Political Context and Key Events That Zimbabwe has not moved in aligning the afore-mentioned laws with the constitution is easily attributable to lack of political will and fear that freeing Zimbabwe’s democratic space will result in loss of power, more-so for the ruling Zanu PF. Political expediency then becomes the determining factor at the expense of the outstanding reforms critical to entrenching constitutional democracy. Political and economic reforms were thus relegated to the periphery as the succession infighting in Zanu PF persisted in 2017. This culminated in the firing of then Vice President Mnangagwa by President Mugabe before his dramatic comeback to assume the presidency in the wake of the military push which triggered mass demonstrations for Mugabe to vacate office. The new president’s pledge to break with the past, was however, severely tested in the country’s second city of Bulawayo. Youth activists were arrested, detained and tortured after demanding that President Mnangagwa should come clean on his role in the mass killings of an estimated 20 000 citizens by the army during the military insurgency in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the early 1980s. Section 59 provides for the right to petition and protest peacefully. It is also instructive to note that when parliament was convening to institute impeachment proceedings against Mugabe, it cited his failure to implement devolution of power as among his major failures to comply with the constitution. Chapter 14, of the Constitution provides for the devolution of governmental powers and responsibilities to provincial and metropolitan councils constituted by a province’s MPs, mayors, and chairpersons of the provinces’ local authorities, among other provisions. However, in his 2018 National Budget presentation shortly after Mugabe’s resignation, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, hinted at the need to amend this provision to do away with devolution of power. “Funding of the provincial and metropolitan structures, as set out in Chapter 14 ... is not sustainable and political parties represented in Parliament should in the future give consideration to amending the Constitution to lessen the burden on the fiscus,” said Chinamasa. The 2013 Constitution has already been amended through Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 1 Act, which changed the procedure of appointment of the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President of the High Court. 2