Mhlanga at UN Geneva vs Mahere in 2023 is the epitome of our 1 step forward 3 back. W Mukori

 @ Gabriel Manyati

When speaking in Geneva becomes a crime in Harare

The contrast is as stark as it is unsettling. In Geneva, the atmosphere is defined by a curated diplomatic silence, where the soft rustle of briefing papers and the measured cadence of human rights rapporteurs suggest a world of orderly accountability.

It is a space designed for the clinical examination of state conduct. Yet, for a Zimbabwean citizen like Blessed Mhlanga, the distance between the pristine halls of the Palais des Nations and the humid, tense political climate of Harare is non-existent.

When he stood before an international audience to articulate the lived realities of his compatriots, he was not merely delivering a report. He was performing a constitutional act.

However, the subsequent reaction from the Zimbabwean authorities suggests that in the eyes of the state, such speech is an act of jurisdictional transgression. The anxiety radiating from the capital reveals a profound insecurity.

To the ruling elite, the crime is not the content of the testimony but the audacity of the venue. The question that haunts the Zimbabwean body politic is why a citizen speaking truth to power in a global forum is perceived as a more significant threat than the systemic failures that necessitate such speech.

This hostility toward internationalised dissent is not a modern aberration but a consistent thread in the fabric of Zimbabwean governance.

The current threats against Mhlanga are the latest iteration of a historical project aimed at the total monopolisation of the national narrative.

We have seen this machinery in operation before, most notably in the early 2000s when the state treated independent journalism as an existential threat.

The forced closure of The Daily News in 2003 remains a seminal wound in our democratic memory, representing the physical dismantling of a counter-narrative. That era was defined by a legislative arsenal designed to stifle the inquisitive mind.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act served as the twin pillars of a fortress intended to keep the truth in and the world out.

During those crisis years, journalists were not just reporters but were framed as agents of foreign influence, a trope that continues to be recycled with wearying regularity.

Even with the transition of 2017 and the promise of a new dispensation, the structural impulses of the state have remained remarkably static.

While the methods have evolved from the blunt force of the 2000s to more sophisticated forms of reputational management and digital controls, the underlying philosophy is unchanged. The state remains convinced that it owns the story of Zimbabwe.

When the internet was shut down in 2019, it was an admission that the state could no longer compete in the marketplace of ideas and thus chose to burn the market down.

The Geneva episode fits perfectly into this lineage. It reveals a state that equates criticism with destabilisation and transparency with treason.

The irony is that the more the state attempts to manage its image through the intimidation of journalists, the more it confirms the very accusations of authoritarianism it seeks to deny.

It is a cycle of repression where the pursuit of narrative control leads to the further erosion of international legitimacy.

The persecution of speech delivered to international human rights bodies is more than a violation of individual liberty. It is a direct assault on the 2013 Constitution.

Our supreme law is explicit in its protection of the freedom of expression and the right of every citizen to engage with both domestic and international institutions.

When a journalist is threatened for participating in a United Nations process, the state is effectively declaring that certain parts of the Constitution are suspended once a citizen crosses the border.

This creates a profound contradiction. The government frequently cites its adherence to constitutionalism when seeking international investment or diplomatic re-engagement, yet it punishes the exercise of those very constitutional rights when they result in unfavourable optics.

This tension brings us to the core of the sovereignty debate. There are two competing visions of what it means for Zimbabwe to be a sovereign nation.

The first is a democratic sovereignty, where the strength of the nation is derived from the ability of its citizens to critique, engage and improve its institutions.

In this model, the journalist who speaks in Geneva is a patriot because he holds the state to the standards it has publicly committed to upholding. The second vision is narrative sovereignty.

In this darker iteration, the state claims an exclusive right to define reality. It views the national story as private property.

Under this logic, any citizen who offers a different account of the Zimbabwean experience to the international community is viewed as a thief of the national image.

By punishing Mhlanga, the state is attempting to assert a form of sovereignty that excludes the people, effectively arguing that the state is the nation and the nation is the state.

The psychology of this response speaks volumes about the nature of power in Harare. Secure governments do not fear the testimony of a single journalist. Robust institutions do not tremble at the prospect of a briefing in Geneva.

The aggressive reaction to Mhlanga's speech reveals an institutional fragility that no amount of official propaganda can mask. There is a deep-seated fear that if the state loses control over the international narrative, it loses its grip on the mechanisms of political survival.

Consequently, the state frames international criticism as a form of economic sabotage or a threat to national security. This framing is a tactical necessity because it allows the state to bypass the substance of the critique and focus instead on the supposed motives of the critic.

However, the strategy of silencing critics abroad almost always backfires. In the digital age, the attempt to suppress a story only ensures it travels further and faster.

By threatening a journalist for speaking at a global forum, the Zimbabwean authorities have ensured that the human rights situation in the country receives far more scrutiny than it might have otherwise.

It is a self-defeating exercise in power. Instead of addressing the underlying issues raised in Geneva, the state has chosen to provide a fresh example of the very repression that was being discussed.

This suggests a leadership that is more concerned with the appearance of order than the functional reality of justice.

The fate of Blessed Mhlanga is not a solitary concern for the media fraternity. It is a litmus test for the Zimbabwean citizen.

If we accept that the state has the right to punish speech delivered beyond our borders, we are essentially consenting to a form of ideological imprisonment. We are agreeing that our rights as citizens are conditional and geographically bounded.

The democratic future of Zimbabwe depends entirely on whether we retain ownership of our voices.

A nation is not a monolith represented by a single official voice. It is a complex, often discordant choir of millions of people. To silence one voice because it spoke in a different room is to diminish the entire nation.

Ultimately, the integrity of our constitutional order is measured by how the state treats its most vocal critics. True national confidence does not manifest in the silencing of dissent but in the ability to withstand it.

If Zimbabwe is to truly claim its place among the community of nations, it must first stop fearing its own people.

The road to a prosperous and stable republic does not run through the interrogation rooms of the secret police or the threatening statements of government spokesmen. It runs through the unfettered exercise of the rights we gave ourselves in 2013.

We must remember that while the state may occupy the seats of power, the story of Zimbabwe belongs to the people of Zimbabwe, whether they are speaking in the streets of Harare or the halls of Geneva.

----------------Gabriel Manyati is a Zimbabwean journalist and analyst delivering incisive commentary on politics, human interest stories, and current affairs.

One of the great tragedies of our failed political system is our knack to undermine ourselves. We take one step forward and, serpiginously, fuliginously, take two or more steps backward. And, to rub insult to injury, it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who take the forward step and the ruling elite who drag us all back!

In 2023 it was none other than Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, then spokesperson of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, CCC led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa, who graced the same pristine halls of the Palais des Nations in Geneva Blessed Mhlanga spoke from. 

Mahere ticked all the relevant boxes of being a victim of the Zanu PF brutality - she had spend time in the regime’s notorious prisons. She made a big song and dance of how the Zanu PF regime was ridding roughshod over the citizens denying them they basic freedoms and human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. She pretended to care about rigged elections but in reality she and her oppositions fiends did not give a damn!

Mahere had participated in the 2018 Zimbabwe elections and made it clear she and her CCC party were going to participate in the 2023 elections. They knew that Zanu PF was rigging and that participating would give the regime legitimacy. Still they have soldiered on because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate no matter what. 

And so all the excellent work individuals like Mhlanga were doing to push Zanu PF to accept meaningful democratic changes was being undone by the men and women the nation had entrusted the political power to bring about the political changes the nation is dying for. 

Zimbabwe’s MDC/CCC opposition have not only sold out by failing to implement even one token reform in 26 years but have been conning the nation to participate in flawed elections to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship out of selfish greed. Such treasonous betrayal by the ruling elite, first Zanu PF and now the MDC/CCC opposition, is Zimbabwe’s worst curse!

Tshabangu has upped the ante from hunting with Zanu PF hounds by night to by night and by day! W Mukori

 Self‑imposed Citizens Coalition for Change secretary‑general Sengezo Tshabangu has threatened to move a motion in Parliament calling for the cancellation of Alpha Media Holdings journalist Blessed Mhlanga’s passport following remarks he made at the Geneva Summit, where he described Zimbabwe as a tyrannical state.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Tshabangu labelled Mhlanga “unpatriotic”.

“I listened to @bbmhlanga speaking at the Geneva Summit, and I was deeply moved by his remarks. As an opposition politician and a Senator in the Parliament of Zimbabwe, I will raise a motion in the Senate urging the Government to cancel his passport. Patriotism must be upheld,” Tshabangu wrote.

Speaking in Geneva, Mhlanga said: “This is the new face of repression in Zimbabwe, laced with sophistication. In the past, it was naked violence on the streets, abductions and forced disappearances. It has changed - it is now violence committed through the legal system, what I call ‘lawfare’.”

He added that Zimbabwe had not become more democratic, but rather more sophisticated in its methods of oppression.

“So the world can pretend that Zimbabwe is democratising. But the worst is yet to come. And as a journalist, I will continue my search for the truth. Journalism is all I know; it is all I intend to do,” he said.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked livelihoods, limbs and many have dies to elect MDC/CCC leaders into power on the understanding they will implement democratic reforms, end the Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a healthy democratic system of government. Alas! That was not to be. 

MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one token reform in 26 years including 5 GNU years when they had the best chance ever to do so. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, E-Class Mercedes Benz limos for all the deputy ministers, ministers, two deputy PM and PM Tsvangirai; very generous salary and allowances for all elected officials and a US$4m mansion for Tsvangirai. We thought that was all. Wrong! 

Top MDC/CCC leaders got farms, cash from RBZ and others benefits; the details of which are only starting to come out now.

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders are enjoying the benefit of being on the gravy train, they will not rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies when they were asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms during the GNU. It was not an empty boast!

Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC/CCC leaders have conned Zimbabweans to participate in flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging and that participating would give the regime legitimacy and thus perpetuating it and the nation’s suffering. They have done it regardless because they also knew the regime was offering a few gravy train seats, POLAD and other inducements to entice the opposition to participate no matter how flawed and illegal the election process got!

Like it or not MDC/CCC leaders have become Zanu PF team B in all but name, playing for team A to win and have legitimacy. Mnangagwa has publicly boasted about how well the opposition is helping to keep Zanu PF in power!

Zanu PF has denied the people their fundamental freedoms and rights including freedom of expression to stifle all meaningful debate and democratic accountability. The country media is dominated by the government controlled public media which is the party’s propaganda mouth piece. The regime has harassed and persecuted the private media accusing it of being unpatriotic. 

In Zimbabwe saying anything that portrays the nation in the negative light regardless whether it is true and relevant; indeed, especially if it true and relevant; is deemed unpatriotic.  

Of course, it is true that Zimbabwe is a failed state in which the regime is riding roughshod over the people denying them their freedom, basic rights and human dignity. Blessed Mhlanga is being punished by the regime for daring speak out against the tyranny and oppression. It is relevant that people speak out against tyranny and oppression - speaking out is as natural as creaming - and it is natural to seek a peaceful means to end one’s suffering.

How ironic that the MDC/CCC leaders, elected by the people to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, have been so thoroughly corrupt by the regime they moved from running with the povo hare by day and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds by night to hunting with the hounds even in broad day! By publicly labelling Mhlanga unpatriotic, Tshabangu is hunting with the Zanu PF hounds in broad daylight. No more hiding!

Amendment 2026 is a decoy, false choice, focus on implementing reforms. Do it and Zanu PF would be history! W Mukori

 To a mouse the choice of black mamba or cobra is a false choice because either snake will kill it. The real  choice for the mouse is DEATH or LIFE. The mouse will instinctively choose life, escape from both black mamba and cobra.

The easily with which Zanu PF has presented the people of Zimbabwe with false choices again and again and the people have again and again fallen for it is unbelievable.

November 2017 military coup presented the nation with the choose of either to support the military coup and Mnangagwa as the new dictator or be stuck with the old dictator Robert Mugabe. There was never any doubt that the two are dictators, snakes, and per se false choice. 

Some people ave argued that there was no other course of action. The mouse would never ever think that way because it recognised both snakes as one choice DEATH and did not need anyone to prompt it to know the alternative to death is LIFE. Of course, nation had an alternative course of action - fight to end the dictatorship.

Indeed, it was the nation's growing restlessness for meaning political change that made the 2017 military coup possible. It is no secret that the economic meltdown, the political oppression and the sheer hopelessness pervading society and the situation unsustainable. The military coup offered to remove Mugabe and relief the growing pressure. I worked the people accepted the false choice. 

Mnangagwa promised to stamp out corruption and hold free and fair elections; he was sugar coating the bitter pill. Corruption under Mugabe was bad under Mnangagwa it has gone into overdrive. Zanu PF blatantly rigged  the 2018 elections.

Mnangagwa got 32% of the vote and the Army top brass (some of whom had resigned their Army post to take up civilian position in government) who pulled all the strings behind ZEC rigged the vote count to ge Mnangagwa over the winning line. "We did not stage the coup to let the opposition win!" the generals argued, according to Jealousy Mawarire, a political insider. 

So within a few months many people realise that what they had thought was a meaningful choice was indeed a false choice. But it was too late to change  and so have lived with he consequences of that foolish decision for 9 years and counting. 

Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the 2023 elections making him illegitimate. He got away with it because Chamisa had conned millions of his followers to participate in the flawed elections. This should have galvanised the nation to end the illegitimacy and/or ensure the folly of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy is never ever repeated again. 

The call for Mnangagwa's stay in office beyond the stipulated maximum two terms, ED2030 Agenda, was thrown in the ring soon after the 2023 elections. The regime knew this would draw all attention from the rigged 2023 elections and the consequences there of. It worked! Another false choice! 

Constitution Amendment 2026 is a follow on to ED2030 Agenda, a decoy to draw the nation's attention from the fact that the regime has not implemented even one token reform since the rigged 2023 elections so the next elections will be no different. Amendment 2026 is proposing even worse electoral fraud than in 2023 and the nation has once again panicked. People are rallying to defend the constitution - the same constitution that has failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections and giving them this illegitimate Mnangagwa dictatorship.

Yet another false choice: either accept the present status quo and get a new Zanu PF dictator or Mnangagwa will remain in power with additional dictatorial powers. 

Ignore amendment 2026 because it is a decoy focus on demanding the implementation of democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Indeed, if the reforms had been implemented we would not have this weak and feeble constitution nor the Zanu PF dictatorship!

Amendment 2026 WILL impose de jure dictatorship - substantive issue Moyo's ad hominem fallacy is avoiding. W Mukori

 @ Professor J Moyo

“BEWARE OF THE AD HOMINEM FALLACY IN THE DEBATE ON CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS, 2026: Scoundrels, charlatans and misfits of society respond to SPEECH whose logic and facts they cannot disprove or match by DEMONISING and BESMIRCHING the SPEAKER.

An ad hominem fallacy, from the Latin phrase meaning "to the person," occurs in arguments when someone attacks the character, motives, personal traits or situation of the person making an argument, rather than addressing the substance or merits of the argument itself.

The purpose of the tactic is to divert attention from the actual issue, without engaging the argument's evidence or logic. The personal attack doesn't refute the point being made. An example of this is when an academic trained at the highest level and published in economics, Professor Gift Mugano, was mocked and demonised - by social media malcontents who could not engage the data and methodology involved - for technically highlighting the announcement by Zimbabwe Treasury and The Reserve Bank Zimbabwe that January 2026 marked the first single-digit annual inflation rate in the ZiG currency in over three decades - a transformative 4.1% year-on-year drop that signals significant economic revival in the country.

The mockery and demonisation to which Prof Mugano was subjected is called an ad hominem fallacy, to describe the fact that it fails to provide a substantive, technical and logical rebuttal. It is trite that sound arguments should stand or fall on their own evidence, not on who presents them. Relying on ad hominem fallacy in lieu of insightful commentary demonstrates one's intellectual poverty, as it avoids substantive and informing debate.

There are three common types of ad hominem fallacies, especially on social media platforms, such as these streets. One is "abusive ad hominem", which uses direct insults, for example, "You're a mercenary, so your evidence or analysis is worthless."

Another type is "circumstantial ad hominem", which involves attacking a person based on his or her social situation or affiliations, for example, "of course you'd say that - you are Zanu-PF."

There's yet another type best described as, "tu quoque ad hominem" (you too) based on purporting to point out one's hypocrisy, for example, "you are supporting the proposed constitution amendments today, but in 2018 you criticised President Mnangagwa and called him unelectable," which doesn't address the substance and merits of the amendments.

This third type of ad hominem fallacy is particularly rampant here on "X", where some TL Scavengers, who scavenge posts or tweets from a donkey's years ago and use them with reckless abandon as their only "data" - without context or relevance—against speakers whose speech, on a current and topical issue, they cannot competently engage or challenge with substance, logic and facts!”

Professor Jonathan Moyo is not saying anything new other than giving us a the Latin name, ad hominem fallacy, to something we have known all along. The late Edisson Jonas Mudadirwa Zvobgo called this ad hominem fallacy, the Mozambique syndrome. 

"Whenever they (his fellow Zanu PF cronies) lost an argument when we were in Mozambique, they would accuse you of being CIA to avoid the substantive issues," he explained.

“Today they call you an American puppet to avoid responsibility.”

As Zanu PF’s chief strategist and propagandist, especially his days as Minister of Information, Professor Moyo horned and perfected Zimbabwe’s public media ad hominem fallacy tactics until they were as sharp as a Samurai sword! One memorable time when Professor Moyo and the Zanu PF propaganda machine was fully mobilised was in attacked Dr Nevers Mumba, the chair person of the SADC 2023 Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission. 

“Conclusion 13.3

The SEOM (SADC Election Observer Mission) noted that, as detailed in sections 6 and 7 of this report, some aspects of the Harmonised Elections fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act, and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2021),” stated the SEOM report.

The torrent of criticism from Professor Jonathan Moyo and the Zanu PF hunting dogs were vicious and relentless but - as usual - never addressed the substantive issues that the 2023 Zimbabwe elections were flawed and illegal. Never! 

The truth is these Zanu PF thugs may think avoiding the substantive issues is being smart. They are wrong. Zimbabwe is a failed state precisely because we have repeated the same ill-advised policies born out of a political system that stifle debate and all meaningful democratic competition. 

The Mozambique syndrome allowed the scum like Mugabe and Mnangagwa to rise as party leaders at the expense of the cream, man like Edisson Zvobgo. 46 years of being ruled by the scum has let Zimbabwe a failed state whose economy is in ruins and millions of our people are living in abject poverty and millions more have left the country as economic and/or political refugee. 

As SEOM report rightly pointed out, Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the 2023 elections and is, per se, illegitimate. He only got away with it because Chamisa & co. conned millions of their followers to participate in flawed elections. It is an outrage that he should be seeking to extend his illegitimate stay in State House. 

The Zimbabwe Constitution Amendment 2026 seek to extend not only Mnangagwa’s stay in State House but the 5 year term of office of MPs and Senators to 7 years just to avoid the up coming 2028 elections. Zanu PF rigged 2023 elections and, with not even one reform implemented, was certain to rig 2028 too. However the regime is not so confident it will get away with it this time. 

Chamisa has lost a lot of political credibility following his pathetic antics during the 2023 elections. Millions believed his idiotic lie of plugging vote rigging loop holes and participated in the flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Many of the brain dead Chamisa chete chete brigade members have finally accepted that Chamisa lied to them. The penny has finally dropped. Chamisa was not going to con millions to participate in 2028 elections that much is clear as day!

Mnangagwa is a buffoon but he is not that stupid he cannot read the writing on the wall. The only way for Zanu PF to retain its iron grip on power is by pushing through Amendment 2026! And Professor Jonathan Moyo knows that too and being the master of ad hominem fallacy, tu quoque ad hominem fallacy, etc.; he gave us a lecture on all these fallacies without addressing the substantive issue - Amendment 2026 will deny the people of Zimbabwe their fundamental right to a meaning say in the governance of the country, the final nail in the people’s coffin, and making Zimbabwe a de jure dictatorship.