A NEW ERA: ZIMBABWE BEYOND CAB3

After months of public debate on the proposals to amend the Zimbabwe Constitution 2013, the prospects of those amendments happening without a referendum is slowly becoming a political reality in the minds of Zimbabweans. The Zimbabwe Constitution 2013 was promulgated after fierce political battles on the Constitution's flaws. The state of Constitutionalism during Robert Mugabe rule, the former president of Zimbabwe had deteriorated beyond redemption as some pointed out, and a new Constitution was needed.

Mugabe era was saturated with rampant disregard of Constitutional Democracy, lack of Rule of Law, allegations of vote-rigging, disputed election outcomes, alleged political violence in election seasons, corruption and poor governance, to mention a few. This casted doubt on the political significance of the Zimbabwe Constitution 1980, founded just after independence.  A situation befitting what HWO Okoth-Ogendo described as  > Constitutions without Constitutionalism. In its pragmatic explication, a profuse reality of redundant constitutions, constitutionalism and a possible situation of having constitutions without constitutionalism. 

With the promulgation of the Zimbabwe Constitution 2013, following opposition calls for a new Constitution, revived hope on Constitutional Democracy once seen as dead. Now, the advocated and proposed amendments seem to cast doubt on the bestowed hopes and aspirations of Zimbabweans for a vibrant and robust Constitutional Democracy. The proponents of the changes, though, sees the amendments as a necessary transitional process, Zimbabwe needs to progress. That is from Direct Constitutional Democracy practiced on five-year basis, on two term-limit, to curb election obsession that have been diverting the State funds and public focus from economic demands to volatile politics, hindering national economic growth, towards a more productive, sustainable and feasible Representative Constitutional Democracy, on a seven-year basis, on a two term-limit, to ensure inclusive policy continuity, promotion of national economic growth and developmental aspects, for the attainment of government's 2030 Vision of creating Upper Middle Class by 2030. 

The proposed changes has reached their zenith. The Bill has been debated in the National Assembly, and passed the chamber with a two-third majority. Currently, is being debated in the Senate House. The submitted amendments came at a time, ZANU PF, enjoys majority in parliamentarian representatives, thus, weakening any form of resistance from the already decimated opposition. ZANU PF is the political godfather of Zimbabwe politics. It is a party that fought war of liberation, and brought independence to the country. It is the party that has successfully spearheaded land re-distribution in the early 2000s against Caucasian hegemony globally. It is the very same political party now advocating for the country's Constitution amendments under the leadership of a shrewd politician, His Excellency Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. A man described by political analysts as a strategist, and schemer, who never misses an opportunity to achieve his political goals when the opportunity presented itself. That tact long earned him the nickname crocodile in the political corridors, throughout his political life. 

What transpired on 18 June shocked Zimbabweans. The unpopular Bill received a majority endorsement in the National Assembly. 216 parliamentarians voted yes to the changes and only 42 against. The Constitution amendment proposals that once looked like a far-fetched political hype and impossibility, eventually changed public perception. What baffled the minds of many is the president's statements that followed, contradicting his earlier declarations. President ED Mnangagwa in 2025 made a public declaration that he is a constitutionalist and will abide by constitutional demands and step down when his term of office officially came to an end in 2028, allowing election to follow as prescribed by the Constitution. That well-received declaration seem to be sharply contradicted by his recent utterances that appeared on social platforms in which the president rhetorical asked a gathering he was addressing if there was anyone, amongst, not willing to be in 2030 to raise a hand, and none of the audiences raised a hand. The president went on to say we all want to be in 2030. In politics, words carries meaning. Deductively, with this change of the president's tone, it became clearer, even for the layman to see that the changes to the Constitution, including term-extension of the current seating president (ED), from the 2028, when it constitutionally came to an end, to 2030, was premeditated, and now a standing political reality, waiting for the required procedures to be undertaken.

Witnessing these changes, perceptualists now question the initial motives of the amendments. If the motives were political from the beginning, they perceived the amendments are a flagrant consolidation of power driven by insatiable appetite to rule, unlimited. Traits and actions repulsive in a functional Constitutional Democracy, executed without full citizenry consent. If economic motives were behind CAB3, then, the changes were deliberated progressive actions to create a cogent environment that allows developmental projects to smoothly flourish without election disruption, for the government to achieve its 2030 goals under VISION 2030 and beyond as stated. However, some analysts, say the recent utterances were a mere gladiator' celebration of the first win, that failed to slip the tongue.

The constitutional amendments(CAB3), now that the Bill have passed the first House of Assembly and highly likely to pass the Senate House, the amendments carries an overarching ramifications for the political landscape as well as the economic future of the country. Time will prove or disprove the predictions, and it is too early to judge the changes negatively as the amendments may turn to be the long-awaited progressive solution to the nature of the problems that Zimbabwe has been facing since independence. Africa problems need Africa solutions but also home-grown solutions.

Most of the negativity towards the changes to the Zimbabwe Constitution 2013, has largely been political. Opponents voiced that, the amendments would disenfranchise the citizens of their constitutional right to vote for a president of their choice through universal suffrage globally practiced under one man, one vote if Direct Constitutional Democracy is abolished. They further argue, Representative Constitutional Democracy would concentrate power in the executive that is already prone to bribery, creating a loophole for financial capture of the legislature by unpopular presidential candidates to secure presidency. What the oppositional voices fail to acknowledge in their centric views, is the national economic trajectory, its demands, and precisely accentuates the economic detrimental effects of the same legislative changes. Objective logical inference, however, reflect, the oppositional voices are diluted, bias due to their political affiliation, hatred and characterization of the ruling party, ZANU PF due to what is termed, 'party's character and behavioral traits'. That hatred shroud and cloud their intellectual reasoning to make independent, sensible, impartial and calculated progressive nation-building criticism on anything they deemed ZANU PF. Zimbabwe suffered huge economic blow on many developmental phases for nearly over two decades, solely, due to sanctions, though misgovernance and corruption factor in. Sanctions, a resultant of radical and polarized politics that fail to put the interests of the people and the country at large, first.

Subsequent to that, Zimbabwe needed a policy of deconstruction and reconstruction of its society, politics and political patterns first. To prioritize the economy, the deconstruction had to begin with people's covenant(Constitution), the social contract. The New Republic of 2017, inherited from Mugabe era, constraining statutes that make it impossible for government to deliver to the expectations of the voters. Frustration with the economy is all high while performance remained mediocre. New policies in favour of economy over politics are needed. President Mnangagwa's call for the revival of economy under the theme, 'Enemy To None Friend to All, Zimbabwe Open For Business' alone, failed to produce anything meaningful to narrow the economic gap between the rich and poor. New pragmatic measures that deconstruct and reconstruct became a necessity to oil VISION 2030. A government policy to create Upper Middle Class by 2030. To address these ills, the Constitutional Amendment Bill 3 (CAB3), was proposed, seemingly evil, but all needed to address the causal fundamental problems that withhold, Zimbabwe's economic growth. Within this deliberated framework, critics has to be leniently pessimistic in their criticism of the contents of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 3.

Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi in his advocacy for the amendments to pass the Senate, explicitly elaborated the rationale behind government's decision to amend the Constitution. Minister therefore, stated in his Second Reading speech of the CAB3 to the Senate House that,

https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/political-toxicity-costs-zim-us200bn-ziyambi/  >

'the five-year cycle was adopted in 2008 to harmonise the parliamentary, presidential and local authorities' elections, and the move has failed to address some of the issues it was meant to resolve. That five-year cycle, useful as the harmonisation was, has proved too short for the work of building and developing the nation, and so what this Bill proposes is the correction of a correction. The power  that shortened that electoral cycle then is the power that lengthens it now. These two routes that I have outlined, Madam President, the divisive method of electing the President and the restless electoral cycle within which we have done that, do not stand apart. They reinforced one another to the detriment of the national interest in general and the development of the country in particular. That is the mischief which Parliament has a constitutional duty to remedy.' 

The Minister went on to state that,

'There were five faces of one structural ailment, and each electoral cycle has deepened them...,

1. The perennially disputed presidential elections >2000, 2002, 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2023, trailed by allegations of political violence, allegations of rigging and lack of transparency, erosion of public trust in the result and standing of the nation in the eyes of those who would invest in it...,

 2. The paralysis of governing that a permanent campaign produces. Post-election polarisation standing as a major brake on development and estimated, in some analysis, at a further US$3O Billion to $40 Billion in foregone productivity...,

 3. Corruption that instability breeds where political survival is in perpetual question and weakens accountability...,

 4. The politicisation of a public service that should be neutral, professional and continuous...,

 5. The polarisation of our society.

 ...Reasons sufficient to bypass referendum.' 

Zimbabwe is at crossroads not loggerheads, between the old and the new. What Zimbabwe needs, is leadership that prioritizes economy over politics of appeasement, and Zimbabweans should not be hood-winked into the naturalistic fallacy that opposition politics and economic-blueprints are the only, rightly, positioned to rescue Zimbabwe economy to prosperity. Its a political hogwash that ever passed its test. Just next door, in Malawi, former President Lazarus Chakwera promised Malawians economic wonders, from opposition angle, but once elected into power completely failed to deliver anything meaningful to the extent of failing to secure a second term. In Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema did it too. Fooled Zambians to be elected President. To speak, Zambians are breathing fire against his autocratic tendencies, in particular, centralisation of power and jailing of opposition figures, whilst economy is on down-spiral. Hichilema has became so infamous among voters that one would wonder if he is a leader of once an admired opposition party, and he is unlikely to win incoming elections to secure a second term. 

The Constitutional Amendments Bill 3 should not be viewed through political lens, but with progressive and national-building mindset. Politics ruined our glorious nation since the birth of Zimbabwe. Kemi Badenoch > 'Government is about tough choices not appeasement.' If self-serving political appeasement is ignored in favour of CAB3, an exemplary and courageous political decision that prioritize economic development over politics, Zimbabwe would once again be a Bread Basket of Africa.

..................................................................................................................................................By P Dekeya

Lawyer and Legal Assistant