Democracy is under fire in Harare, literally
Opposition leaders suspect a Zanu-PF faction has brought petrol bombs to a constitutional fight.
Jeffrey Moyo in Harare
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, unidentified assailants threw petrol bombs into the Sapes Trust building in Harare. They allegedly also abducted one of the building’s night guards. The blaze destroyed the building’s seminar room.
The bombing took place just hours before opposition leaders were set to hold a press conference on Zimbabwe’s constitutional crisis at that venue. They planned to challenge President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s bid to extend his rule to 2030, two years beyond his constitutional term.
The opposition leaders insisted on conducting the press briefing in the bombed-out venue, but police violently dispersed them, declaring the place a crime scene.
“We have reached the zenith of despotism and things are falling apart,” a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe said after the bombing. The lecturer requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
But Tendai Biti, former finance minister and opposition politician, appeared unfazed. “We are uniting everyone to move forward to defend the Constitution, the values of the liberation struggle, and the values of our own democratic struggle,” Biti told The Continent.
Jacob Ngarivhume, leader of opposition party Transform Zimbabwe, also appeared untroubled, saying the Mnangagwa regime is panicking because democratic forces in Zimbabwe have now joined together. “We are united against the 2030 nonsense and we are not all going to accept it,” he said.
Mnangagwa’s bid faces resistance even within his own party, the ruling Zanu-PF, and has deepened the division between the president and his deputy. Earlier this month, Mnangagwa accused his deputy, Constantino Chiwenga, of “incitement and treason”. This was after Chiwenga presented a dossier to the politburo warning against amending the Constitution to prolong Mnangagwa’s stay in office.