The images that appeared on Thursday afternoon are what comes to mind when democracy ends.
The videos and images circulated on social media showed main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MPs being violently ejected from parliament and being manhandled by the police after they protested the swearing in of the recently elected Zanu PF MPs in the December 9 by-elections.
The harrowing images showed how Zimbabwean democracy is under threat and slowly dying.
“When members of parliament raise points of national interest and points of order in the august house, the proper procedure is for them to be properly considered and adjudicated upon. Democracy must not be silenced.”
“Breaching parliamentary privilege and unleashing the police on elected representatives because they’ve raised uncomfortable questions that bring the unconstitutionality of state conduct into sharp focus can never take us forward,” said Fadzayi Mahere, constitutional lawyer and CCC MP.
For Zimbabwe, is it too late to ask, “is our democracy in danger?” because “democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.”