When security replaces legitimacy

Aug 11, 2024

In August 2024, Zimbabwe hosted the 44th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government under the theme “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustained Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialised SADC.”

On paper, it was a moment for regional leadership and economic imagination.
On the ground, it revealed something else.

Instead of public dialogue, civic engagement, or national confidence, the dominant signal was security. Armoured vehicles. Arbitrary arrests. A visible tightening of space. The message was not one of innovation, but of control.

From a builder’s perspective, this matters deeply.

Institutions that rely on force to manage moments of visibility are revealing a deficit elsewhere. When security becomes the primary interface between the state and its people, it is often because legitimacy has weakened, trust has eroded, and governing systems are no longer carrying their own weight.

Summits do not expose this problem. They simply make it harder to hide.

The over-securitisation surrounding the SADC Summit was not just a political misstep. It was an institutional signal. A signal that civic systems are fragile. That dialogue mechanisms are underdeveloped. That the reflex response to scrutiny is restriction rather than engagement.

No nation builds long-term stability this way.

Durable governance is not maintained through intimidation, nor does economic development emerge from fear. Innovation requires openness. Growth requires participation. Regional leadership requires confidence in one’s own institutions and citizens.

The presence of visiting dignitaries should never require the silencing of a population. If anything, it should demand the opposite: clarity, calm, and constitutional confidence.

From the builder’s seat, the question is not only what happened, but what this reveals.

If Zimbabwe is to participate meaningfully in regional and global systems, it must invest not only in infrastructure and policy, but in the civic foundations that allow people to speak, assemble, and contribute without fear.

Security has its place. But when it replaces legitimacy, the system is already under strain.

The work ahead is not louder slogans or heavier deployments. It is slower, harder, and more necessary: rebuilding trust, restoring lawful civic space, and strengthening institutions so they do not panic when watched.

That is the work of nation-building. And it cannot be postponed.