THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT |ZIMBABWE I 2017 civilian affairs. This development has set a dangerous precedent that will see Zimbabwe struggling with keeping the military out of politics. Following the military coup, Zimbabwe’s status on Freedom House ranking declined from Partly Free to Not Free and its political rights rating declined from 5 to 6 due to the process by which president Robert Mugabe was compelled to resign in November under pressure from the military75. President Mnangagwa took office 9 days after the military coup and subsequently appointed several high-ranking military figures to his cabinet. later, this provision of the Constitution has been totally ignored by the government, in violation of section 324 of the Constitution, which obliges the government to implement constitutional provisions with speed and diligence. In 2016, Mr. Rashid Mahiya, the Executive Director of Heal Zimbabwe Trust brought before the Constitutional Court a suit seeking to compel government to implement this provision. The case was instituted by the NGO, VERITAS, a member of the Forum case number CCZ42/15: Rashid Mahiya v Minister of Justice & Others. The Military Coup d’etat and violation The High Court of Zimbabwe ruled that the military takeover that ousted Mugabe was ‘constitutionally of the Constitution permissible’ and lawful in terms of section 212 and not considered a coup. However, the reasons for this decision are yet to be provided. The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) signed by the government of Zimbabwe in March 2018 is one of the key instruments on the continent that advances democracy, peace and security and does not recognize any unconstitutional change of government. It therefore becomes imperative for the government of Zimbabwe to ratify and domesticate the ACDEG, which is premised on principles of democracy the supremacy of the constitution and rule of law. Other major violations of the constitution happened in 2017 which have ‘raised new transitional justice questions’ for Zimbabwe74. On 15 November 2017, the military staged a military coup, which overthrew the government of Robert Mugabe. The event exposed the military face of the ZANU-PF ruling elite and placed Zimbabwe in a very precarious state with military people occupying key positions in the ‘new government’. Following this development, there is widespread fear that the military is increasingly getting involved in the public sphere, which might also further shrink the civic space in Zimbabwe. Citizens have since grappled with calling the military intervention as a ‘coup’, some have even decided Devolution of power provisions facilitating for the to call it a ‘military assisted transition’ some a ‘new equitable allocation of resources and development; dispensation,’ yet military encroachment in public gender parity life is glaringly evident. All being said it remains a fact that the military intervention was unconstitutional as it violated section 208, which stipulates that the security services must not be involved in politics or See the National Transitional Justice Working Group’s statement following the NPRC What’s Next Conference held on 7 February 2018, available on the link http://www.ntjwg.org.zw/downloads/NPRC%20Statement%202018.pdf 75 This is according to Freedom House Ranking for 2018. See the report here https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/zimbabwe 74 59