Zimbabwe’s Opposition Accuses Government of Constitutional Coup
Last update: February 11, 2026
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Opposition warns cabinet-approved constitutional changes could extend Mnangagwa’s rule beyond 2028.
Leading opposition figures in Zimbabwe accused the government on Wednesday of a constitutional "coup" after the cabinet approved amendments that could allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his time in office.
The proposed changes, accepted by the cabinet on Tuesday, include extending the presidential term to seven years.
The move follows a decision by the ruling Zanu-PF party that Mnangagwa should remain in office beyond the end of his second term in 2028.
The amendments will now be presented to parliament, which is dominated by Zanu-PF, but the opposition insists they also require approval in a national referendum.
"The process that is currently happening in Zimbabwe is a coup by the incumbent to extend his term of office against the will of the people," opposition politician Job Sikhala said.
He added, "We have got an incumbent who wants to railroad himself, using the tyrannical and dictatorial tendencies of his rule, into another two years to 2030." Sikhala said his National Democratic Working Group has requested intervention from the African Union.
CBI News reports that Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who ruled the country for 37 years.
He was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and reelected in 2023, but critics accuse him of allowing widespread corruption to benefit Zanu-PF while undermining democratic rights.
Sikhala, a former lawmaker with the Citizens Coalition for Change party, was arrested in South Africa last year for alleged possession of explosives, which he says were planted in his vehicle in an apparent assassination attempt.
Jameson Timba, a CCC leader who founded the Defend the Constitution Platform, said in a statement on X, "What is unfolding in Zimbabwe is not constitutional reform. It is a constitutional coup."
He added that the president and his party are using "formal processes" such as cabinet decisions "to entrench power without the free and direct consent of the people."
