DEAR Mr President, This is my first open letter to you Sir, President Emmerson Mnangagwa and I sincerely hope that it is received in good faith. You promised to be a listening President and I am putting your word to the test. A lot has happened since November 2017 when you took office. I will be the first to admit that at the time, I welcomed the end of the reign of the late former President Robert Mugabe and celebrated your arrival on the scene. I was optimistic that the worst had ended, and a new season had begun. Mr President, Sir, I gave you the benefit of doubt when you started and articles I penned in 2017 and early 2018 are evidence of this. I am not a card-carrying member of any party (I doubt I ever will but that’s for another day) and I don’t represent any party. All I am is a Zimbabwean patriot who loves his country deeply and wants the best for all its people regardless of race, tribe or political affiliation. All I am is a Zimbabwean who wants our country to flourish. I believe in the potential of our people and the greatness we hold collectively. Unfortunately, these aspirations have not been fulfilled and it now seems that this will be nothing, but a dream. Since you have assumed office, you have clamped down on dissent in ways I previously thought to be unimaginable. You have used the “insult laws” (the charge of undermining the President) more than the former President did in his 37-year rule. Several unconstitutional decisions have been made by your office Sir and these undermine the rule of law and the supremacy of our Constitution. Your Cabinet and government in general, have on many occasions ignored constitutional obligations and operated with impunity. I hoped that your Presidency would be a win for constitutionalism and respect for its provisions and abiding by the duties set out in it. Again, disappointedly, this has not been the case. Mr President, Sir, we possibly have one of the most transformative and comprehensive Constitutions in the world, but this counts for nothing if its provisions are not implemented. Zimbabwe has morphed into a highly policed State characterised by excesses of the security apparatus of the State. The Constitution specifically requires the creation of a body that independently checks the powers of the police, but seven years later, this body has not been operationalised. It is the mandate of your government to ensure that appropriate legislation operationalising this body is tabled before Parliament, yet this has not been done. Mr President, I applauded your move to establish the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry into the August 1, 2018 post-election protest shootings, but its findings have been ignored. There are constitutional reasons why this would be important, but it suffices to note that you failed to uphold these in this regard, and it was a mere window-dressing exercise. In this sense, Mr President, Sir, you have let us down. Mr President, Sir, you have the opportunity to redefine the Presidency and a chance to change the narrative by implementing the Constit