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Civil society and opposition groups in Zimbabwe on Tuesday denounced a series of attacks on their planned events as “terrorism.”
These groups were organising to challenge the ruling Zanu-PF party’s controversial push to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term in office until 2030, a move critics fear will deepen authoritarianism.
The attacks targeted events scheduled ahead of Mnangagwa’s annual State of the Nation speech. The venue for a press conference in Harare—the premises of the Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Trust NGO—was hit by “arsonists” overnight, according to SAPES director Ibbo Mandaza.
Mandaza recounted a security guard’s statement that approximately 10 individuals attacked the site shortly after midnight.
The attackers reportedly bundled the guard into a vehicle, gagged him, and threw a petrol bomb into the seminar room.
Following this incident, the house of activist Gilbert Bgwende, a member of the Constitutional Defence Forum, was also burnt down.
The opposition’s efforts were thwarted elsewhere as well.
A planned press conference in Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city, was cancelled after its venue was “literally sealed” by alleged state security personnel and vigilantes, according to organiser Prince Dubeko Sibanda.
Prominent lawyer Tendai Biti publicly condemned the violence, calling the incidents “desperate broad daylight terrorism” and “unacceptable.”
He maintained that the attacks reflected the “regime’s paranoia” but would not deter their unified resistance against “the mutilation of our constitution.”
These events occur as critics accuse the ZANU-PF government, in power since 1980, of stifling democracy and dissent amid a collapse in the national economy, which has been plagued by hyperinflation, high unemployment, and alleged cronyism.
