The Constitutional Court could force President Robert Mugabe to step down as early as next month.
This follows its Friday announcement that it will make a determination in February whether Mugabe is still fit to rule.
Mugabe turns 93 next month.
“Please take notice that the above constitutional application will be heard and determined by the Constitutional Court at Harare on Wednesday the 8th day of February 2017 at 09:30 or soon thereafter as counsel may be heard,” said the court’s registrar while responding to Promise Mkwananzi, leader of a social movement calling itself #Tajamuka.
According to reports, in his founding affidavit before the Concourt, Mkwananzi argued that Mugabe was wilfully violating the national constitution in many respects, including gross human rights abuses.
The activist argued that many Zimbabweans were now leaving in fear of their president, who has threatened anyone with divergent views “to leave the country and in those countries that are sponsoring them”.
Mkwananzi also argued that at 92, Mugabe could not fully perform his duties as president of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe’s health was now also a cause for concern as he often travelled to Singapore for treatment of an eye cataract.