and not before the coup, was not for the army but against Robert Mugabe, and, without the guarantee of safety by the army, it is extremely doubtful that there would have been mass demonstrations. Recent work by MPOI and RAU strongly indicates how ―risk averse‖ Zimbabwean citizens actually are.9 Lest there be any doubt that a coup took place, look at the Constitution. Section 110 gives the responsibility only to President to deploy the defence forces. Section 113 gives power only to the President to declare a state of emergency. Section 208 requires the security forces to act within the constitution, be wholly non-partisan, forbids them to act in support of any political party or cause. Section 212 requires the Defence Forces to protect Zimbabwe, its people, its national security and interests and its territorial integrity and to uphold this Constitution. Section 213 gives only to the President the power to deploy the Defence Forces. And, finally, Section 214 requires the President to expeditiously inform parliament when he deploys the Defence Forces. Here it is worth a careful reading of Alex Magaisa’s last two Big Saturday Reads, and note also the number of violations of the Constitution that still continue. The first draws attention to the one very dangerous judgement by Justice George Chiweshe, which suggests, possibly drawing on Section 212, that there are conditions in which the Defence Forces can determine for themselves when they need to protect the country, etc.10 He points out that the basis for this judgement requires the most urgent challenge. The notion in this judgement, that the military can determine for themselves when the constitution or the state is under threat, creates a power outside the executive, parliament and the courts. This most certainly is not what the constitution intended, bluntly allows legal coups, and seems manifestly unconstitutional. Even if the judgement did attempt to draw upon Section 212 as justification for the intervention of the army in civilian affairs, it seems unlikely that a superior court could uphold this, as Section 212 would have to be read together with all the other Sections indicated above. Taken all together, it is evident that the Constitution envisages the military remaining wholly under civilian authority, only deployed by civilian, and nowhere suggests that the military have any independent power to deploy themselves ever. Magaisa’s second article point outs the number of other ways in which the Constitution continues to be violated: both in the delay in the appointment of a Vice or Vice-Presidents, and the more serious problem of the military remaining in civilian space in the absence of an order by the President under Section 113, and/or the failure to notify Parliament under Section 214.11 The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the government that is now in place is illegitimate, and what will be the consequences. Moving forward from the coup The first, and this is what is generally being spoken about, is that this coup may be a good thing, and the means justifies the end. The rule of Robert Mugabe has ended, and we can look 9 RAU & MPOI (2017), Risk Taking in 2017: Preliminary findings. December 2017, MPOI & RAU (in press). Alex Magaisa, Big Saturday Read: Legal charade threatens new government. November 25th 2017. [https://www.bigsr.co.uk/single-post/2017/11/25/Big-Saturday-Read-Legal-charade-threatens-new-government] 11 Alex Magaisa, Big Saturday Read: Government must avoid legal missteps, December 4th 2017. [https://www.bigsr.co.uk/single-post/2017/12/04/BSR-Government-must-avoid-legal-missteps] 10