newsNon-stop violence against opponents of Emmerson Mnangagwa becoming the ‘Great Dictator’ of Zimbabwe
Human rights lawyer Lovemore Madhuku was severely beaten for daring to oppose the effective dictatorship of Emmerson Mnangagwa
When Robert Mugabe was overthrown in 2017 certain British newspapers and journalists greeted the phoenix-like rise of Emmerson Mnangagwa as a breath of fresh air. Almost ten years down the line, it is increasingly obvious that the man nicknamed The Crocodile is as bad, if not a whole lot worse, than his former partner in political and military crime, Robert Mugabe. TREVOR GRUNDY welcomes the publication of the latest Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on the way Mnangagwa is trying to turn himself into Africa’s latest Great Dictator.
Human Rights Watch reports that the authorities in Zimbabwe have intensified their crackdown against critics of an effort by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union party to push forward a constitutional amendment to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term of office from 2028 to 2030.
ZANU (PF) has ruled Zimbabwe without a change since Independence in 1980. First, under the draconian rule of Robert Mugabe and now under the just as bad rule of Emmerson Mnangagwa who often called The Crocodile because of his craftiness and the Butcher of Matabeleland because of the key role he played in wiping out thousands of civilians in parts of Matabeleland and the Midlands between 1983- 1987.
The proposed amendment has attracted considerable opposition from those who consider it an attack on the country’s democracy.
A HRW report from Johannesburg said that under the constitution, President Mnangagwa would have to step down in 2028 after serving two five-year terms.
Emmerson Mnangagwa – He gets by with a lot of help from his friends
The government gazetted Constitutional Amendment No 3 on February 16, 2026. The amendment would extend the term of office for both the president and parliament from five to seven years, effectively postponing the 2028 elections until 2030.
Over the last few months, the police and unidentified armed men have threatened, harassed, and beat up several people who are opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment.
On March 1, in Harare, about five to 10 armed men wearing balaclavas reportedly forced their way into the offices of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an opposition political party.
According to Lovemore Madhuku, a prominent lawyer and leader of the NCA, some of the men assaulted members who had gathered for a meeting, including injuring Madhuku.
Madhuku has brought a constitutional court case seeking to halt the constitutional amendment process.
Lovemore Madhuku – National Constitutional Assembly President
He told Human Rights Watch that the men accused him of “wanting to create problems in the country” and demanded to know why he was opposing the bill. Madhuku said the men identified themselves as police officers and accused his party of holding an “unsanctioned meeting.”
He said that they used the long batons commonly used by the police to beat him on his back and on the head and delivered blows to his face.
Another civil society group, the Constitutional Defenders Forum, said that on February 27 the police gave them a letter ordering them to stop their opening meeting scheduled for the next day because it did not comply with the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act.
Under the Maintenance of the Peace and Order Act groups planning a meeting must provide written notice to the police seven days in advance of processions and demonstrations, and five days in advance of public meetings.
The Forum maintains that it did. The police have fluently used the requirement to deny civil society and the opposition permission to hold meetings and to mobilize.
On March 5, the Forum posted a video to social media that Human Rights Watch geolocated, showing armed police officers in several vehicles at the Harare law offices of Tendai Biti, the Forum leader. In a post on X, the Forum reported that armed men besieged Biti’s premises, assaulted people there, and issued death threats against him.
The police admitted to having deployed officers at Biti’s offices “for the maintenance of law and order” but denied the assault allegations. Biti told Human Rights Watch that authorities had decided to “unleash violence and place the country under a state of siege” to silence alternative voices.
On October 28, 2025, the Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Trust’s offices in Harare was badly damaged in a suspected arson attack. The attack took place just hours before SAPES was to host a dialogue of civil society and opposition leaders in response to ZANU-PF’s effort to extend President Mnangagwa’s term.
Reuters reports on 14th March 2026
A freelance reporter working for the New York Times in Zimbabwe will appear in court on Wednesday, his lawyer and the newspaper said, in a case critics say illustrates the authoritarian nature of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Jeffrey Moyo, a 37-year-old Zimbabwean, spent three weeks in jail last year accused of obtaining fake accreditation documents for two of the U.S. newspaper’s journalists on a visit.
The New York Times said the charges were baseless and that a Zimbabwe Media Commission official had issued him papers for Christina Goldbaum and Joao Silva. They were expelled.
“It was a nasty experience, sleeping on the concrete floor and having no contact with my family,” Moyo told Reuters. “It was terrible, but I’m optimistic that things will go well.”
Officials were not immediately available to comment on the trial due to take place at a court in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second biggest city. But a spokesperson last year accused Moyo of paying a bribe to break immigration laws.
The government of Mnangagwa, who replaced long-serving autocrat Robert Mugabe in a 2017 coup, has testy relations with non-state media. Another prominent reporter, Hopewell Chin’ono, who is critical of the government, has been arrested three times.
“The state has a very weak case … Jeffrey believed he was dealing with a bona fide official of the Zimbabwe Media Commission,” Moyo’s lawyer Doug Coltart told Reuters.
Moyo had also worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation charity.
(Reuters)