Dear family and friends,
JUST when we thought we were having a strangely warm winter, with blue skies, sunny days and cold nights, an icy blast blew in the back door. White frost spread its frozen crystals everywhere and daytime temperatures dropped to 19°C, with nights falling to 5°C. A slender mongoose came up the steps to my front door, stopped, looked straight at me as I sat reading the proof copy of my new book, then ran across the lawn, its fur fluffed up, searching for a little patch of sunshine. But it isn't only winter that is giving Zimbabwe an icy blast this July.
Since my last letter, while our attention was on the thousands of Zimbabweans being deported and repatriated from South Africa, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the controversial constitutional amendments into law. The Act was published in the Government Gazette on July 7, 2026, without Zimbabweans being given the opportunity to vote in a referendum.
These are dark days in Zimbabwe. Under the new constitutional amendments, future Presidents will no longer be directly elected by the people but by Parliament. Presidential and parliamentary terms have been extended from five to seven years, leaving the current President, MPs and Senators in office until 2030. The Senate will be expanded from 80 to 90 members, with the 10 additional Senators appointed by the President. Public interviews for judges have been scrapped; following consultation, the President will now appoint them. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will no longer oversee voter registration, which will instead be handled by the Registrar-General, while a new Delimitation Commission, appointed by the President, will take responsibility for drawing constituency and ward boundaries.
Mnangagwa told The Sunday Mail that extending his second term by two years, from 2028 to 2030, was not his idea but “a collective evolution of the political process”. A coalition of churches, labour unions, civic groups, war veterans and opposition political leaders says it is planning peaceful mass action to challenge the new law.
Meanwhile, we have watched increasingly distressing video clips of people being deported and others voluntarily returning from South Africa to escape harassment and persecution by protesters going door to door, forcing migrants out. Two weeks ago the number stood at 29 000 deportees and returnees. Last week, the government said that between May 28 and July 10 this year, 99 418 Zimbabweans had been repatriated — a staggering number in just six weeks.
As I waited for the mongoose to return, I paged through the proof copy of my beautiful new photobook, which has just arrived. Despite everything — from power-hungry politicians to the anguish of almost 100 000 people coming home in the depths of winter — I continue to publish my annual photobook to celebrate another face of Zimbabwe: beautiful, diverse and always welcoming.
This year’s photobook features pictures and stories from Chimanimani, Nyanga, Mavhuradonha, Gonarezhou, Umfurudzi, Marondera, Darwendale, Mazowe and many other places. From the delicate winged antlion resting on my back door to the magnificent elephants taking an afternoon swim in the river, this is our beautiful country.
- Mr President, you missed the opportunity to be the veritable voice of conscience
- ED to commission new-look border post
- Zanu PF ready for congress
- EU slams Zim over delayed reforms
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Until next time, thank you for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe, now in its 26th year, and for supporting my books about life in Zimbabwe, a country still waiting.
Ndini shamwari yenyu (I am your friend),
Cathy Buckle
