When the Attorney-General begins to sound like a political commissar, the rule of law is in grave danger

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

The spectacle of Zimbabwe’s Attorney-General Virginia Mabiza seemingly warning Vice-Presidents and Ministers to “toe the line, resign, or get fired” is a breathtaking display of constitutional distortion that borders on the absurd. 

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While the principle of collective cabinet responsibility is a well-established tenet of any parliamentary or presidential system, its weaponization in the context of the raging ZANU-PF succession battle reveals a deep-seated crisis within the Zimbabwean executive. 

By stepping out from the shadows of legal counsel and into the spotlight of political enforcement, the Attorney-General has effectively transformed her office into a partisan whip, blurring the vital lines between professional legal advice and personal political loyalty.

At the heart of this absurdity is a fundamental jurisdictional identity crisis. 

According to Section 114 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Attorney-General is the principal legal advisor to the government. 

Her mandate is to provide impartial legal guidance, represent the state in court, and ensure that the government acts within the bounds of the law. 

Nowhere in the supreme law is the Attorney-General empowered to act as the President’s Chief Disciplinary Officer or the Executive’s Human Resources Manager. 

The power to appoint, reprimand, or dismiss a Vice-President or a Minister rests solely with the President under Sections 104 and 108. 

When Mabiza issues a “stern warning” regarding tenure and dismissal, she is not articulating a legal position; she is performing a political hit. 

For a non-voting member of the Cabinet to publicly appear to threaten the President’s second-in-command with unemployment is a radical inversion of executive hierarchy that exposes how far the state apparatus has been conscripted into factional warfare.

This move is clearly a panicked reaction to the “Hezekiah parable” recently delivered by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga. 

By invoking the biblical story of a leader who overstayed his welcome to his own ruin, Chiwenga fired a direct shot at the “2030 project” and the proposed Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill, or CAB3. 

The Attorney-General’s response attempts to use the doctrine of collective responsibility as a muzzle to silence this dissent. 

However, this is a gross misapplication of the principle. 

Collective responsibility is designed to ensure that the government speaks with one voice on finalized policies—budgets, trade deals, or infrastructure projects. 

It was never intended to be a cage that prevents senior members of the state from debating the very soul of the nation’s supreme law.

The CAB3 is not a routine policy; it is a transformative legislative attempt to alter term lengths and governance structures. 

For an Attorney-General to seem to demand that the Vice-President remain silent on a matter of constitutional integrity is to suggest that the Constitution is merely a private Cabinet secret rather than a public contract between the state and its citizens. 

By insisting that Cabinet members “should not distance themselves” from these decisions, Mabiza is effectively arguing that loyalty to the President’s personal political ambitions must supersede one’s oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. 

It is a chilling doctrine that prioritizes the “2030 agenda” over the democratic right to debate constitutional changes that will affect generations to come.

Furthermore, the threat to draft a formal “code of conduct” under Section 106(3) to enforce this silence is a cynical use of a transparency tool. 

While the Constitution does mandate such a code to ensure ethical governance and prevent conflicts of interest, using it specifically to “give the President teeth” against a dissenting deputy turns a mechanism for accountability into a weapon of coercion. 

It suggests that the Presidency is no longer capable of managing its internal fissures through political dialogue or party structures, and must instead rely on the “legalization” of authoritarianism. 

This creates a dangerous precedent where any future disagreement on matters of principle can be labeled as a “breach of conduct,” effectively criminalizing dissent within the highest echelons of government.

The timing of this outburst is equally telling. 

With the public hearings for CAB3 having recently concluded, the government is clearly desperate to present a facade of absolute unity.

Yet, the AG’s statement has achieved the exact opposite; it has confirmed the existence of a profound and “ominous” rift at the top. 

By making these threats public, the administration has admitted that the “ruthless power struggle” is no longer a whispered rumor in the corridors of Munhumutapa Building but an open conflagration. 

The absurdity lies in the fact that the state’s highest legal officer is the one fanning the flames, using the language of the law to justify the suspension of democratic debate within the Executive.

Ultimately, Virginia Mabiza’s statement is legally hollow but politically loud. 

It signals a move away from a government of laws and toward a government of men, where the primary qualification for high office is not competence or constitutional fidelity, but absolute, unquestioning submission to the incumbent. 

When the Attorney-General begins to sound like a political commissar, the rule of law is in grave danger. 

Zimbabweans are left to witness a tragic irony: the very office meant to protect the legal foundations of the Republic is being used to dismantle the spirit of the Constitution in favor of a narrow, factional agenda. 

This is not just a warning to the Vice-President; it is an assault on the democratic principles that the 2013 Constitution was meant to safeguard.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08