Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation

Handshake and a Placard

Details: Written by: John Burke; Published: 11 July 2026; Last Updated: 11 July 2026; Hits: 337

A Handshake and a Placard:

ZANU PF's "Investment Forum" Meets the [real] Diaspora at 429 The Strand

By ZHRO / Constitution Defenders Forum / ROHR — London, 10 July 2026

Three days after Emmerson Mnangagwa put his signature to the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Act, the regime's embassy in London tried to sell investors on Zimbabwe. Outside, on the pavement, the diaspora explained why that pitch doesn't survive contact with the facts.

Two events, one address

Friday 10 July 2026 saw two things happen at 429 The Strand on the same afternoon, under the same roof, and neither made sense without the other.

Inside, the Zimbabwe Diaspora Business Forum – London, billed under the theme "Leveraging Diaspora Expertise for Sustainable Development" and fronted by the Financial Markets Indaba and CBZ Holdings, ran from 17:00 to 20:00. The invitation promised a "structured platform" connecting diaspora capital with Zimbabwe's "priority development projects."

Outside, the Constitution Defenders Forum (CDF), the Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation (ZHRO), ROHR Zimbabwe and allied diaspora groups gathered under banners reading "ZANU-PF REGIME MUST GO" and "ZANU-PF REGIME STOP: ABDUCTIONS, ARBITRARY ARREST, PERSECUTION, CORRUPTION, POLICE BRUTALITY, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS." A Metropolitan Police Liaison Officer stood by, as he has done at every one of these demonstrations outside the embassy over the past eighteen months.

Manufactured Immunity

Details: Written by: John Burke; Published: 02 July 2026; Last Updated: 02 July 2026; Hits: 228

MANUFACTURED IMMUNITY

How Zimbabwe's “Patriotic Act” Was Drafted to Never Touch the Hands That Wield It

A ZHRO Briefing Note on CAB3, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act, 2023, and the Politics of One-Way Accountability

Zimbabwe's Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act, 2023 — universally known as the “Patriotic Act” — was sold to the nation as a shield for sovereignty. It criminalises any citizen who, in the state's judgement, “wilfully injures the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe,” with penalties that until a 2025 High Court ruling included death, life imprisonment, loss of citizenship, and a five-year ban from voting or holding office. Its architects insisted it existed to protect the constitutional order from subversion.

Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 (CAB3) now gives that claim its sharpest test. If the Patriotic Act genuinely exists to protect Zimbabwe's constitutional order from those who would “subvert, upset, overthrow or overturn” it, then a bill advanced through a manufactured, coercive, and internationally condemned “consultation” process — one that strips fixed presidential term limits, concentrates judicial appointments in the executive, and weakens independent electoral oversight — ought to be the single clearest case the Act was written to catch. It is not. And the reason why is the argument.

I. A Law Built With Only One Door

Read the Patriotic Act closely and a structural fact emerges: it has no clause, no offence, and no mechanism capable of being turned against the state itself. Section 22A criminalises a citizen who meets or communicates with a foreign government “with the aim of subverting, upsetting, overthrowing or overturning the constitutional government in Zimbabwe.” It criminalises advocacy for sanctions. It criminalises participation in international forums that embarrass the state. Every verb in the statute points outward, from the citizen toward the state, or from the diaspora toward Harare. None of them point back.

This is not an oversight. It is the design. A law intended even-handedly to protect “the constitutional order” from subversion, regardless of who does the subverting, would need to contemplate the possibility that subversion could originate from within government — from a ruling party using its parliamentary majority to rewrite the constitution it swore to uphold. The Patriotic Act contemplates no such thing. It was never drafted as a neutral guardian of constitutional order. It was drafted as a weapon with a single grip, shaped to fit only the hand of the state, and only ever swung outward.

The political capture

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Feltoe; Published: 18 June 2026; Last Updated: 18 June 2026; Hits: 227

The political capture of traditional leaders in Zimbabwe

Chiefs and other traditional leaders are unelected, hereditary figures who serve as the primary local governance structure in rural areas, acting as custodians of cultural values, customs, and communal land while also performing administrative and judicial functions within their communities. In rural Zimbabwe, chiefs control land allocation and access to communal resources and resolve disputes.

Section 281(2) of the 2013 Constitution emphatically provides that traditional leaders must not be members of any political party or in any way participate in partisan politics or act in a partisan manner or further the interests of any political party.

Clause 20 of CAB3 would repeal s 281(2). If this amendment is passed traditional leaders would be allowed to freely engage in political activities. The explanatory memorandum tries to justify this radical change on the basis that stopping traditional leaders from political activity right to take part in political activities violates their political rights. This justification is not sound. If traditional leaders are affiliated to a political party villagers will believe that the will be biased in carrying out their various functions such land allocation, dispute settlement and distribution of government food aid. Villagers who are members of pollical parties not favoured by the traditional leader will fear that they will be discriminated against. The same considerations apply to judges who are required to be politically non-partisan.

There are other compelling reasons why traditional leaders should Zimbabwe to remain politically neutral. Politicisation weakens the cultural and historical role of chiefs, turning them into political operatives rather than custodians of traditional values. Chiefs derive authority from tradition, not elections and their legitimacy depends on their neutrality.

Observer Report - CDF Meeting UK

Details: Written by: John Burke; Published: 08 June 2026; Last Updated: 08 June 2026; Hits: 1283

ZHRO | Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation

zhro.org.uk | Angmering, West Sussex, United Kingdom

OBSERVER REPORT

Constitution Defenders Forum (CDF)

Inaugural UK Town Hall Meeting

Saturday, 6 June 2026 | University of Leicester Campus

Report Author	John C. Burke — Managing Trustee, ZHRO (Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation)
Event Date	Saturday, 6 June 2026
Venue	University of Leicester Campus, Leicester, United Kingdom
Attendance	In excess of 100 Zimbabweans drawn from across the United Kingdom
Report Status	Observer Report — Civil Society Record

1. OBSERVER'S JOURNEY & CONTEXT

This report is submitted in the personal capacity of John C. Burke, Managing Trustee of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation (ZHRO), who attended the event as an observer on Saturday 6 June 2026 — travelling from the ZHRO headquarters in Angmering, West Sussex, arriving at the University of Leicester campus at approximately 11:00 am.

ZHRO was established as a human rights advocacy organisation representing Zimbabweans in the diaspora, and has maintained a sustained campaign over nearly a decade — including multiple petition deliveries to the offices of successive Prime Ministers at 10 Downing Street — on issues of democratic rights, the right of return, the Diaspora Vote, and constitutional protection. Through long-standing partnerships with Chief Felix Ndiweni and his referendum strategies (z-dc.com) and through alliances with ROHR Zimbabwe and other civil society formations, ZHRO has consistently championed the constitutional rights of all Zimbabweans, wherever they reside.

It is in that spirit — and as one who has attended the Zimbabwe Vigil since 2013 — that this observer attended the inaugural UK Town Hall Meeting of the Constitution Defenders Forum.

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