we heard from Chinamasa is dressing.
It is the packaging on a product whose contents are the permanent postponement of Zimbabwe's constitutional succession reality.
The architects of CAB3 know that in a free, direct, popular election in 2028, General Chiwenga wins. They know it because the people know it. They know it because the security establishment knows it. They know it because even inside ZANU-PF behind closed doors, away from the cameras, in the conversations that happen between people who trust each other the succession reality has one name. And that name is General Chiwenga.
"You do not spend this much political capital trying to change an election system unless you already know you cannot win under the existing one."
On Operation Restore Legacy.
November 2017 was not a coup. I will not call it a coup. The courts did not call it a coup.
The people who came into the streets in their hundreds of thousands did not call it a coup. They called it liberation.
They called it correction. They called it the moment Zimbabwe got a second chance.
Operation Restore Legacy made promises.
Explicit, public, witnessed promises to the people of Zimbabwe, to the region, to the international community, and to history itself.
It promised constitutionalism. It promised the rule of law. It promised that Zimbabwe's democratic institutions would be respected and strengthened.
It promised that the era of one-man, permanent, unaccountable rule was over.
Every one of those promises is now under assault by CAB3.
Let me say that with the full weight of what it means.
The men who stood in that television studio on the 15th of November 2017 who read that statement, who put their stars and their freedom on the line, who asked Zimbabwe to trust them those men made a covenant with this nation.
That covenant is not dischargeable by gazette notice. It is not amendable by parliamentary majority. It cannot be revised because the political convenience of 2026 conflicts with the political promises of 2017.
Operation Restore Legacy is not over.
It is not over until constitutionalism is genuinely restored not performed, not simulated, not dressed up in development language while being systematically dismantled.
Next.
Full stop.
And let me be equally clear about the timeline. 2028. Elections. As scheduled.
As constitutionally mandated. As the people of Zimbabwe are entitled to.
Not 2030 nonsense. Not 2031. Not after a referendum that nobody asked for, nobody wants, and that over ninety percent of Zimbabweans have already rejected in their hearts even before the ballot paper is designed.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe the same Constitution that CAB3 is designed to mutilate is unambiguous.
Section 328 is unambiguous.
The two-term limit is unambiguous. The requirement for a referendum to extend a sitting president's term is unambiguous.
2028.
Not a day later.
On what CAB3 nonsense actually is.
I have said this before and I will say it again until it is heard in every corner of this republic.
CAB3 is not a development instrument. It is not a continuity agenda. It is not about Vision 2030 or boreholes or solar panels or hospital refurbishments worthy as some of those programmes are.CAB3 is a blocking mechanism.
It has one primary political function to prevent General Constantino Chiwenga from ascending to the presidency through the direct popular vote that he would win.
Everything else the economic arguments, the development continuity narrative, the liberation history revisionism we heard from Chinamasa is dressing.
The architects of CAB3 know that in a free, direct, popular election in 2028, General Chiwenga wins. They know it because the people know it. They know it because the security establishment knows it. They know it because even inside ZANU-PF behind closed doors, away from the cameras, in the conversations that happen between people who trust each other the succession reality has one name. And that name is General Chiwenga.
"You do not spend this much political capital trying to change an election system unless you already know you cannot win under the existing one."
On Operation Restore Legacy.
November 2017 was not a coup. I will not call it a coup. The courts did not call it a coup.
The people who came into the streets in their hundreds of thousands did not call it a coup. They called it liberation.
They called it correction. They called it the moment Zimbabwe got a second chance.
Operation Restore Legacy made promises.
Explicit, public, witnessed promises to the people of Zimbabwe, to the region, to the international community, and to history itself.
It promised constitutionalism. It promised the rule of law. It promised that Zimbabwe's democratic institutions would be respected and strengthened.
It promised that the era of one-man, permanent, unaccountable rule was over.
Every one of those promises is now under assault by CAB3.
Let me say that with the full weight of what it means.
The men who stood in that television studio on the 15th of November 2017 who read that statement, who put their stars and their freedom on the line, who asked Zimbabwe to trust them those men made a covenant with this nation.
That covenant is not dischargeable by gazette notice. It is not amendable by parliamentary majority. It cannot be revised because the political convenience of 2026 conflicts with the political promises of 2017.
Operation Restore Legacy is not over.
It is not over until constitutionalism is genuinely restored not performed, not simulated, not dressed up in development language while being systematically dismantled.
Source - online
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