Zimbabwe’s imperial presidency was built on purpose. A series of constitutional and legal overhauls created a presidency marked by personal power, authoritarian control, a personality cult, and little accountability. This is the system that helped turn Robert Mugabe into a power drunk autocrat.

When power has no strong limits, arrogance grows. Mugabe started to believe he was omniscient and invincible. He could not imagine anyone removing him from office. He could not imagine Emmerson Mnangagwa and Constantino Chiwenga doing it, even as a coup was imminent.

In the 1990s and 2000s, constitutional amendments kept strengthening the president. Parliamentary oversight was weakened, and judicial independence was eroded. After the 1987 amendment, more changes followed, including Constitutional Amendment (No. 17) in 2005. It significantly increased presidential power and allowed expropriation of land with limited judicial recourse.

After years of crisis and economic meltdown, the unity government of 2009 to 2013 eased the pressure. Then, in 2013, a new constitution was adopted through a referendum to limit executive power and rebuild democratic institutions. It introduced a mandatory two term limit for the president, and that limit can only be changed through a referendum. It reduced the president’s ability to unilaterally dissolve parliament and led to devolution of power. After 2013 there was a real attempt to contain the imperial and elongated presidency through reform.

But after the 2013 dilution, the old institution re consolidated itself. What looked like an ending later became a subtle consolidation with much less accountability. Under Mnangagwa, who took power in 2017 through a coup, the 2013 constitution has been subverted, eroded, mutilated, and vandalised as power was re centralised.

Constitutional Amendment (No. 1) 2017, gazetted in September 2017, altered the procedure for appointing the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, and Judge President of the High Court. It granted the President direct power to appoint top judicial officers after consultations with the Judicial Service Commission, eliminating the requirement for public interviews.

Constitutional Amendment (No. 2) of 2021 heavily amended the 2013 constitution. It removed the running mate clause, allowed the president to appoint judges without public interviews, and extended senior judges’ tenure beyond 70. This reconsolidated the imperial presidency. Mnangagwa, one of its architects, knows it was built through decades of amendments that centralised power.

Now, changes are being sold as if they abolish the imperial presidency. On the face of it, they may look like abolition. In reality, under current circumstances, they reconsolidate it. They consolidate the executive, centralise power, allow the president to appoint 10 senators to expand patronage, and extend tenure while reducing direct public accountability.

The bill increases presidential term lengths from five to seven years. This is designed to allow the 84 year old Mnangagwa to remain in office until 2030. The new changes abolish direct popular voting for the presidency, shifting responsibility from the people to MPs. This can have merits, but it works where there is strong opposition. In a parliament dominated by Zanu PF and its acolytes, MPs will always rubber stamp the President’s decisions. The President will sip tea with loyalists in parliament, not held accountable by voters via direct franchise.

This system is used in Angola, Botswana, Mauritius and South Africa. Yet in principle a president directly elected by the people is considered more powerful, with greater political autonomy, than a president elected by parliament. In such a captured setup, the executive becomes judge, jury, and player. The two term limit stays on paper, but the spirit is broken. Power grows, while citizens are pushed further away. For now, the imperial presidency subsists, while Zanu PF gets a new lifeline. That is the cold, brutal reality, the hard truth.