MVURWI - Political scientists have spent decades trying to measure what it takes to win a voter’s lifelong loyalty. In Mvurwi on Tuesday, one man appeared to settle the question with a single box of fried chicken.
At the first Munhumutapa Day celebrations, held in the Mashonaland Central town, a man interviewed on camera said President Emmerson Mnangagwa must remain in office indefinitely. “The President must stay in power forever. He is a great leader,” he told CVN News, according to ZimEye, which reported that he spoke moments after eating lunch at the event.
The Maravi Post, describing the clip as it spread across social media, reported that the man was eating roasted chicken from the fast-food chain Chicken Inn for the first time. Asked how long he would like Mnangagwa to stay in power, he replied: “For ever.”
A birthday becomes a holiday
The occasion was itself new. Mnangagwa recently declared 15 September, his birthday, an annual public holiday to be known as Munhumutapa Day. The Maravi Post reported that the declaration was published on 9 September 2026 as Statutory Instrument 148 of 2026, and that the holiday honours the legacy of the pre-colonial Mutapa Empire, whose rule covered parts of present-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
According to the same report, thousands of ZANU-PF supporters were bussed in from across the country for the Mvurwi celebrations.
The chicken was not the only first. In a separate video from the same event, The Maravi Post reported, a 65-year-old woman from Gokwe said she was excited to have eaten cake for the first time in her life, that the bus journey to Mvurwi had been worth it for the cake, and that she would keep voting for ZANU-PF for giving her the opportunity.
Poverty, patronage and the menu
The two clips drew mixed reactions online. The Maravi Post noted sympathy for the deprivation they revealed, alongside criticism of what some users described as the exploitation of poverty for political loyalty. ZimEye said the episode had added to the wider debate over succession and “the growing prominence of calls for the President to remain in power beyond the current constitutional term.”
What is striking is the speed with which a plate of chicken can become a constitutional position on a smartphone screen.
Forever is expensive
If loyalty can be had for a two-piece meal, the rest of the economy is charging rather more. In March, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority announced that petrol would rise from US$1.71 to US$2.17 a litre and diesel from US$1.77 to US$2.05, ZimEye reported. That is an increase of about 27 percent for petrol and about 16 percent for diesel.
ZERA said in its notice of 18 March that “the cost pressures are piling up” and that, without government intervention, “the price of diesel would have been US$2.20 per litre.” It blamed supply disruptions linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
One of the cartoons reproduced here imagines motorists with ED-2030 number plates shrugging off the price rise in the confident belief that special, cheaper filling stations will be set aside for the faithful. There is no such policy. But the joke lands because the fuel queue, like the lunch queue, is where most Zimbabweans meet their government.
What remains
The man in Mvurwi will be remembered for one line. The woman from Gokwe will be remembered for a slice of cake. Neither will be remembered for having been asked what they thought about fuel at more than two dollars a litre, or about who pays for the buses.
For the record, the current constitutional term has not been abolished by a chicken. The debate over how long it should last, however, has acquired a new mascot.
