Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi’s confirmation that the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill (Number 3) to put into motion the process to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule beyond 2028 did not come as a surprise.
Mnangagwa’s loyalists have been pushing for the term extension despite Zimbabwe’s constitution being explicit that an individual can only serve two five-year terms for over two years now.
Zanu PF started the ball rolling at its annual conference held in Bulawayo last year when it passed a resolution saying the president should extend his rule by two years.
They claimed that the push for the term extension was being motivated by Mnangagwa’s good work in steering the economy, an achievement that is yet to be experienced by the majority of Zimbabweans who are sinking deeper into poverty.
Zanu PF followed up the 2024 resolution with another one at the Mutare conference this year where Ziyambi was directed to ensure that the processes to extend the president’s term starts in earnest.
The minister last week told NewsHawks that “the amendment of the constitution to implement our party, Zanu PF’s resolutions from the Bulawayo and Mutare annual national national people’s conferences in 2024 and 2025 respectively is that the Constitutional Amendment Bill will be gazetted soon, perhaps before Christmas or during the festive season.”
Ziyambi said the drafting by experts under the Attorney General and Justice minister’s oversight had been done, and it now awaited going through Cabinet and then Parliament for gazetting.
Zimbabweans are now aware that there is no consensus even in Zanu PF to extend Mnangagwa’s term following the public fallout between the ruling party leader and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga ahead of the Mutare conference.
Chiwenga has not publicly endorsed the 2030 agenda and in a dossier handed to the president before the conference accused those behind the campaign of being driven by personal and not national interests.
Polls by respected pollster, Afrobarometer, also showed that ordinary Zimbabweans do not want the presidential term limits to be tempered with.
Zimbabweans want elections to be held as scheduled in 2028. Zanu PF is determined to avoid a referendum as required by the constitution and would go through the Parliament route because it is certain that it has the opposition led by Sengezo Tshabangu’s in its pockets.
However, we want to remind the ruling party of Mnangagwa’s statement when he succeeded Robert Mugabe in 2017 that the “voice of the people is the voice of God.” It is not too late to abandon this ruinous path.