<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe finally woke up last week. Voices were raised, meetings were held and press conferences convened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will die for this constitution\u201d was the phrase we heard \u2013 and we knew, at last, that the voices of opposition were back. Leadership was back.<\/p>\n
Read:
Rule of law or rule of men?
Zimbabwe\u2019s ZiG, a mirage on the far horizon
EU extends Zimbabwe arms embargo by one year<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n
After months of speculation, anxiety and disbelief that they would actually do it, Zimbabwe\u2019s Zanu-PF government last week took us into a dark place we didn\u2019t think they\u2019d go.<\/p>\n
The illusion that they have been so busy trying to create that everything is fine in Zimbabwe has suddenly been exposed for all to see.<\/p>\n
\nDespite their massaged statistics, shiny shopping malls, huge mansions and palm-tree-lined highways, everything is not at all fine in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If it was, why would they be about to change the country\u2019s 12-year-old constitution to give themselves more power and longer terms in office?<\/p>\n
Amendment bill<\/strong><\/p>\n
Last Monday (16 February), following a cabinet meeting chaired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa a few days earlier, the government announced that The Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill (No 3) 2026 had been published in an Extraordinary Government Gazette \u2013 which formally started a 90-day public consultation period before it goes to parliament.<\/p>\n
The bill proposes that the president will no longer be elected by the people of Zimbabwe but will instead be chosen by members of parliament.<\/p>\n
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\nIt proposes that the presidential term of office be extended from five to seven years and that the extension will apply to the current president and to all members of parliament.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The next general election would be pushed from 2028 to 2030.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/p>\n
Bad-mouthing the state is\u00a0outlawed before election in\u00a0Zimbabwe [Jun 2023]<\/div>\nZimbabwe\u2019s ruling party\u00a0secures two-thirds majority in\u00a0parliament [Feb 2024]<\/div>\nThe amendment bill also gives the president the power to appoint 10 more senators, removes the public interview process for judicial appointments, and moves the voter\u2019s roll from the electoral commission to the Registrar-General\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe\u2019s current constitution was adopted after a national referendum held 12 years ago, in March 2013. That referendum was endorsed by all the major political parties, and 94.5% of Zimbabweans voted in support of it.<\/p>\n
The likelihood of The Constitutional Amendment Bill (No 3) going to a referendum is apparently remote.<\/p>\n
Lawyer and opposition politician David Coltart said: \u201cAny amendment which has the \u2018effect\u2019 of extending an incumbent\u2019s tenure should be subjected to a referendum. They know that if that happens, they will fail, so they will do all in their power to prevent a referendum from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
This bill \u2018will not pass\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
Tendai Biti, a lawyer and former minister of finance, has launched the Constitutional Defenders Forum (CDF) \u2013 \u201ca civic organisation to defend and protect the Constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Biti held a press conference this week, the likes of which we have not seen for many years, saying \u201cwe are going to work with everyone in the fight to protect this constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll hands must be on the deck. \u2026 We are going to work together to stop this coup on our constitution. \u2026 We will die for this constitution. We will be arrested for this constitution. \u2026 They must kill us, they must arrest us but this constitutional amendment will not pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nFor so long, we have thought we only had to survive two more years of this government \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Two more years of hospitals without medicine; two more years of food we cannot afford to buy; two more years of out-of-control corruption; two more years of illegal gold mining on hills and in rivers rubber-stamped by government officials; two more years of carrying water home in buckets because taps are dry; and the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n
The legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n
An hour before sending this column I bought an extra loaf of bread in the supermarket to give to the old man sitting outside in a wheelchair under a grey sky with a thin drizzle of rain coming down on him.<\/p>\n
\nYou know how hungry people are when you see them start eating the bread straight out of the bag, right then and there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
My heart is sore today.\u00a0This is the Zimbabwe the present government has given us, we become got poorer and poorer while they have become multi-millionaires.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0Helping hands, and hands that just keep taking in Zimbabwe<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe now has less 90 days to stop this coup on its constitution. Dark days lie ahead.<\/p>\n
Please watch, listen and share this news and keep Zimbabwe in your hearts and minds.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Cathy Buckle<\/p>\n
Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n