Godfrey Sithole

Godfrey Sithole
Godfrey Sithole
Nationality	Zimbabwean
Citizenship	Zimbabwe
Occupation	Politician
Known for	Being a Member of Palriament
Political party	MDC Alliance

Godfrey Sithole is a Zimbabwean politician from the MDC Alliance party. He was elected into parliament in July 2013 to represent Chitungwiza North Constituency. He contested in the July 2018 elections and was reelected.

Personal Details

'Born: 28 December 1982.

School / Education

No information was found on his Junior or High School, or any tertiary education.

Service / Career

In the 2013 Elections, (see A History of Zimbabwean Elections) Chitungwiza North returned to Parliament:

Godfrey Sithole of MDC–T with 8 071 votes or 51.85 percent,
Robson Mhandu of Zanu PF with 6 507 votes or 41.81 percent,
Angella Chigonero of MDC–N with 829 votes or 5.33 percent,
2 others with 158 votes or 1.01 percent.

Total 15 565 votes

Events

Emmerson Mnangagwa Lawsuit

In June 2021, Sithole took President Emmerson Mnangagwa to court for assenting to the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.1) Bill, which he argued was illegally passed by Senate with the assistance of the Constitutional Court.

Constitutional Amendment (No.1) Bill, among other intentions, sought to allow the President to appoint the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President without subjecting them to the open selection process and public interviews.

This allowed Mnangagwa to retain Malaba at the helm of the judiciary after the approval of the Constitutional Amendment (No.2) Bill, which enabled judges to serve beyond the age of 70. (See also Luke Malaba Court Challenge).

Sithole argued that besides violating Section 147 of the constitution by straddling two different lives of parliament, the Constitutional Court erred when it passed judgement in case number CCZ4/20 when it ruled that the declaration of invalidity was suspended for 180 days after legislators Jessie Majome and Innocent Gonese had challenged the Bill’s passage in Senate after it failed to get the required two-thirds majority.

Sithole cited the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda, the Senate President Mabel Chinomona, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, Attorney-General Prince Machaya, Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda as well as senate members who voted for the passage of the Bill.

The Constitutional Court declared that the passing of the Constitutional Amendment (No.1) Bill of 2017 by the Senate on 1 August 2017 was inconsistent with provisions of section 328 (5) of the constitution, to the extent that the affirmative votes did not reach the minimum threshold of two-thirds of the membership of the House.

At its last reading in the Senate on 1 August 2017, it received 53 affirmative votes whereas the full membership of the Senate is 80. A two-thirds majority meant that at least 54 senators should have voted for the Bill. ^[1]