BRENNA MATENDERE
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa and his allies have hatched a sensitive plan to push for a resolution at the forthcoming Zanu PF’s annual conference in Bulawayo to amend the constitution and allow the 82-year-old leader to extend his stay in power beyond 2028 when his constitutionally mandated two terms end.
The ruling party’s annual event is set to take place at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) grounds from October 22 to 27, with at least 4 000 delegates expected.
Zanu PF has a two-thirds majority in the lower House and the plan will involve roping in opposition legislators aligned to Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) self-imposed secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu.
Mnangagwa is locked in internecine succession battles with his deputy Constantino Chiwenga but now plans to use the annual conference to wriggle past the former army general, sources revealed to The NewsHawks.
“The plan is already in motion that at the conference we pass a resolution for a change in the constitution to allow President Mnangagwa to rule beyond 2028 to at least 2030. Once that resolution is passed, the Zanu PF MPs will implement it in Parliament and secure more support from Tshabangu and his MPs,” said the source.
Mnangagwa’s close ally, Lovemore Matuke, who is the Zanu PF secretary for national security, hinted that the plan is now in motion at a public gathering.
“I have heard people talking about the constitution, what it purportedly stipulates, and that is your feeling. But remember, we have made amendments before, and this constitution is not cast in stone,” Matuke said during a Zanu PF provincial coordinating committee meeting in the Midlands this past week.
“If we can change the constitution to suit what we want; we will do it without any apologies. Don’t let people lie to you.”
Zanu PF’s national political commissar, Munyaradzi Machacha, also recently said in the spirit of democracy, if “people” say Mnangagwa must continue to rule beyond 2028, “he can be allowed to do so”.
“Isn’t this what you term democracy? If we remain silent, you say there’s no democracy. If others speak, you question it. The people are talking, and the President is listening to their wishes,” Machacha said.
“The people know the constitution, but they also want his leadership to continue. It’s now up to him to decide.”
The party provincial structures are currently conducting meetings to come up with resolutions to take to the Zanu PF national conference slated for Bulawayo next month.
One such resolution is that Mnangagwa must stay in power beyond 2028.
In Matabeleland South, the Zanu PF women’s league led by political commissar Maybe Mbowa has already passed that resolution.
The league’s national secretary Mabel Chinomona, committed to communicate the sentiments to Mnangagwa, describing him as a “listening President” who values the voice of the people.
Zanu PF’s Harare provincial chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa last month told journalists that the push to amend the constitution would be tabled at next month’s Bulawayo Zanu PF annual people’s conference.
“The most pressing issue is that the constitution of Zimbabwe needs to be amended to allow him to remain in power beyond 2028. We are aware of the constitutional restrictions; it currently states that the President can serve a maximum of two terms,
each lasting five years,” Masimirembwa said.
“There is a possibility of either extending the duration of each term, increasing the term limit from two terms to three or removing the term limit entirely.”
However, that longstanding bid by Mnangagwa to overstay in office faces legal hurdles and is a cumbersome process that could warrant a referendum.
Constitutional law experts say any constitutional amendment for an extension of presidential term limits, albeit cumbersome and requiring a referendum, cannot benefit the incumbent.
Clinching a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly is not enough as a two-thirds is also required in the Senate which Zanu PF does not have.
The Senate has fixed seats for the opposition MPs, but if Zanu PF can win them over, the twothirds majority can be achievable.
However, legal experts say even if the presidential term limits extension is somehow achieved by Zanu PF, Mnangagwa as an incumbent president will not benefit as any term extension does not apply to incumbents, according to the constitution.
A seasoned lawyer and former Mutare Central MP, Innocent Gonese, told The NewsHawks that Mnangagwa cannot benefit from any presidential term limit extension because of section 328 of the constitution.
“A reading of section 328, particularly paragraph 7, makes it very clear that the intention of the framers of the constitution was to prevent a situation where term limits can be easily extended,” Gonese said.
“In other words, there are various office bearers whose terms are limited by the constitution, you have got the Clerk of Parliament, you have got the President and so on and so forth. So the intention was to make it really difficult for anyone to have that extension. But more importantly, sub-section 7 makes it very clear that any such amendment cannot then benefit the person who is in occupation of that particular office.”
“So the intention was to try to prevent abuse so that people like the President of the Chiefs’ Council, for example, who also have term limits, are not in a position to have or to initiate or to promote an extension in which they would stand out to benefit.”
Gonese added that section 328 was meant to provide for a situation where any such extension would then benefit people who would subsequently come into occupation of that office to benefit from the extension of term limits.
“So, the framers of the constitution also made it particularly difficult in the sense that those two provisions, sub-section 6 and sub-section 7, can only be amended after being subjected to a referendum,” said Gonese.
“And in fact, you would need two referendums to do that, because the first one would be to remove the provisions of the particular section concerned. And again, for it to apply, you would need a second referendum, as the wording of that sub-section clearly provides.”
Gonese added: “Now going to the issue of whether an amendment can be made under the current composition of the National Assembly and the Senate. One must bear in mind that a Parliament consists of two Houses, and each House is to vote and proceed separately. You combine the total of both Houses and then look at the two-thirds. So
when you look at the political issue now in terms of the composition, in the National Assembly after the recent by-elections, it’s quite evident that the governing party now has a majority. In terms of the Senate, technically speaking, in terms of the num
bers, that majority is not there.”
The former MDC chief whip highlighted that one must remember that this is not necessarily a legal question as it can also be a political issue as on Amendment No. 2 in the 9th Parliament, some members of the MDC led by Douglas Mwonzora voted in favour of the amendment.
