Harare has done it again. Zimbabwe’s parliament, in a move that reeks of political theatre and historical inevitability, passed a bill extending the president’s time in power. The British Commonwealth, ever the scold of post-colonial democracies, warns of ‘democratic backsliding’. But let us not feign surprise. This is the natural rhythm of African strongman politics: the leader who cannot bear to let go, the legislature that functions as a rubber stamp, and the international community that tut-tuts before moving on to the next crisis.
The bill, which sailed through with the usual majority, effectively kicks the can of transition down the road. Opposition MPs walked out, citing a ‘farce’. They are right, but they miss the point. In Zimbabwe, as in Rome under the late empire, the forms of democracy are maintained even as the substance evaporates. The president becomes not a temporary steward but a permanent fixture, like a statue in the forum. The Commonwealth’s warning is noble but impotent. It has no army, no trade lever strong enough to turn Harare’s head.
What we witness is not an anomaly but a pattern. From Mugabe to Mnangagwa, the script is the same: constitutional amendments, emergency powers, and the gradual erosion of term limits. The West wrings its hands, but its own history is littered with similar episodes. The British, after all, had their own long-serving prime ministers. The difference is one of degree, not kind. Zimbabwe’s economy is a basket case, its currency a joke, its youth desperate for exit visas. Yet the president clings on, surrounded by sycophants who tell him he is indispensable.
The Commonwealth’s statement is a masterpiece of diplomatic understatement: ‘deep concern’, ‘democratic principles’. One imagines a Victorian schoolmaster wagging a finger at a recalcitrant pupil. But pupils do not listen when the master has no cane. The real question is not whether Zimbabwe is backsliding – it never truly climbed the hill – but whether the international community is willing to do more than issue press releases. History suggests it is not.
So we watch, as we always do, the slow decay of yet another post-colonial dream. The bill will pass, the president will remain, the people will grumble, and the world will move on. The only novelty is the speed at which it happens. In an age of accelerations, even decline must be rapid.
