The liberation war veterans’ Constitutional Court challenge signals that not all of ZANU-PF’s traditional base is unified. The party has historically derived its legitimacy from the liberation struggle. The dissent of veteran figures such as the late Blessed Runesu Geza, a liberation war veteran and former ZANU-PF Central Committee member who publicly called for Mnangagwa’s resignation before his death in February, shows how deep those fractures run.

Veterans see the changes as even more damaging than the 2017 military coup that brought Mnangagwa to power. For ZANU-PF’s support network, the challenge raises the uncomfortable question of whether the amendment honours the liberation project or serves only elite greed for power.

The Private Voluntary Organisation bill, signed into law in April 2025, was framed as a counter-terrorism measure but functions as a tool to defund civil society, criminalise activism and paralyse human rights work. Civil society is constantly monitored, bureaucratically strangled and subject to direct violence. Members of the Constitution Defenders Forum have been abducted and beaten for wearing party T-shirts. Members of the National Constitutional Assembly, an opposition party that was founded as a pro-democracy civil society group, have been assaulted for trying to hold meetings.

Despite this, resistance persists. The Defend the Constitution Platform has united civic groups, faith organisations, labour unions and opposition politicians. Churches have issued strong statements against the amendment. Activists are mobilising people to engage their representatives through lawful civic platforms. Grassroots collectives, student movements and underground networks continue to organise. Constitutional lawyers are highlighting the referendum requirement to expose the amendment’s illegitimacy, and social media unevenly but persistently amplifies resistance narratives.

Churches provide moral authority and institutional shelter that secular civil society, under direct state targeting, cannot. Faith organisations frame the amendment not as a technical governance question but as a threat to the social contract. Student movements and underground networks fill the space where visible civil society is constrained, maintaining grassroots coordination despite intimidation and surveillance.

Civil society lawyers are running constitutional literacy campaigns to help people understand why the amendment is illegal. Their core message is that the 2013 constitution was built through popular consensus and cannot be changed without public consent. These campaigns build the knowledge base for sustained resistance so it’s grounded in constitutional analysis rather than opposition rhetoric.

Zimbabwe needs genuine respect for the constitution, particularly the direct presidential elections and term limits that underpin democratic legitimacy. This starts with independent institutions. The election commission, the judiciary, the media and parliament must all be free from political capture. Today most are not: their members are bought or co-opted through the ZANU-PF Central Political Committee, and they no longer represent the public.

But institutions alone are not enough. Zimbabwe also needs a stronger, better-coordinated civil society capable of sustaining pressure beyond elite politics and mobilising people around platforms that resonate on economic and social issues. And it needs real pressure from the international community and democratically minded partners, with real consequences for violations of constitutional rules. Above all, civic education must be scaled up so young people understand their rights and can exercise them.

The 2013 constitution is not merely a document; it’s a social contract promising dignity, freedom and justice. The extension of presidential terms is also an extension of human rights abuses, oppression, poverty and unemployment. Young people therefore face a generational mandate to protect their future.