Two Years After The Coup, Authoritarianism Has Been Entrenched - OPINION

A constitutional law lecturer and political commentator, Alex Magaisa, says two years after the coup that toppled the late former President Robert Mugabe, nothing has changed as far as the protection of human rights is concerned.

In his latest “Big Saturday Read”, Magaisa contends that the new dispensation is nothing but a mirage after it entrenched authoritarianism and military rule. He writes:

When Zimbabweans marched freely before Mugabe’s removal, one question that a few of us asked was how long the honeymoon between the military and the citizens would last.

As it turned out, it was very brief. It has been a terribly unhappy marriage; a fallacious union built on the blessings of men in fatigues; an unholy union which has left citizens utterly flummoxed and traumatized.

The so-called Second Republic has failed to repeal Mugabe-era repressive laws, such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), it has continued to trample on citizens’ political rights, the military has often been deployed with deadly consequences and property rights have been ignored willy-nilly.

President Mnangagwa has been characterised as highly paranoid after he enhanced his personal security ever since he took power.

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