THE MDC-T Bulawayo province has castigated the passing of the Constitution Amendment Bill Number 1 in Parliament last week as retrogressive and an assault on constitutionalism.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The Bill will be the first amendment to the Constitution since it was passed in 2013, and MDC-T Bulawayo provincial spokesperson, Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda said this was frustrating.
“The Bulawayo and all progressive organisations are bitter that Zanu PF parliamentarians have eaten up their consciences by overwhelmingly passing the judiciary Bill to give the President absolute power to single-handedly appoint the Chief Justice and his deputy without the involvement of Parliament,” he said.
“It’s most frustrating that the Zanu PF MPs have been whipped against their consciences, but chose to contradict the masses of Zimbabwe, who authored the supreme law just in 2013.”
Zanu PF MPs put aside their factional differences to vote for the passage of the Bill, which seeks to bestow powers on the President to unilaterally appoint the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President.
Sibanda said this sets a bad precedent, where any political party that grabs power and has a majority in Parliament will “also want to willy-nilly” amend the Constitution for “selfish political ends”.
The opposition opposed the passing of the Bill, but ultimately lost, as Zanu PF has a majority in the legislature.
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A total of 182 Zanu PF MPs voted for the Bill against 41 from the opposition.
“Where is the constitutionalism in this scenario, where the Parliament is used as the politburo of Zanu PF?
“We, as part of the Zimbabwean society, are very uncomfortable by this willy-nilly behaviour of partisan law making.
“The Parliament must be the custodian or protector of the national Constitution not otherwise.
“There is danger in that each party that will assume power and authority may follow the bad precedent of amending the Constitution and the whims of the ruling party of the day, which is retrogressive to say the least.”
