Former Finance Minister and Harare-based lawyer, advocate Tendai Biti has said that an amendment of the constitution to satisfy an individual’s desire to retain power must be resisted and be treated with the contempt it deserves.
His remarks come after Cabinet approved the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2019 which among other issues gives the President-elect to appoint his two deputies as soon as he or she assumes office and also sets the terms, conditions and circumstances under which Vice Presidents can be removed from office.
Posting on Twitter, Biti who is also the Vice President of the opposition MDC led by advocate Nelson Chamisa said:
A constitution is a sacrosanct document that can’t be butchered on the altar of personal ambition and a subjective power retention agenda. Capturing the constitution to reproduce the ogre of a distorted corrupt mediocre power monger is unacceptable and must be resisted by all.
A few weeks ago, the ruling ZANU PF indicated intentions to amend the constitution so as to extend president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s stay in power to beyond two terms which should expire in 2028.
This followed remarks by the president that he will be around in 2030. Although the statement is vague and ambiguous, members of the public interpreted it to mean that he meant that he will still be in power even in 2030.
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