By Kudzaishe Chimonera
Opposition MDC party has accused the ruling ZANU-PF of attempting to undermine the country’s Constitution by extending the President’s term of office beyond 2028.
Addressing journalists in Harare, MDC president Douglas Mwonzora said Cabinet had approved a Bill that would circumvent the Constitution and strip citizens of their right to elect their head of state.
“Today Zimbabwe stands at the precipice of a constitutional cataclysm. A small elite group is inches away from depriving an entire nation of 15 million people of their sovereign right to choose their President,” Mwonzora said.
He claimed the proposed legislation is part of what he called ZANU-PF’s so-called 2030 agenda which he described as a political manoeuvre rather than a national development plan.
According to Mwonzora, the Bill would extend the President’s term beyond the constitutionally mandated 2028 limit and remove the requirement for a national referendum.
“This is not routine legislation. This is not an administrative adjustment. This is an assault on the very foundation of our constitutional democracy,” he said.
He added that the amendment would allow the President to appoint ten additional, unelected members of Parliament, further consolidating executive power.
“Presidential powers were never meant to be exercised by someone without a fresh, direct mandate from the people. Remove the ballot, and you remove the legitimacy,” Mwonzora said.
Zimbabwe’s current Constitution, adopted in 2013, requires a public referendum for fundamental amendments.
Mwonzora said avoiding this process revealed the true intention of the Bill.
“The Constitution is being amended by those who stand to benefit from the amendment, and it will be assented to by a President who is its direct beneficiary,” he said, calling it “a fundamental conflict of interest dressed up as governance”.
He also raised alarm over a clause that would remove the obligation of the uniformed forces to defend the Constitution.
“What possible justification exists for weakening the Constitution’s guardians?” he asked.
Mwonzora urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to honour his constitutional duty to preserve, protect and defend the supreme law, and called on Parliament to reject what he described as democratic regression.
He appealed to civil society, churches, labour unions, students, business leaders and war veterans to unite in defence of constitutional rule.
“The right to choose our President is not a privilege granted by politicians. It is a sovereign right that belongs to the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.
