Lawyer Jaqueline Sande has warned that Zimbabwe is drifting towards becoming a kingdom, and suggested that President Emmerson Mnangagwa may ultimately declare himself “King Munhumutapa.”
Her warning follows Mnangagwa’s declaration of his own birthday, 15 September, as a new public holiday named Munhumutapa Day.
“Zimbabwe is slowly becoming a kingdom — and the nation barely seems to notice,” Sande wrote on X. “From ‘2030 ndinenge ndichipo’ [I will still be there in 2030] to turning his birthday into an annual public holiday called Munhumutapa Day, the dictator in Mnangagwa has now fully blossomed.”
Sande argued that while Mnangagwa had not formally crowned himself, the symbolism of the new holiday came close to doing so.
“No, he hasn’t formally crowned himself King Munhumutapa; he’s merely a step away from doing that. But when your birthday becomes a national holiday and is wrapped in the symbolism of an ancient royal title, forgive me if I call it a coronation without the crown,” she wrote.
She warned that the ideals of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle were at risk of being eroded by a political establishment increasingly centred on one individual.
“Everything our people fought for in the two Chimurenga wars risks landing safely in the hands of a political establishment steadily personalising power and rewriting the meaning of our sovereignty,” she said.
Sande’s warning echoes concerns raised by constitutional law expert Advocate Thabani Mpofu, who has described the timing of the Munhumutapa Day declaration as deeply troubling.
The announcement came on the same day Mnangagwa told the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo in Masvingo that he expected to still be in power nine years from now.
Mpofu said the coincidence between the two statements should not be dismissed lightly.
“It sits somewhere between CAB3 and CAB4, and the fact that Mnangagwa issued it on the same day he announced plans to remain in power beyond 2030 should give us serious pause,” he said, referring to the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill No. 3, which Mnangagwa signed into law in July, and to a widely speculated fourth amendment that could further alter presidential term limits.
Mpofu went further, suggesting the holiday could represent the first step towards a fundamental shift in Zimbabwe’s system of government.
“I choose to see it, insane as it may sound, as the beginning of an attempt to alter our constitutional order; perhaps the first step towards a monarchy,” he said. “This is not senile madness. It is something far more troubling: a desecration.”
The holiday was formally declared through Statutory Instrument 148 of 2026, issued under Section 2(2) of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act [Chapter 10:21] and published in the Government Gazette Extraordinary on 9 September 2026.
The notice states: “It is hereby declared that the 15th of September every year henceforth, shall be a public holiday to be known as Munhumutapa Day.”
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