by Elijah Chihota
The current Constitution of Zimbabwe came through the Constitutional amendment number 20 of the Lancaster House constitution in 2013 following an extensive nationwide consultation process. The 1979 Lancaster House Constitution which had been adopted in 1980 was amended 19 times before the adoption of the new national charter in March 2013. The new Constitution came about after thousands of outreach Constitution Making Process meetings were held across the country where people expressed what they wanted to be included in the supreme law of the land.
When ZANU PF announced that it was going to gazette a bill to facilitate the amendment of a number of clauses of the Constitution chief among them being the scrapping of the clause on running mates, there was an outcry. What really brought this outcry? Did the Constitution live up to the expectations of the people who made their contribution towards its crafting? These are some of the questions that this article attempts to answer and explain the justification for going ahead with the necessary amendments.
COPAC outreach meetings
During the Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) outreach meetings, the MDC sought to thump ZANU PF during the consultation process, but it turns otherwise as the latter had an upper hand. This caused the MDC to moot ideas of how best they could subvert this people driven process to suit the interests of their western handlers. The MDC got this opportunity during the drafting stage when alien issues which were never debated during the outreach found their way into the draft constitution.
MDC and smuggled issues
During data inputting process, the MDCs took advantage and smuggled issues which had never been discussed and agreed on by people on the ground. This scenario resulted in a draft Constitution which was divorced from what the people wanted to see thus the element of a people-driven charter was taken away.
Running mates, public interview of members of the judiciary and provincial councils, among other clauses were not part of the original 17 thematic areas which translated into 26 talking points. It is these clauses which make the public wonder if their contributions were really considered or a whole new document was written on the basis of a desk research.
The concept of running mates is alien in most African states and the MDC itself does not even understand it, but went on to smuggle it because they wanted to please their American handlers.
Relatedly the technical team which comprised of 17 legal technocrats was also accused of coming up with new clauses that the general public was not aware of.
Negotiated Constitution
Owing to the tinkering that the MDCs had done in the compilation of the draft constitution, they readily accepted the document. ZANU PF, on the other hand, although it accepted the majority of the draft constitution, it made objections to certain clauses that were included in the document. In the end the final document became a compromised negotiated draft constitution which was presented to the people, hence the need to correct the resultant anomalies.
Why amendments are necessary
Some misguided elements, who are given to politicising everything, are misguidedly thinking that these amendments are meant to benefit President Emmerson Mnangagwa personally. Nothing is further from the truth. This is not the case as the Constitution will remain a supreme law of the land not a personal one. It will remain a national document owned by and binding every Zimbabwean including those who are mischievously attempting to politicise the initiative.
Vice Presidents
Under the current Constitution when a Vice President is chosen through the running mate method, it would be difficult to dismiss him or her from office despite sound and valid reasons to do so. This is because he or she can argue that s/he has the people’s mandate and correctly so too. The challenge of having running mates is that if a Vice President’s performance falls below scratch, it would be difficult for the President to fire him or her given that the VP would have been chosen by the people as part of harmonised election process in line with the provision of the Constitution.
Dismissing a VP who would have been elected under the running mates clause means the country would spent more money in an election of another VP. The amendment of the running mates clause is, therefore, meant to cut the costs related to the process of replacing a dismissed VP. The country better off doing away with the clause and repose the mandate to select VPs in the President. Some of the President’s detractors have sought to malign him by baselessly claiming that the amendment of the clause is calculated to entrench President Mnangagwa’s grip on power, the gibberish being peddled by the likes of the MDC. The Constitution is not about specific occupants of offices. It is about the good of the nation.
The proposed amendments will allow the President to increase the number of non-constituency legislators that he can appoint from the current five to seven. One of the hallmarks of the President’s rule so far is moving away from the partisan politics of the old dispensation which was characterised by shunning merit in favour of party membership. He has appointed deserving but non-political individuals such as Professor Mthuli Ncube and Kirsty Coventry to Cabinet posts because of this constitutional window. Increasing the number of non-constituency people and non-politician people that he can appoint under the window means that he can appoint more people to serve Zimbabwe in key posts in order to push the country’s national agenda of turning the economy around and improving the quality of people’s livelihoods.
By comparison, during the tenure of the late President Robert Mugabe, he used to appoint 10 non-constituency legislators who would be appointed as Ministers. The proposed amendment is only seeking to increase the number by two and not 10. It is only petty and narrow-minded people who see political scandal even in such important national issues.
Proportional representation
Another area which is being touched by the proposed amendments is the proportional representation clause whose provisions were supposed to run for 10 years and to be scrapped off in 2023. Under the proposed amendments the clause would be extended by another two terms. President Mnangagwa has been fighting left, right and centre for gender parity in Parliament, Government and the private sector. This amendment would ensure that women’s interests are well represented in Parliament and across all sectors.
Some people have dismissed the concept of proportional representation arguing that the beneficiaries were not benefitting their constituents since their constituencies were too large as they comprise whole administrative districts and that if they attempted to do some work on the ground as they were bound to run into conflict with elected legislators over political turf. For these reasons some Government critics have been pushing for the scrapping of the clause.
Only myopic citizens would bay for the scrapping of such an important constitutional clause just because it has operationalisation sticking points. A constitutional clause does not address every aspect of an issue that it addresses. It is legislation that does. Such people therefore need to approach their legislators to enact a law or laws that smoothens the operationalisation of the clause instead of clamouring for its scrapping.
Youth parliamentary seats
The Zimbabwean population is skewed towards the youth demography. Therefore, amending the Constitution to allow the President to reserve ten Parliamentary seats for the youths would ensure that this demographic group is adequately represented. At election time, youths across the political divide face stiff competition from their seniors who are financially sound for launching viable campaigns in securing posts during party primary elections. This amendment would bring a sigh of relief to the youths as it would afford them a chance to be legislators and adequately represent their peers on issues affecting them.
The Judiciary
The amendments also seek to extend the retirement age for members of the judiciary going beyond the prevailing 70 years. According to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Permanent Secretary, Virginia Mabhiza, under the proposed amendments some judges could serve for up to 75 years provided that “they are still able to serve in their capacities”.
In order to promote the principle of separation of powers another amendment would see legislators being excluded from being members of the Provincial Councils. This would curb the double dipping by the functionaries thereby saving Treasury of funds given that they still receive the allowances from Parliament.
