Submissions by both sides of the argument in Constitutional Amendment Bill call for referendum

There has been a hive of activity in the past three days, when public hearings for the Constitutional Amendment Number Three Bill began. Speaker after speaker has given facts that point to the need for a referendum, and I hope Parliament will take heed and send back the Bill to the Cabinet for them to redraft it to include a referendum, if Cabinet feels it needs to continue with the term adjecment proposals contained in the bill in its current nature.

Those who spoke in favour of the bill said it was necessary to extend the length of time for Council, Parliamentary and Presidential terms of office from the current five years to seven years to allow these officials to complete their projects. One seemingly undernourished lady went further to say that most of the legislators have not yet even organised celebration parties after their 2023 victory.

That statement by the lady was more than a mouthful. It points to the fact that the Zanu PF Government of Zimbabwe is deliberately impoverishing people so that it can feed them with food at parties and rallies, for them to think that the government is doing a good job feeding them. It points to the fact that some legislators and councillors abandon the electorate after achieving their objective to get a seat in Parliament and the council, respectively. They will probably come back to the people when they are seeking their vote at the next election. Some poor Zimbabweans are so grateful when they are treated to chicken from fast food outlets, a vote-buying bait by Zanu PF and the government of Zimbabwe. The seemingly undernourished lady must have been yearning for a treat, hence wants the term lengthened so that she doesn’t miss the treat at a victory celebration party in case it is cancelled due to the short term.

Some who spoke in favour of term extension said the pre- and post-electoral environment was so toxic that the first year after elections is spent haggling over the election outcomes, and the last year is spent preparing for the next election. This is true, but we should look at what causes these toxic environments. It is the government which has caused the toxic environment by allowing government machinery and Zanu PF to terrorise members of the opposition before, during and after elections.

Terrorisation of opposition officials and supporters before, during and after election dates back to the Mugabe era. The late Patrick Kombayi was lucky to get away with permanent disability after he was shot by the late Simon Muzenda’s bodyguard when the two locked horns in a Gweru constituency in the 1990 elections. Many Movement for Democratic Change supporters were killed before, during and after the 2000 parliamentary elections, and before, during and after the 2002 Presidential elections. The 2005 parliamentary elections also saw the killing of opposition officials before, during and after the elections, albeit at a lower scale than witnessed in 2000 and 2005.And then everyone knows what happened in the 2008 elections when hundreds of MDC supporters were killed before, during and after the elections. President Mnangagwa boasts of persuading the late President Comrade Mugabe to stay after he had conceded defeat. It took over a month to announce the official results of that election, as Zanu PF and Government machinery massaged the results to force a draw. Mugabe’s concession of defeat to the late  Morgan  Tsvangirai was disclosed by Dr Ibboh Mandaza in a Public lecture.

Come 2018, several people were gunned down by soldiers before the election results were announced. A Commission of Inquiry, the Motshlante Commission, was set up to investigate the circumstances. Valuable time was spent by people giving evidence, but the report from the Commission was never made public.

And this consultative process was equally toxic as Zanu PF and the Government perfected and upskilled in their art of creating toxic environments. There have been abductions in the run-up to these consultation meetings, and microphones were grabbed from persons. People were assaulted and had their phones snatched while Government officers (the police watched). I haven;t heard a report yet that the Zanu PF Central Committee Member who is seen snatching Douglas Coltart’s phone has been arrested, despite video footage of him doing the rounds on international television stations and on social media. So Zanu PF and the Government are creating a toxic environment to find an excuse to prolong their terms of office?

So the drafters of the bill should know very well that it is a bad Government and a bad ruling party who cause the toxic environment that retards progress. Zimbabwe just needs a new Government to break away from this experience of toxicity. Remove the toxicity caused by Zanu PF and the Government, and the entire five years can be spent on real development.

The few opposed to the bill who were lucky to be allowed to talk, or who grabbed the microphones and spoke, presented the real facts. They correctly pointed out that amending the constitution to prolong the length of time of office of elected officials does not benefit incumbents, and if it has to, two referendums have to be held.