Prominent Zimbabwean lawyer advocate Thabani Mpofu has reacted to ZANU PF’s plan to amend the Constitution to allow President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa to remain in power beyond his term limit.
Mpofu says even if the Constitution is amended to that effect, the law provides that the incumbent will not benefit from the move.
“The constitutional provision that restricts a president to a maximum of two terms is a term limit provision.
“As such, any successful amendment to this provision cannot be applied retroactively to benefit the incumbent.
“In simple terms, Mnangagwa is constitutionally ineligible to benefit from an extension of the presidential term limit.
“Therefore, any attempt to do so would not only be futile but also a blatant violation of constitutionalism,” he says.
ZANU PF Harare Province met yesterday and appealed to relevant authorities to start making the necessary constitutional amendments to allow President Mnangagwa to continue in charge of the country beyond 2028 when his current term is due to expire.
This comes as the party is now gearing for the 21st Annual People’s Conference at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Grounds in Bulawayo from October 22 to 27.
Zanu PF Harare Province held its provincial inter-district conference yesterday to come up with draft resolutions that will be presented to the party leadership at the annual conference in Bulawayo.
One of the key draft resolutions made was to request relevant authorities to make necessary constitutional amendments to allow President Mnangagwa to continue with his work.
Speaking at the party headquarters yesterday, Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman Godwills Masimirembwa said the most critical resolution which came out of the provincial inter-district conference was that the province was “united in that President Mnangagwa should continue to lead the country beyond 2028”.
“The most critical issue which comes is that the Constitution of Zimbabwe must be amended to enable him to continue to lead beyond 2028.
“We are aware that there are constitutional limitations; first of all, it says the President serves for a maximum of two terms of five years each.
“There is that window of extending the number of years for each term, or tentatively we can remove the term limit from two terms to three terms or scrap the term limit altogether,” he said.
Masimirembwa said the other limitation was that if a constitutional amendment was made, it could not benefit the incumbent.
“That as well could be amended to ensure that the incumbent, in other words President Mnangagwa, benefits from any constitutional amendment which increases the number of years of a term or which scraps term limits”.
Zanu PF Secretary for Education, Research and Ideology, Charles Tawengwa, said party structures from district level came up with draft resolutions, which will be presented at the conference, mainly calling for constitutional amendments to accommodate President Mnangagwa beyond 2028.
Zanu PF Deputy Secretary for Security Tendai Chirau said party structures were happy with the work being done by President Mnangagwa, hence the call for him to complete and realise Vision 2030.
The meeting was attended by Harare Province vice chairman Ephraim Fundukwa and other senior party members from district level up to Politburo members.
