HARARE – Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza has rejected a request by a Zimbabwean news agency to provide live coverage from inside the Constitutional Court during Wednesday’s hearing of a challenge to the Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill, ruling after a case management meeting that no sufficient basis had been demonstrated for the request.

The ruling, communicated by the Constitutional Court in a letter to Atherstone & Cook legal practitioners on May 19, 2026, came just days after Gwaunza was elevated to the position of chief justice on May 15, making the decision one of her first consequential acts in that role.

Sources Media Network, represented by Panashe Makufa and Xolisani Ncube, had through its lawyers Atherstone & Cook written to the Judicial Service Commission on May 4 requesting authorisation to stream the proceedings of the matter – Reuben Zulu and Five Others v President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and Another – live from the courtroom.

The six war veterans are challenging the president’s role in cabinet processes leading to the approval of the bill.

They accuse Mnangagwa of breaching constitutional provisions by presiding over deliberations on constitutional amendments from which they say he stands to benefit personally.

Prepared by constitutional law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku, the court application seeks to have cabinet deliberations on the bill declared null and void and to bar Mnangagwa from advancing the proposed amendments.

The bill has been at the centre of a sustained national controversy over its provisions and the process by which it has been driven through parliament and public hearings.

The JSC response letter, addressed to Atherstone & Cook’s Chris Mhike states that the request was placed before Gwaunza and that a case management meeting was convened on the same day, at which submissions were made by the applicant as well as the parties to the matter.

“Following the case management meeting and after considering the submissions made by the requester and the parties, the considered view of the Honourable Chief Justice is that no sufficient basis has been demonstrated to warrant the granting of the request for live coverage inside the courtroom,” the letter states.

No reasons beyond that finding were disclosed.

In its May 4, application, Sources Media Network had argued that the matter was of significant legal and political importance to Zimbabwe and had offered to set up cameras and broadcasting equipment before proceedings began, in a manner designed to minimise any interference with the judicial process. It also undertook to comply with any practical guidelines or conditions the JSC might set.

The application had specifically flagged Chief Justice Gwaunza’s predecessor, Luke Malaba, as the person who might have the final say on the request – asking the JSC to bring it to his attention as soon as possible.

The Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill has been one of the most contested pieces of proposed legislation in Zimbabwe in recent years. Its passage has been accompanied by reported intimidation at public hearings monitored by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, legal challenges from civil society and opposition figures, and opposition from the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Catholic bishops, war veterans and other groups.

The applicants in the matter are listed as Reuben Zulu, Godfrey ‘Zvabhendazvabhenda’ Gurira, Shoorai Nyamangondo, Joseph Chinyangare, Digmore Ndiya and Joseph ‘Ginger’ Chinguwa.

The respondents are President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Attorney General Virginia Mabhiza.