The constitutional changes I wrote about two weeks ago just got their rubber-stamp pass in the Zimbabwe parliament. Did you see that coming? I sure didn’t!

JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 30 — Zimbabwe’s parliament voted Tuesday to give President Robert Mugabe new constitutional powers to seize farmland and to restrict travel by government opponents in a country whose government is already regarded as among the most repressive in Africa.

The parliament, flush with new members from Mugabe’s ruling party after a March legislative election that was denounced by many international observers as rigged, cast 103 votes for the constitutional changes, enough for the two-thirds majority needed in the body of 150 members. News reports from Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, said ruling party lawmakers began singing and dancing over the victory.

Basically, this is the first step in the long (or short, maybe) process of demolishing any opposition Mugabe has in the country.

In his Marxist policy of land seizures, he has been mostly hung up by challenges to the actions by white farmers who were evicted from their farms several years ago. This constitutional amendment would effectively allow Mugabe to seize the land without any judicial process whatsoever. Those who have their cases in court will lose, and those whose land will now be seized might as well leave the country and forget about it.

Well, they would, if the other constitutional amendment didn’t restrict travel. Those affiliated in any way with the opposition to Mugabe will now be faced with the possibility of having their passports revoked. White commercial farmers, urban traders, unionists, missionaries, it doesn’t matter. They all essentially lose their right of citizenship if they oppose the government.

Additional Reading: Zimpundit has a strong essay on the subject.