Mugabe Must Go!

There have been challenges, opposition and violence, but the 92-year-old leader has always known how to deal with dissent and stay in power, frequently using brutal tactics.

Now there are protesters young and leaderless united by social media.

Zimbabwe has known only one leader since independence. First as prime minister, then president, there has only been Robert Mugabe at the top for the last 36 years.

Erstwhile confidants of Mugabe, themselves liberation war heroes, are emerging to challenge him for political leadership. 

It's videos like that, and the countless still images of abuse shared on Whatsapp, that are driving these activists. But they know, for the movement to work, it needs to take hold outside of the capital city and in the rural strongholds of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

As dusk approaches, we follow them away from our meeting spot at an upscale shopping center and down one of the roads leading outside of Harare. 

"Wait here," says one of the activists as they slip through the gate of a nondescript cement house.

A few moments later they return and invite us in. A crowd of about 30 sits in the backyard as chickens scuttle around.

ll of them are wearing white "Mugabe must go" t-shirts. They say the t-shirt alone could get them beaten or arrested.

"How many people from your area can we count on tomorrow?" one of the leaders asks those gathered. "One hundred? Can we count on that? If you bring 100 people, we'll make sure to provide you with transportation."

"Tomorrow" is another protest planned over social media. The courts have just overturned a government order banning demonstrations for two weeks and the activists don't want to waste any time getting back on the streets, where they expect to face tear gas and worse.

"We are not afraid of what will come," says Mzingu.

The same court ruling has put Mugabe's security forces on edge. For days we've been trying to set up a meeting with a veteran Harare police officer and now that face-to-face is in jeopardy. He's been called in to another emergency meeting on how to deal with the expected fresh round of protests; he's not sure if he can make it.

For more than three decades, Mugabe has used state security to brutally crush dissent. The response from police has always been an unquestioning, unwavering loyalty to him and obedience.

But that too is changing and so are our plans. The police officer texts to say he's on his way.

He could lose his job or worse, get arrested for what he's about to tell us. But he's determined to talk. We are hiding his identity for his protection.

What he says smashes the veneer of unity in Zimbabwe's state security apparatus.

"I think people don't know what is actually happening in Zimbabwe, particularly within government institutions like the police, the army," he says. "They see us on the streets beating up people, they think it is from our own liking, but that is not the case."

He says following orders is becoming harder and harder for his fellow officers and that they are being used as political pawns. Demands from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party trump their training, their orders.

"We are briefed by our superiors, we are briefed not to beat up people, but when we are on the ground, the instructions changed," he says.

Those new instructions, he says, outline a very clear order of escalation. "Eventually we are going to use live ammunition. They talk of the use of tear smoke, they talk of the use of animals, of dogs and horses and the like, and the last one is the use of firearms. In that order."