Zimbabwe’s army commander said the country will have “command voting” in future. (Jekesai Njikizana / AFP)

• Zimbabwe’s army commander said the country will have “command voting” in future.
• Military leaders have become prominent in politics since Zimbabwe’s coup, and Zanu-PF’s next head may be the first to not come from among civilians.
• Meanwhile, opposition activists are languishing in jail as the government promises to oppose what it says are planned “theatrics”. 

Zimbabweans will vote whether they like it or not in future, the commander of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) has declared.

Lieutenant General Anselem Sanyatwe told a largely Zanu PF crowd on Saturday that the country would have “command voting”.

He was speaking in the Nyanga North constituency, which his wife Chido Sanyatwe represents as a member of parliament.

While “speaking as the army commander”, Sanyatwe said that people would be marched to voting stations to cast ballots “whether you like it or not.”

Zimbabwe is due for a next general election in 2028.

However, there’s a push by one section of Zanu-PF to have elections in 2030, giving President Emmerson Mnangagwa an extra two years in office. 

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Sanyatwe also warned that Zanu-PF would “continue ruling until donkeys grow horns”.

After a military coup unseated the late Robert Mugabe, a number of army officers retired into civilian politics. Retired general Constantino Chiwenga became one of the country’s two vice presidents.

Chiwenga would be a natural choice to take over from Mnangagwa to lead Zanu-PF, which has been led by civilian politicians since its formation in 1963.

Sanyatwe’s rise to prominence

Sanyatwe, then a brigadier general in charge of the presidential guard, became well known in 2018, after the first polls that did not feature Mugabe or Morgan Tsvangirai. The result of that election, pitting Mnangagwa against Nelson Chamisa’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was disputed.

On 1 August, the day results were announced declaring Mnangagwa the duly elected president, Sanyatwe ordered soldiers to open fire on opposition protesters in Harare.

Six people were killed and many more injured.

This resulted in a SADC inquiry led by South Africa’s former interim president Kgalema Motlanthe.

Appearing before the Motlanthe Commission, Sanyatwe said soldiers under his command did not kill people because they fired at an angle of 45 degrees in the air and not directly at them.

He was later placed on the United States sanctions list for his role in that episode.

In 2019, Mnangagwa briefly retired Sanyatwe from the army to take up the role of ambassador to Tanzania. 

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He returned to the military ranks in late 2023 to become the head of the ZNA.

A tough time to be in opposition 

Even without voters marched into polling stations, opposition is not flourishing in Zimbabwe.

In June alone, the Zimbabwe Republic Police arrested 84 activists linked to the opposition. Of those, 79 were arrested at the home of opposition stalwart Jameson Timba, during what the state says was an unauthorised political gathering.

Only two of the group, a minor and Timba’s son Shaun (said not to be part of the gathering) have been granted bail.

Khanyo Farisè, deputy regional director of Amnesty International, said the arrests were “part of a disturbing pattern of repression against people exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression”.

The other five in custody were linked to Job Sikhala’s National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) in Kuwadzana, a township in Harare.

NDWG in a statement said the government had reacted with paranoia at a time when numerous corruption cases involving the political elite were coming out in the public domain.

NDWG maintains that those arrested were parcelling out food to the less privileged.

Preparing for protest

Zimbabwe last saw riots on 1 July 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, but the state says opposition groups are planning “theatrics” that would undermine the rule of law.

“Government has observed attempts to instigate anarchy, and despondency by some criminal and opportunistic elements in the opposition, some politicians and some civil society organisations,” said Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Jenfan Muswere.

He warned that the government would not hesitate to use state machinery to ensure that law and order prevailed.

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