THE Zanu PF roadshow was in Masvingo on Sunday as party members literally tripped over each other celebrating President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 82nd birthday.
The celebrations, held at Great Zimbabwe Monuments in Masvingo, were dubbed Munhumutapa Day equating Mnangagwa’s rule to the ancient Munhumutapa Empire, a once-powerful kingdom that controlled large swathes of southern Africa.
The birthday celebrations, which came against the backdrop of the push for Mnangagwa to extend his tenure beyond the constitutionally-mandated two terms, lived up to its billing, with party members cheering on the President to stay in power beyond 2028, although he has reiterated that he will rest at the end of his tenure.
It appears the organisers of the Munhumutapa Day had arranged the show extremely well as party officials cheered on Mnangagwa to go for a third term like synchronised swimmers in an Olympics final.
While some had their voices hoarse chanting the 2030 slogan, others came in school uniform saying the country’s school calendar has three terms instead of two, in what was seen as an appeal to Mnangagwa to go for a third term.
But in all the frenzy, they did not pause and reflect on what a constitutional amendment will mean for an administration that came into power with a promise to break with the past, dissociating itself from the bad boy tag that stuck on its predecessor like glue.
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Addressing the nation after the military coup in 2017, Mnangagwa exhorted Zimbabweans to declare that “never again should circumstances that have put Zimbabwe in an unfavourable position be allowed to recur or overshadow its prospects”.
The ruling Zanu PF party must not be allowed to mutilate the Constitution, arguably one of the biggest takeaways of the government of national unity that ran the affairs of the country in the period 2009 to 2013 and was credited for economic stability.
Zanu PF must never be allowed to ride roughshod over the supreme law, which is not a mere lawyers’ document, but a vehicle of life and its spirit is always the spirit of age, according to the late Indian politician Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
“However good a Constitution may be, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad. However bad a Constitution may be, if those implementing it are good, it will prove to be good,” he said.
This is lost on Zanu PF as it is determined to show its might to allow Mnangagwa “to complete his vision”.
There is no doubt that the 2030 noise will grow louder in the coming weeks ahead of Zanu PF’s annual people’s conference in Bulawayo next month, where the plan to amend the Constitution will be put into motion.
It won’t come as a surprise if Munhumutapa Day is declared a public holiday.
It will be at par with the National Youth Day on February 21, which celebrates the late former President Robert Mugabe’s birthday.
And the biggest loser in this tragicomedy will be brand Zimbabwe.