Zimbabwe has declared September 15 an annual public holiday, the same date President Emmerson Mnangagwa marks as his birthday. The day will be known as Munhumutapa Day.
The change was gazetted through Statutory Instrument 148 of 2026 under the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act. The notice states that “the 15th of September every year henceforth shall be a public holiday to be known as Munhumutapa Day.”
Government officials say the holiday honours the pre-colonial Mutapa state, also called Munhumutapa or Mwenemutapa, a Shona kingdom that rose in the 15th century and once stretched across parts of present-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique. State media has framed the day as a celebration of national heritage and development, not a personal tribute.
Critics say the date is not a coincidence. Mnangagwa’s official birthday is 15 September 1942. He will turn 84 on the first official public holiday. Opposition voices and independent outlets have called the move a personal commemoration dressed up as history. Some also note that Zanu PF youth events have already marked 15 September for years in his honour.
The first public-holiday observance is planned for Mvurwi, Mashonaland Central, where organisers expect more than 30,000 young people.
The announcement follows another major political change. In July 2026, Mnangagwa signed Constitutional Amendment No. 3 into law. That amendment extends presidential and parliamentary terms from five years to seven, pushing the next elections from 2028 to 2030. It also ends direct presidential elections. Future presidents will be chosen by Parliament.
Mnangagwa, who took power in 2017 after Robert Mugabe was forced out, has now been in office for nine years. Supporters say longer terms will give policy more time to work. Opponents call the package a tightening of power: first more time in office, then a national holiday on the president’s birthday.
Munhumutapa Day adds another date to Zimbabwe’s already full public-holiday calendar. For informal traders and daily-wage workers, another closed day means another day without pay. The statutory instrument created the holiday but did not set out a budget or heritage programme attached to it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​