Retired Military Generals, Former Senior Civil Servants Urge Zimbabweans To Resist Constitutional Changes

A group of retired army generals, led by former Air Marshal Henry Muchena, alongside former senior civil servants, has called on Zimbabweans to “organise, mobilise and use every lawful method available” to oppose the recently passed Constitutional Amendment Act.

They described the changes as a betrayal of the country’s constitutional order.

In a statement released on Friday, signed by Muchena on behalf of the group, the retired officials condemned the amendments. They said the new law amounted to an attack on the 2013 Constitution.

“Our collective conscience will not allow us to remain silent while the Constitution is dismantled in silence by a few,” the statement said.

“We make no pretence of prescribing every step that must now follow. But this much is plain: Zimbabweans must now organise, mobilise and use every lawful method available to resist and reject this constitutional abomination. Silence is no longer neutrality. Silence is complicity.”

The statement came after President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3 of 2026 into law on 7 July. It was previously known as Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3, or CAB3.

The retired officials argued that the amendments undermine the constitutional settlement agreed in the 2013 referendum.

“This is not a minor amendment. It is not an administrative adjustment. It is an assault on the constitutional covenant made in 2013 by the people of Zimbabwe, through negotiation, national consensus and referendum,” they said.

They compared the changes to the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), claiming political power has once again been placed above the will of the people.

“Zimbabwe has, in spirit if not in form, returned to the dark logic of 11 November 1965… The law is being made to serve power, instead of power submitting to law,” the statement said.

The group stressed that any opposition to the amendments must remain peaceful and lawful.

“Our resistance must be disciplined. It must be lawful. It must be relentless,” they said.