The mongoose and these cold, dark days

Just when we thought we were having a strangely warm winter, with sunny blue-sky days and cold nights, an icy blast blew in the back door.

White frost spread its frozen crystals everywhere and temperatures dropped to 19°C by day and 5°C at night.

Read: The tail lying in the leaves

A slender mongoose came up the steps to my front door, stopped, looked straight at me reading my new book and then ran across the lawn, its fur fluffed up, looking for a little spot in the sun.

But it isn’t only winter that’s giving Zimbabwe an icy blast this July.

Since my last column, while our attention was on thousands of Zimbabweans being deported and repatriated from South Africa, President Emmerson Mnangagwa was signing the controversial constitutional amendments into law.

The act was published in the Government Gazette on 7 July, and Zimbabweans were not given their right to vote in a referendum.

These are dark days in Zimbabwe

Under the constitutional amendments, the president will no longer be elected by the people but by parliament.

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Presidential and parliamentary terms have increased from five years to seven, leaving the current president, MPs and senators in office until 2030.

Mnangagwa said in the Sunday Mail that extending his second term by two years was not his idea.

It was the result of “a collective evolution of the political process”.

The senate will be expanded from 80 to 90 members. The 10 new senators will be appointed by the president. Public interviews for judges have been scrapped and they will now, with consultation, be appointed by the president.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will no longer oversee voter registration; this will now be done by the Registrar-General. A new Delimitation Commission, appointed by the president, will take over the delimitation of constituencies and wards.

A coalition of churches, labour unions, civic groups, war veterans and opposition political leaders say they are now planning peaceful mass action to challenge the act.

The repatriates

Meanwhile, we watched increasingly distressing video clips of people being deported, alongside others who were ‘voluntarily repatriating’ from South Africa to escape harassment and persecution from protestors who were going door to door, chasing them out.

Read:
Things have changed for Zimbabweans in SA …
Zimbabwe opposition’s stark warning to SA
More than 53 000 foreigners deported or repatriated in clampdown on illegal migration

Two weeks ago, the number was 29 000 deported and repatriating.

This week, the government said that between 28 May and 10 July, 99 418 Zimbabweans have been repatriated.

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A staggering number in just six weeks.

The other face of Zimbabwe …

Watching for the return of the mongoose, I paged through the proof copy of my beautiful new book, which had just arrived.

Despite everything – from power-hungry politicians to the anguish of 100 000 people coming home in an icy winter – every year I publish my book to highlight the other face of Zimbabwe: beautiful, diverse and always welcoming.

Zimbabwe’s Timeless Beauty: The 2026 Collection – featuring photographs and stories by Cathy Buckle – is available in hardback and paperback exclusively from Lulu here.

Image: Supplied

© Cathy Buckle

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