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Freedom of expression is a constitutional right. It should not become a right that exists only when it is convenient for those in power. From internet restrictions during political events to arbitrary arrests of journalists and disruptions affecting political communication, the pattern is difficult to ignore. When access to...

12,692 views • 11 days ago •via X (Twitter)

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Armed men accompanied by the Zimbabwean police forced their way into the offices of Prof Lovemore Madhuku’s political party, violently interrupting a meeting and attacking several participants, among them the constitutional lawyer, Prof Lovemore Madhuku. This attack is deeply troubling for Zimbabwe as it reflects a dangerous erosion of democratic space and shows that even lawful constitutional engagement is no longer safe from intimidation and violence. When armed individuals can storm a civic and political meeting with apparent impunity, it casts serious doubt on the state of the rule of law and the security of citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Prof Madhuku is opposed to Constitutional Amendment No. 3, which seeks to extend President Mnangagwa’s term of office and change the presidential term from five to seven years. He has an active case before the Constitutional Court challenging this process. Targeting him, as the state has now effectively done, sends a deeply disturbing message that this amendment will not be handled through open, democratic engagement where citizens are free to oppose or support it without fear. When a constitutional lawyer with a matter before the highest court is assaulted and intimidated, it undermines the integrity of the judicial process itself. It shows that power is being asserted through coercion rather than constitutionalism. Instead of allowing robust debate and lawful challenge, the authorities appear to be repeating the very mistakes that have, in the past, drawn damaging international scrutiny and weakened the country’s global standing. Heavy handed tactics do not silence controversy, they amplify it. If this process continues in this manner, it will inevitably attract serious international attention and further erode confidence in Zimbabwe’s commitment to the rule of law and democratic governance. These violent attacks even make it difficult for those who were supporting the amendment to continue doing so publicly, because they expose the reality that this process is not being advanced on the basis of legal principle or genuine constitutional reform. Instead, it increasingly appears to be driven by intimidation, violence and repression aimed at forcing citizens into submission without honest, open debate. When support for a constitutional amendment must be sustained through fear rather than persuasion, the legitimacy of that amendment is already compromised. A constitutional change of this magnitude should stand on the strength of its arguments, not on the silencing of critics. Resorting to coercion does not strengthen the case for reform, it weakens it and deepens national division. If a constitution must be amended at gunpoint, then it is no longer reform, it is a declaration that power fears the very people it claims to represent. You don’t win hearts and minds through violence, you do so through engagement!

Hopewell Chin’ono

65,278 views • 7 months ago

The Constitution of Ireland begins not with government, but with the Nation—with the People themselves. That is not symbolism. That is authority. It is from the People that all power flows, and it is by our collective will that we established the Constitution as the supreme law of this State. Within it, we gave ourselves courts—not as instruments of control, but as guardians of liberty. Under Article 34, we vested those courts with a solemn duty: to protect and vindicate our personal rights. Those personal rights are not abstract ideas. They are expressly recognised and protected across the Constitution—beginning in Article 40, and extending through Articles 41, 42, 42A, 43, and 44. Together, they safeguard what it means to live freely and with dignity in Ireland: our personal liberty, our families, our children, our right to educate according to conscience, our private property, and our freedom of religion. These rights do not exist at the pleasure of the State. They do not depend on policy, preference, or administrative convenience. They are fundamental, and they are inalienable. What we are witnessing at this moment is something profoundly serious. A member of the Government—holding office as a Minister of State, an office that exists only by statute—has purported, through a statutory instrument, to prevent the People of Ireland from exercising their constitutional rights in their own courts. That cannot stand. No statutory instrument can override the Constitution. No minister, junior or otherwise, can suspend fundamental rights. No act of secondary legislation can lawfully obstruct access to the courts where those rights are vindicated. To suggest otherwise is not merely mistaken—it is constitutionally impossible. The courts do not belong to the executive. They do not belong to departments. They belong to the People, because the Constitution says so. And so, this is where the line is drawn. The Constitution is not optional. Fundamental rights are not negotiable. Access to justice is not a privilege to be rationed. Tomorrow, the law will be laid plainly before the Minister for Justice—not in defiance, but in fidelity to the Constitution; not in anger, but in duty to the People; not for personal grievance, but for the protection of all. Because if fundamental rights can be restrained today, they can be extinguished tomorrow. And if we do not stand now, we leave our children standing alone later. This is not about power. It is about principle. It is about ensuring that the Constitution lives—not on paper, but in practice. And it is about the furtherance of our fundamental rights, so that we may protect ourselves, our families, our children, the way we educate our children, our private property, and our religion—today, and for generations to come. #NoFeeOnGuarantee

Patrick McGreal

11,855 views • 9 months ago