‘The Crocodile’ takes a big bite out of the Constitution
Observers slam Emmerson Mnangagwa’s latest power grab as the president seeks to extend his term limit.
JEFFERY MOYO IN HARARE
ZIMBABWE’S CABINET has approved draft legislation that would extend presidential terms from five to seven years. That would mean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term lasts until 2030, rather than 2028 under current laws.
The draft law also proposes the president be elected by a parliamentary vote, instead of directly by the electorate, as is currently the case. Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said public consultations would be held before the proposal goes before parliament for debate. Both chambers are dominated by the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The move has alarmed observers, who see it as a power grab by Mnangagwa, who has been consolidating his position since taking over in a 2017 coup. “This is an abuse of power,” Professor Lovemore Madhuku from the University of Zimbabwe’s Law School told The Continent. He noted the president received only a five-year mandate in the last election. “This proposal would simply extend the president’s stay in office without any input from the electorate.”
Rashweat Mukundu, a media researcher at International Media Support, called the move “a classic [from the] rule book of authoritarianism, where the constitution is manipulated to suit personal political interests”. Back in 2008, Zimbabweans overwhelmingly supported a new constitution that set presidential term limits at two five-year terms.
“In substance, these proposals cumulatively centralise power rather than distribute it. Zimbabwe does not need constitutional engineering to extend power. It needs constitutional fidelity to protect it,” said Jameson Timba, a Zimbabwean opposition politician.
Legal challenges to the move are expected. But the recent death of one of Mnangagwa’s biggest critics within Zanu-PF – Blessed Geza, also known as “Bombshell” – is likely to leave the field wide open for the proposal to sail through.
And so it goes, or rather, keeps on going. This is a chilling - and very apt - cartoon. Oh Zimbabwe, lament.