Source: Ex-MP challenges Constitutional Amendment No. 3 in top court -Newsday Zimbabwe
HARARE, Jul. 13, 2026 (NewsDay Live) – Former Binga North legislator and lawyer Prince Dubeko Sibanda has filed an application in the Constitutional Court seeking to have key provisions of the recently enacted Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Act declared unconstitutional.
In the application filed against Parliament, President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Sibanda argues that the amendment unlawfully extends the terms of office of the incumbent President, Parliament and local authorities from five to seven years in violation of Section 328(7) of the Constitution.
The application, brought in terms of Section 167(2)(d) of the Constitution, asks the apex court to declare Sections 5(b) and 10(b) of Amendment No. 3 invalid for conferring what he describes as an unconstitutional incumbency benefit.
Sibanda argues that while Parliament has the power to amend the Constitution, it cannot extend the tenure of sitting office bearers through a constitutional amendment because Section 328(7) prohibits amendments that prolong the term of office of an incumbent President or Parliament.
“This application… is directed at the constitutional competence of an amendment that seeks to confer an incumbency benefit in the teeth of Section 328(7),” Sibanda states in his founding affidavit.
He told the court that an earlier challenge was struck off because the provisions were still contained in a Bill, but the dispute has now crystallised following the enactment of the Constitutional Amendment Act.
The contested Amendment No. 3, which recently became law, extends the presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years and provides that the changes apply to the continuation in office of the incumbent President as well as the current Senate and National Assembly. It also introduces sweeping changes to the election of the President, Senate composition and the electoral framework.
Sibanda is seeking an order declaring the impugned provisions unconstitutional and of no force or effect, setting the stage for what is expected to be a landmark constitutional battle over the limits of Parliament’s power to amend Zimbabwe’s supreme law.
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