By Correspondent
Veteran political activist Judith Todd has described Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 (CAB 3) as an attempt by those in power to “hijack the country,” drawing a sharp parallel to Ian Smith’s efforts to prevent “one man, one vote.”
Todd attended the public hearings for the bill at the Bulawayo City Hall.
However, alongside Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart, she reportedly never got an opportunity to speak.
Following the hearing, she made a poignant comparison between the current government’s actions and the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by Ian Smith.
“Ian Smith did it before, taking away ‘one man, one vote,’ and there was war.
“Now, the new hijackers of the country are taking away our voting rights.
“We must say no to Constitutional Amendment No. 3.”
She warned that removing the public’s right to elect the president would lead to deep suffering and potential instability.
Todd has since urged citizens to resist the new “hijackers.”
“I hope CAB3 does not lead us to war, but it will lead to suffering, and the consequences are going to be too terrible.
“We must resist it,” she stated.
A History Of Resistance
Judith Todd’s life has been defined by her defiance of both the Rhodesian and Zimbabwean governments.
The daughter of liberal Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister Sir Garfield Todd, she was a fierce opponent of white minority rule.
Her activism led to her imprisonment, a hunger strike (during which she was force-fed), and her eventual exile in 1972.
After returning at independence in 1980, she became a prominent critic of the ZANU-PF government, specifically regarding the Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland and the perceived betrayal of ZPRA war veterans.
In 2003, the Mugabe administration stripped her of her Zimbabwean citizenship.
This left her stateless for a decade until legal changes in 2013 finally allowed her to reclaim it.
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