Zimbabwe Rights Groups, Opposition Stage Online Protest Against Constitutional Amendments

HARARE, ZIMABABWE - Zimbabwean opposition and rights groups have held an online protest against proposed constitutional amendments that would allow the president to handpick top judges.  Thousands of people viewed the Thursday night rally, which was streamed online to avoid arrests amid a coronavirus lockdown and ban on public gatherings.

Stanley Gwanzura – better known as Pastor G, a Zimbabwean gospel musician – sang “It Shall Be Well” as the opposition and rights groups started the online “rally” Thursday evening.   Jestina Mukoko, a director of a rights NGO named the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was one of the organizers of the #ResistDictatorshipConstitution rally. “Should we just allow a few people to amend the constitution? As Zimbabweans, should we allow ourselves to be short-changed? It removes the tenets that we want to aspire to get to as Zimbabweans: democracy, transparency and accountability. If these amendments are allowed to take root, it means what we will have at the end is a dictatorship and this is why we are saying #ResistDictatorshipConstitution,” Mukoko said.