Animal Farm

By Youngerson Matete and Liam Kanhenga On the 4 th  of November, 2023 the High Court of Zimbabwe issued a judgment in favor of Sengezo Tshabangu in the case of Prince Dubeko Sibanda & others versus Sengezo Tshabangu.  This was after the former members of parliament and senators went to court to contest their recall from the August House. The self-proclaimed Citizen’s Coalition for Change interim secretary general wrote a letter to the speaker of parliament and president of the senate claiming that 15 members of parliament and 9 senators had ceased to be members of the Citizen Coalition for Change. They must be ejected from parliament as per section 129(1)(k) of the constitution of Zimbabwe which states that  “if the Member has ceased to belong to the political party of which he or she was a member when elected to Parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker or the President of the Senate, as the case may be, has declared that the Memb...

 By Youngerson Matete  On the 28th of October 2023, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa appointed Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF) commander General Philip Valerio Sibanda into the ZANU-PF politburo as an ex-officio member during the ZANU-PF’s 20th people’s annual conference. The Politburo is the highest decision-making organ in ZANU-PF politics.  A move that has drawn a lot of criticism as it is in direct violation of the constitution of Zimbabwe. Section 208(3) clearly states that “Members of the security services must not be active members or office-bearers of any political party or organization.” It is important to understand that section 208 of the constitution was an attempt to cure the party-military conflation, which has long been a problem in Zimbabwe politics pre-dating from the days of the liberation struggle.  The Zimbabwe army has been a kingmaker in Zimbabwean politics, in an attempt to remove the army from civilian politics the crafters of th...