Zimbabwe’s cabinet on Tuesday approved sweeping changes to the constitution as part of a bid to extend 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term until 2030, angering opposition figures who warned that any changes would require a national referendum.
Zimbabwe’s cabinet has agreed to a plan to extend the president’s term until 2030Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who had been president for 30 years, and his Zanu-PF announced plans in October to extend his term beyond 2028.
The approved amendments include extending the president’s term from five to seven years and electing the president to Parliament instead of the electorate, a cabinet statement said.
Law Minister Ziambi Ziambi said the bill would undergo “legal scrubbing” by the attorney general and be tabled in parliament before being published in the official gazette.
Opposition politicians and analysts insist it would require the approval of two-thirds of both houses of parliament, which are heavily weighted towards Zanu-PF, and a national referendum.
The ruling party’s “2030 agenda” has been on the cards for months, prompting opposition leaders to vow to “defend the constitution against its capture”.
Efforts to protest against the plan have been met with a police crackdown that has left many people in jail.
A post-cabinet statement said the amendments it passed would “enhance political stability and policy consistency so that development programs can be fully implemented”.
Other provisions include allowing the president to appoint 10 more senators, increasing the Senate to 90 seats.
– ‘Instability’ –
A constitutional limit of two five-year presidential terms was introduced in 2013.
Mnangagwa was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and again in 2023 but has been accused of allowing widespread corruption to benefit his supporters while cracking down on human rights.
“Any amendment that has the ‘effect’ of extending the term of an incumbent should be subject to a referendum,” opposition politician David Coltart told AFP after the cabinet statement.
“They know that if it happens, they will fail, so they will do everything in their power to prevent a referendum from happening,” said Coltart, who is mayor of the country’s second city, Bulawayo.
“I have no doubt that it will be given ‘judicial cover’ by an appropriate judgment issued by the Constitutional Court that they do not have to hold a referendum,” he added.
Democracy advocate Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the move by the Cabinet was “completely unacceptable” and risked causing major chaos in the former British colony.
“As far as we know, they don’t even have a referendum on their agenda,” he told AFP. “It’s an ill-conceived way of trying to do politics and … it’s going to cause political instability.”
“It is clear that the attack on the democratic structure in the country requires nothing but a political response,” he said, predicting a “painful struggle” ahead.
Zimbabwe’s opposition, fragmented and weakened after years of repression, has failed to mount significant resistance to the “2030 Agenda”.
“This is a sad day for Zimbabwe,” said rights lawyer Peida Saurombe. “To have the Constitution… simultaneously perverting and against the spirit of the Constitution is very sad,” he said.
“The foundation of the nation has been attacked by those it should protect.”
Mnangagwa has presided over a collapsing economy that has suffered from high inflation and unemployment, marred by alleged corruption and cronyism.
A journalist who interviewed the independence war veteran demanding Mnangagwa’s resignation was arrested in February last year and jailed for more than 70 days on charges of inciting public violence.
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