PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposition MDC leader
Nelson Chamisa have shifted their rivalry to the constitutional front after the
Zanu PF leader moved to remove a clause on presidential running mates set to
kick-in in 2023.
The MDC said the move by Mnangagwa’s Cabinet to amend the
Constitution to scrap the running mates clause was a step backwards, and would
be resisted by the country’s opposition.
Former Constitution Select Committee of Parliament (Copac)
co-chair and now MDC deputy secretary for international relations, Douglas
Mwonzora, said the resolution made by Cabinet last week should be
resisted.
“The resolution by the Zimbabwean Cabinet to initiate key
amendments to the Constitution represents a long march backwards. The current
Constitution represents an incremental gain in Zimbabwe’s democratisation
agenda. We have to resist these selfish amendments,” Mwonzora said.
Mwonzora said the clause Zanu PF wanted to scrap off the
Constitution was meant to deal with succession and bring stability to the
country in the event of death or incapacitation of a sitting President.
“Under the running mate clause a presidential candidate
chooses a Vice-President before elections. In the event of the President
failing to complete his term for any reason that Vice-President automatically
becomes President, this ensures smooth succession and stability of the country,”
he said.
Mwonzora, who co-chaired Copac alongside Zanu PF’s Paul
Mangwana and David Coltart (of the MDC-M) said government’s move was only meant
to handle volatile and poisonous succession politics in the ruling party.
“By removing the running mate clause, Zanu PF is trying to
deal with its succession conundrum due to its complex internal dynamics. It is
wrong to manipulate a national Constitution to suit partisan agendas.
Zimbabweans must defend their Constitution,” Mwonzora said.
But Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the clause which
was a centre of contestation during the Constitution-making process, created
two centres of power in the Executive. He added that the idea was foreign and
would not work in Zimbabwe.
“You all recall that it was one of the contentious issues
in the Constitution and it was deferred for 10 years, because it’s a borrowed
concept from America,” Ziyambi said.
“It’s not even international best practice. Where we have a
President who is given Executive authority, you would not want ordinarily to
create a parallel centre of power. So we believe that it’s not desirable in our
constitutional dispensation to create several centres of power. We would rather
have a President elected by the people and then he appoints his team, the
Vice-President and the Cabinet. It is what is practiced in southern Africa and
in several other countries.”
Currently, the President has powers to appoint and fire his
deputies. But if the deputy comes in through the running mate clause, he or she
can only be removed from office through Parliament. Newsday
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