CABINET, in its last meeting of the year before it breaks for the festive holidays yesterday, approved the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2019 which will allow the President-elect to appoint two Vice Presidents, while repealing the provision of running mates.
The 2013 Constitution, through Section 92, has a 10-year
transitional clause that provides for the joint election of the President and
two running mates selected by the Presidential candidate.
Constitutional experts have always criticised the clause,
saying it is an “American concept” that can potentially precipitate a political
crisis by creating two centres of power.
Presenting the 45th Cabinet Meeting Decisions Matrix in
Harare yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister
Monica Mutsvangwa said her Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
counterpart, Ziyambi Ziyambi, presented the proposed amendments to Cabinet.
“Cabinet considered and approved the Constitutional
Amendment Bill, 2019 which the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi presented as Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on
Legislation.
“Some of the salient amendments to be effected will include
the following: Provision, under Section 94 of subsection (2) to allow the
President-elect, as soon as he assumes office, to appoint two persons to be
Vice Presidents who shall take their oaths of Office before the Chief Justice
or the next senior judge available as set out in the Third Schedule.
“It also set out in Section 95 the conditions under which a
Vice President will vacate office, which include resignation, removal by the
President, serious misconduct, failure to uphold the Constitution or inability
to perform the functions of the office due to physical or mental incapacity,”
said Minister Mutsvangwa.
On the issue of running mates, Section 92 of the
Constitution, stipulates that the election of a President and Vice Presidents
must take place concurrently with every general election of Members of
Parliament, provincial councils and local authorities.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the Constitutional Amendment Bill
will repeal the provision of the running mates which is viewed as an American
concept.
Minister Ziyambi recently said the concept had the effect
of creating parallel centres of power.
“You all remember that it was one of the contentious issues
when we had our Constitution and it was deferred for 10 years because it is a
borrowed concept from America. It is not even an international best practice
where you have a President given executive authority, we do not ordinarily want
to create a parallel centre of power.
“We believe it is not desirable in our constitutional
dispensation to create separate centres of power. We would rather have a
President elected by the people and then appoints his team, Vice President and
Cabinet; that is the thinking, that is what is practised in Southern Africa and
several countries,” said Minister Ziyambi.
The Bill also proposes to extend by another 10 years, the
provision of the election of the 60 women members in the National Assembly
under proportional representation, while also providing for the setting aside
of one constituency per province for youths.
This will be done on proportional representation.
“We want to bring youths on board for them to continue with
the country’s legacy. One youth from each of the country’s 10 provinces will be
elected based on the party list on a proportional representation,” said Minister
Mutsvangwa. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment