Chaos as Zanu PF is allegedly forging people signatures in support of Zimbabwe CAB3

Dear Media,

An interesting development has been noticed where Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu PF has sponsored or forced people to sign pre-written letters and petitions to try and influence the outcome of the recently gazetted Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3. Members of churches whose leaders have been in the past year been pampered with cars and cash over the past two years teamed up with members of cross border traders to bring their signatures to parliament in support of a term extension of elected officials to seven years. It is every citizen’s democratic right to express their views, so there is nothing wrong with people willingly signing signatures in support of the proposed amendments.

However, disturbing reports have been made that Zanu PF is forcing people to sign these pre-written letters where they will give their names and national identification numbers. It has also been reported that some of the signatures are forged. I am told all the organisers collect the identification details, then get people to scribble signatures, knowing very well that no one will verify the signatures. This is said to be done to give the impression that the majority of Zimbabweans support the proposed amendments. The woman who led the group that presented signatures to Parliament even knew that they were going to collect over four million signatures, an unbelievable figure given that Zanu PF did not gunner three million votes in the previous election, and the party itself is divided on the amendment, with a good number of its influencers publicly condemning the proposed amendments.

With so many submissions being made, parliament capture the facts being presented. For example, if four million people argue that elections should be held every 7 years to reduce toxicity, then that counts as one point. Similarly, if four million people say the term of office should remain the same because other SADC Countries hold their elections every five years, that counts as one point as well. Importantly, the constitutionality of the views should also be taken into account. For example, if four million people want President Mnangagwa to remain in office, the current bill cannot be implemented as it is without a referendum, so the bill must be re-written to accommodate a referendum.

I encourage all citizens of Zimbabwe, wherever they are, to make their submissions, whether collectively in identifiable groups, or individually, to make submissions, and where they can, to attend the public hearings and air their views where possible. My complaint is that Parliament has not arranged adequate centres for people to come and give their views. Only 64 centres are reported to have been established for this mammoth exercise, giving no opportunity to millions of Zimbabweans who cannot travel in some cases over one hundred kilometres to get to the nearest public hearing venue. Many individuals and groups have complained about being denied the opportunity as they cannot travel to the designated centres away from their constituency.

I hope  that Parliament will realised the need to make it possible for those interested to get the opportunity to present their views by rescheduling the hearings and make more centres available to enable Zimbabweans living inside the country to exercise their right to be heard.

I also hope the amendments should follow the correct procedure of holding referendums as some of the amendments involve changing the length of time that elected officials should stay in office, a term-limit amendment as defined by the Constitution, which change requires a referendum. Subsection 1 of Section 328 which deals with Amendment of Constitution describes a “term-limit provision” as a provision of this Constitution which limits the length of time that a person may hold or occupy a public office.

Kennedy Kaitano
Zimbabwean Citizen