HARARE – In a shocking bold move, Zimbabwe’s government has approved draft constitutional changes that critics say would fundamentally upend the country’s democratic order, consolidating power around the presidency while hollowing out elections, Parliament and key oversight institutions including the military, according to official Cabinet papers and submissions by Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi .

Behind the constitutional overhaul lies a tightly coordinated network of political and financial actors, more precisely, a “gang” operating around President Emmerson Mnangagwa and First Lady Auxillia., and her sons.

The network is getting technical assistance from former politician and exiled Jonathan Moyo, supported by consultant Glen Mpani, whose hand is all over the rigging mechanisms of elections around Africa.

Financial backing comes from Kuda Tagwirei, Wicknell Chivhayo and a group of Zvigananda. Chivhayo is regarded almost as a son by Mnangagwa, cementing his position as both a trusted insider and key power broker.

Additional figures within the setup include Virginia Mabhiza, Jacob Mudenda, and Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, whose roles range from bureaucratic facilitation to oversight of legislative and judicial alignment.

The proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 3 Bill, approved at the first Cabinet meeting of 2026, would replace the direct election of the president with a parliamentary vote, extend presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years, expand presidential appointments to the Senate, shift control of the voters’ roll away from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and scrap public interviews for judicial appointments

Taken together, the changes amount to a coordinated assault on the checks and balances established by the 2013 Constitution. The architecture is clear, remove the people from choosing the president, weaken electoral oversight, close judicial scrutiny, and reframe the military’s constitutional duty. The opposition’s role in parliament has already been weakened, so they can railroad their way to butchering the Constitution.

Internal warnings circulated within the security establishment, according to sources familiar with the discussions, cautioned that removing direct presidential elections and altering the military’s duty “to uphold” the Constitution risked deepening political legitimacy crises and factional conflict within the state. Those warnings, the sources said, were noted but not adopted. Under the Bill, the Defence Forces’ mandate would be changed from an obligation “to uphold the Constitution” to acting merely “in accordance with” it, a subtle but significant shift that critics say lowers the constitutional bar for military neutrality.

In practical terms, this reframes the military’s role from an active constitutional guardian to a passive rule-follower. Instead of being constitutionally bound to defend the supreme law when it is threatened or subverted, the Defence Forces would be required only to operate within whatever legal framework is in force at the time, even if that framework is itself the product of unconstitutional manipulation.

This change narrows the military’s constitutional duty, discouraging intervention against abuses of power and effectively insulating unlawful political actions so long as they are procedurally authorised.

In a roll back of specialised oversight, the amendments would also abolish the Zimbabwe Gender Commission.

The political intent behind the changes has been further inflamed by a social media post from businessman Wicknell Chivhayo, a close associate of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in which he declared “2030 ndeya Emmerson”, a reference to extending Mnangagwa’s rule beyond his current term limit.

Chivhayo’s post, which included photographs taken at State House, showed a striking contrast in body language: Chivhayo smiling broadly and leaning forward, while Mnangagwa sat stiffly on the edge of a couch, unsmiling and visibly reserved.

The images have fuelled debate over whether the president is the architect of the constitutional push or increasingly surrounded, and pressured, by powerful political and corrupt business actors projecting authority in his name. In the same post, Chivhayo used totem metaphors widely read as factional signalling within Zimbabwe’s ruling elite.

His reference to “baboons and monkeys”, with the baboon being Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s totem, is interpreted as a warning shot aimed at the Vice President, reinforcing perceptions that the constitutional amendments are entangled in succession politics rather than governance reform.

“The extension of Mnangagwa’s term has everything to do with continuity, but in the sense of the looters continuing to loot the country while the majority wallow in poverty. The problem with greed is that people never know when to stop stealing. So they will simply keep wanting more, and it will not end in 2030 because by then, they would have found a way to further extend their time on the feeding trough,” said a political commentator.

In a veiled, mocking reference to Chiwenga, Chivhayo wrote on Facebook: “When the lion (Mnangagwa) is away, even the baboons and monkeys (Chiwenga) get carried away, swinging wildly from branch to branch, thinking the jungle now belongs to them.”

Parliament is expected to gazette the Bill, triggering a 90-day public consultation period before debate.

Opposition figures and civic groups say the process itself is compromised by a captured Parliament, dominated by the executive and unable to meaningfully block constitutional changes that require a two-thirds majority.

“What is being presented as technical adjustment is, in reality, a coordinated violation,” said a senior civil society leader.

As the Bill moves toward Parliament, the battle lines are hardening, between a state arguing necessity and continuity, and Zimbabweans who say Zimbabwe is witnessing the most far-reaching mutilation of its constitutional order since independence.