This is a recording by Chief Felix NhlaNhlaYamangwe Ndiweni on the 18th of February 2025.
The recording is with respect to the petition that will be handed in to 10 Downing Street on the 20th of February 2025. This petition is touching on the matter of the possibility of ED Mnangagwa extending his term of office to 2030. Throughout the recording, I will be making reference to the ZANU-PF Administration.
This is in respect to the fact that the ZANU-PF Administration did not get the electoral mandate from the people of Zimbabwe to form a government. So it is in error, we cannot refer to them as the government of Zimbabwe. All we can do is refer to them as the ZANU-PF Administration because they did not achieve the electoral mandate to form a government.
"To the matter of ED Mnangagwa extending his term of office post 2030."
This is greatly, greatly concerning on many fronts. But to put it in a nutshell, there is nothing new that actually that would do for Zimbabwe. When I say new, I am referring to new as in positive or developmental that could be brought in for the nation state.
All that we can expect is the same of what we have in currently and indeed a lot worse.
Before going into depth about the possibility of this extension across the African continent we have seen many leaders who have remained in office for many years indeed. And even though they have remained in office for many years indeed against the will of their own people, they have not been able to achieve a great deal for those people nor indeed for those nations.
In fact, the reverse, the converse has happened whereby those nations have suffered even more at the hands of these leaders that have been in office for many decades. And from the Cape to Cairo, we have many, many examples of this. And so it is greatly concerning that even in today in Zimbabwe 2025, there are people
who think it is a good idea for an individual to be in office a long time.
There is concern in greatly. We can look at the example of Syria under Bashir al-Assad who was recently removed. He was in office for 24 years, he came to office in 2000 and whilst in office he committed many, many atrocities, culminating in the Syrian war which we have all seen whereby he was supported by the Russian administration under Vladimir Putin for many years, for a number of years. And yet when the takeover occurred, we were amazed to see that here is this huge force
that Assad had put together simply giving up soldiers on the road in the open places for putting down their rifles, for taking off the uniforms, for putting on civilian clothing. They too had had enough after 24 years. But it wasn't only 24 years because Bashir al-Assad father was in office before him, Hafez was his name.
He was in office from 1971 until 2000. He too did not achieve a great deal. They both were in charge of the Bathe party there in Syria and even though they were in office accumulatively for 53 years, father and son in office for 53 years, they did not achieve a great deal.
And when the people gave up, they gave up in a horrendous manner. The people showed a great deal of anger and resentment to the extent that we saw last year in 2024, Syrian people running to the tomb of Bashir al-Assad's father where Hafez Assad was lying and they dug it up and dismembered what they found in there. Such was their rage. The rage was a great deal. And so we know from that example and many, many other examples that if you remain in office against the will of the people, the end is always the same, very harsh for that particular dictator. It never ends well.
There's no good ending in this kind of road map, whereas a road map where one hangs onto democracy, hangs onto the rule of law. That ending is always good because it is always the people who look after it. But a dictatorship dynasty always ends terribly, terribly, terribly harsh for the incumbent. They achieved nothing at all.
As for Bashir al-Assad, he's now living in Moscow. He will never return to Syria again. He had the pain and agony towards the people digging up the tomb of his father and dismembering what they found there. There is a harsh bitter pill, croissant, under those circumstances.
And so, this is something we must also bring in through the Zimbabwean discussion. The extension of the Term of Office for Emerson Mnangagwa will not achieve anything beneficial through the State. It brings nothing good whatsoever. And we must be aware of that. But also the mere fact that he wishes to extend his term post-2030 here, we're looking at an individual and a political party because {Zanu PF}, we have intent on trying to make this a lifetime presidency.
So it is not just the one term we're looking at. When we look at this particular subject matter, we're looking at a situation whereby this will be a life presidency that they are after on that. And so with that, I am curious to know what exactly the Zimbabwean party feels about this. How do they feel about this as a political organization? We haven't heard from all of them up until now. More importantly, we'll also be asking how the members of parliament of Zimbabwean feel about this.
Because although they may give out a public viewing that they are all in unison and all in fall and support of this, we know in private they are concerned.
We know in private they should see the failings of the current administration daily on a daily basis.
When they go to the committee meetings in parliament, they can see they're daily that the administration is failing and is not producing the results that it should do. So we will be interested to hear what the ordinary Zimbabwean parliament thinks and feels about this. We are also interested to find out what do these Zimbabwean youth think about this. How do they feel about this?
That their political party is now trying to get a lifetime presidency. As the youth, do they think that's a good idea because if they do, that means that as the youth, they'll never have an opportunity to hold high office. How do they feel about that? Are they really, really serious?
You'll be asking the Zanu PF youth to say, is this the best team that you came to choose in this day and age, bearing in mind that there are many leaders, many presidents and prime ministers who are half the age of Emerson Mnangagwa. And so we will be curious to try and find out what the Zanu PF feel about this, what
their members' parliament feel about this, what indeed Zanu PF youth feels about this. We would also be interested to find out what do the chiefs and traditional leaders feel about this possibility in Zimbabwean.
- Something that was never on the table during those heavy days of the Wars of Independence.
- It was never put on the table.
- It was never presented to the people.
- It is, here we are, in 2025, and Zanu PF the current Zanu PF is pushing this agenda.
- So we'll be curious to find out what do chiefs and traditional leaders feel about this possibility.
- We would also be very interested indeed to hear what the judges and magistrates and lawyers feel about this, in particular the judges, because it is the judges.
Only the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, who have constantly, constantly tied this millstone around our necks to say it is always Zanu PF that wins an election. Irrespective of the evidence presented to them, they are always judging in favour of the current Zanu PF.
For now in 2025, we are being presented, we are being offered on the table a possibility of a lifetime president for Emerson Mnangagwa.
- What do the judges feel?
- How do they feel about their handiwork up until the state?
- We would also be interested to hear what does the Zimbabwe Defence Forces feel about this.
In 2017, when they removed our Robert Mugabe, they said it was a legacy restoring the legacy of the country, restoring the legacy and the values the principles upon which the war of actions went out to fight the war. That is what they were striving at. How now do they feel about the possibility of that legacy being thrown into the dustbin by having a lifetime president who cannot be changed by the will of the people no matter how?
- So we would like to hear about how the Zimbabwe Defence Forces feel.
- How indeed are they managing to survive today?
- How do they make ends meet with their families?
- Are their children being excluded from school for non-payment of school fees?
- Are the clinics to which they go working?
- Will they, as members of the defence forces, have a viable pension upon which they can rely on when they retire?
- And indeed, will that pension be able to build them homes and give them and support them on their daily needs?
- Or, brother, is it a meagre existence, as we can see?
That it can hardly even build one war, let alone build a whole house. So we're curious to find out how the Zimbabwe Defence Forces feel about this possibility.
- We would also be curious to find out how do the CIOs also feel about this?
- For they are in the intelligence services, the CIOs all know, they all know that the current administration is illegitimate. They know that because that's their job.
- But now they've been presented with a situation that is a catch-all situation.
That really up until now, the need of an election will fade away into the distance since someone has now determined to be a life president under these changes.
Because the CIOs also live amongst us. Whatever the people are suffering over, they also feel it. They too have families. They too, they children are also being excluded from schools because they too cannot pay the school fees for those children.
They too cannot buy proper shopping the whole week.
So we would like to hear what the CIOs feel about this possibility.
And indeed, we would also like to know how the frontline security services, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, how do they feel about this?
Because it is they that have got themselves tangled up in the electoral process, constantly tied up in the electoral process so that the election is never free and fair. It is always lopsided and that is courtesy, that is because of the actions of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
How now do they feel about the possibility of an extension to Mnangagwa's tenure in office post-2030?
- So these are strong questions we're posing.
- And indeed, we would also ask the strong questions to the civil service within Zimbabwe.
- How do the doctors and nurses and health workers feel about the possibility of an extension of term, indeed of giving Emerson Mnangagwa a lifetime presidency?
- How do they feel?
Because they can see that the health service is on the floor in the country. There is no second plan, there is no third plan being presented of how to resuscitate it. It is as if this patient is comatose in front of them and they have got no defibrillator, they got nothing to resuscitate this patient. This patient is on the floor.
- How do the doctors, nurses, health workers feel about the possibility of an indefinite Mnangagwa's presidency?
- These are strong questions that we're bringing to the people, because we need to know exactly where we're heading.
- As a nation, we've had many, many challenges up until now.
The petition being handed in at 10 Donald Street to the UK government on the 20th of February is a petition that is going there. People may ask why put in a petition, a petition is necessary so that other governments can be well informed, so that other governments may be given a second opinion about matters occurring in a third country. There is a point of petitions.
It is not a point of saying, here our group of Zimbabweans going to beg or to kneel before the government of the United Kingdom under his majesty. That is a misunderstanding, that's a wrong understanding of what a petition is. A petition gives the ordinary citizen off another country, or even that particular country
itself, but it is the ultimate authority of expression, the voice of expression, to say we, the ordinary people, would like to hand in a particular document, talking about a particular subject matter to a particular government.
So you are bypassing all of the institutions, you are bypassing all of those things which normally do not allow you to come into their doors and to the offices, and you're going straight to the highest point in that particular government, to say we would like you to know XYZ.
And so that is the whole aim about handing in a petition about matters in Zimbabwe. It is so that the United Kingdom government can be well informed, so that when it formulates its foreign policies, it has obtained and been given full information about events occurring in Zimbabwe. And likewise, that petition will not only go to the United Kingdom government, but will go to other governments, so that other governments may be well informed, so that when they come and meet officials from the current Zimbabwe administration, they would have already been given information straight from the horse's mouth, straight from the likes of you and me and everybody else about what is occurring, what is happening in Zimbabwe. So that they will not take as truth whatever is being given to them by the current Zanu PF administration.
That is the point of a petition. The Electoral Reforms that are coming to us are reforms which we should challenge at every turn.
The Electoral Reforms, as we keep on saying, it is an Electoral Reform that Emerson Mnangagwa is looking for. And as such, it cannot be brought in by itself because they are more important reforms that are needed and required to date.
We have observed and we have seen the Zanu PF administration putting in amendment after amendment, constitutional amendment after constitutional amendment in parliament, rather stepping them left right and centre. So we know they have that capability, they have shown it to us and that is why we take the view that if they are going to proceed with this constitutional amendment of extending the term and it is touching upon the Electoral process, it is only right and proper that we
also bring in the other Electoral Reforms that are necessary, the other Electoral Reforms that take precedence over this particular one which they are championing, ie. the extension of the current Emerson Mnangagwa in office.
The first Electoral Reform which they should bring in together with this one if it goes in is the diaspora vote, that that should be put on the statute, that should be facilitated, that should be funded, that should be there, so that we will be looking at a full diaspora vote. We are also looking at the Electoral Reform or Electoral Reform and Mandate for the Zimbabwe Election Commission, that it be abolished and replaced by Electoral Commission, at least formed by the AU African Union being assisted by the AEC and the UN.
That is another constitutional amendment group, we are also looking at another constitutional amendment whereby the registration of voters in the Bobbi and in the diaspora that should be facilitated under that new Electoral Commission which obtains its powers from the African Union being assisted by the AEC and the UN. And the actual election itself, the first election after independence was facilitated by the United Kingdom and other governments by looking at a similar process whereby the
next election should be facilitated by the African Union and others who want to be part of that so that at least we can get a fair election that comes through.
The Electoral Reform that we will be looking at is to ensure that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, that the Zimbabwe Republic Police, that the CIOs all vacates the Electoral process, that they all do not take part in that Electoral process which has made it difficult for opposition parties to campaign or opposition parties to pull their support bases and indeed for ordinary people to come and vote on the day so they should not be allowed to interfere within those elections. Likewise, we would also be looking at the constitutional amendment which would require the traditional leaders, the chiefs, not to be part of the Electoral process as institutions so that they should not have the power or the way for to bring in or pull in people so that they have to vote in a particular way. We are looking to ensure that people have that confidence to say that they can actually vote without being interfered with, without being co-opted in a particular way.
And so, this whole amendment that has been presented is a challenge to all of us at Zimbabweans, to say what exactly do we want and how can we change things for the better. On the geopolitical landscape, things have changed internationally. We have a new administration in the United States, under Donald Trump. This administration does things very, very quickly indeed. We have already seen that. The Zanu PF Administration already has felt the effects of this new administration in Washington, D.C. Even though the Zanu PF Administration has said for many, many years that it is a political island that it can survive by itself, that nothing outside Zimbabwe can affect it. And yet, here we are. At a stroke, the USAID is stopped in Zimbabwe. USAID that has been giving food to millions of people in Zimbabweans, was stopped with one signature in White House by Donald Trump. And so, we are looking at a change geopolitical world.
The current Zanu PF Administration formulated very close relations with Russia and China. Two countries to which the United States government is not that close to. And so, it is looking difficult. The way forward is looking difficult for the current administration in Zimbabwe. Challenges will be coming thick and fast.
The idea that an extension of term of office or Emerson Mnangagwa could change anything or the better is something really that needs to be looked at very closely indeed. Because the facts on the ground show a different picture. Show a picture of challenges, difficulties, and many other things coming our way. Right now, the likes of China are formulating closer relationships with the US. They would not want to put those new found relationships in jeopardy by associating too much or too closely with the likes of in Zimbabwe. And so, we've got to consider all of these things when looking at this possible extension of tenure that has been presented currently. Of course, we know that up until now, in public arenas, Emerson Mnangagwa has denied that. But we fully understand that that is the process by which Zanu PF has survived all these years. A process of whereby one member of the party does one thing whilst the other is doing another thing. So, it's nothing new with us. So, we should be concerned, we should be worried, and we should look very closely indeed with this. And if there are any ways of challenging it, we should challenge all things.
Thank you very much indeed.