Innocent Sibonginkosi Ncube | Zim GBC News
Controversial businessman and Zanu PF supporter Sir Wicknell Chivayo has sparked outrage after suggesting that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is “too soft” and calling for a brutal crackdown on human rights advocates, including threats of execution against former opposition MP Fadzayi Mahere and her family.
In a series of incendiary posts on X (formerly Twitter), Chivayo responded to Zanu PF social media activist Kudzai Mutisi, who had claimed the government is too lenient and that President Mnangagwa is “just too soft.”
Mutisi’s comments followed a recent speech by veteran journalist Blessed Mhlanga at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Mhlanga used the international platform to urge diplomatic pressure on Zimbabwe and other authoritarian regimes to protect citizens’ rights. He also recounted his own 2025 arrest for covering press briefings by the late war veteran Blessed Runesu Geza, which resulted in him spending 75 days in custody without bail.
Mutisi went further, suggesting the government should cancel Mhlanga’s passport and citizenship and permanently bar him from returning to Zimbabwe.
Chivayo not only agreed but escalated the rhetoric to a chilling extreme.
“You’re right, my brother E.D is just too kind-hearted and as soft as wool,” Chivayo wrote.
“Imagine if I ever became President, I would be worse than Kim Jong Un. I would put all those idiots like Fadzai Mahere and her clan before a firing squad soon after my swearing in.”
Kim Jong Un is the supreme leader of North Korea, a regime widely condemned for widespread human rights abuses including arbitrary arrests, forced labour camps, public executions, and severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
In a bizarre twist, Chivayo also threatened anyone who does not swear allegiance to the founder of the apostolic sect he belongs to. He added ominously:
“If authorities visit your house, and they don’t see a picture of Baba Johanne visible in three generations, we will kill you all. If you’re stopped at a roadblock and fail to sing ‘Hossana,’ life in jail.”
The remarks have drawn widespread condemnation from civil society and human rights defenders, who view them as a dangerous incitement to violence and a direct attack on constitutional freedoms.
As of the time of publication, neither President Mnangagwa’s office nor official Zanu PF structures had distanced themselves from Chivayo’s statements.
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