ZANU PF ESCALATES PUSH TO AMMEND Zimbabwe’s new constitution using parliamentary majority to give Mugabe wide sweeping powers .

President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF will again use its two-thirds parliamentary majority to approve more constitutional amendments giving back wide-sweeping powers to the president, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.

The changes come at the expense of MPs’ rights to oversee the government and will undo transitional clauses in a new Constitution adopted in 2013 that replaced a 33-year-old document forged in the dying days of British colonial rule.

Approved overwhelmingly in a referendum in March 2013, the new Constitution clips the powers of the president and imposes a two-term limit.

The package of mooted amendments to the country’s Constitution is meant to advance Mugabe’s desire for strong leadership.

This comes after the National Assembly on Tuesday last week passed the controversial Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 1) Bill by a vote of 182 for, and 41 against, which amends section 180 of the Constitution and gives sole and unfettered discretion to Mugabe to appoint the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President of the High Court whenever there are vacancies for such posts.

Mnangagwa said the forthcoming amendments will target “transitional” clauses in Schedule Six of the Constitution which he said will be the key priority for the current government.

The transitional clauses relate to how to manage acting presidents in relation to the possibility that the president may retire or become incapacitated to continue in office.

Even constitutional commissions such as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission could be changed so that they do not affect ruling party succession dynamics, authoritative Zanu-PF sources said.

Zanu-PF was also going to amend the chapter on devolution of power in the new Constitution which would reconfigure power dynamics as they relate to provinces beginning to get a semblance of autonomy from central government.

“There are areas where we were unable to agree and we compromised. This is why in Schedule Six, you find there are provisions which have a time limit, five or 10 years limit, because we were not able to agree on a definite period on those areas.

“We are still going to make sure we correct everything. Let me assure the Senate that this is not the only thing we intend to amend in the Constitution.

“There are many other areas which we are looking at, which we feel should be amended,” Mnangagwa told the Senate.

Legal experts have said it was imperative for the opposition to wrest legislative control from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF to limit its ability to pass major legislation.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s former advisor and law professor Alex Magaisa said the amendment was an affront on one of the guiding pillars of the constitution-making exercise to whittle down Executive powers.

“Zanu-PF is able to mutilate the Constitution like this because it has the two thirds majority required for such amendments,” he said.
Source – dailynews