Illegality being sanitised — Mawarire slams Constitutional Amendment Bill public hearings as Zanu PF defends process

The recently concluded public hearings on the Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 were merely an attempt to sanitise an illegality, a critic has said.

Political commentator Jealousy Mawarire made the remarks during an interview with South African broadcaster SABC, where he strongly criticised Zanu PF’s push to extend presidential, parliamentary and council terms beyond 2028.

Mawarire argued that the consultations were designed to legitimise what he described as an unconstitutional process aimed at bypassing a referendum.

“The consultations are a process of trying to legitimise an illegality stemming from the Constitutional Bill itself, the way it was promulgated. This thing started with the president way before 2024, when he said in 2030 he will be there,” said Mawarire.

“Then, it was followed up by consultations among lawyers to try and see how they could mutilate the constitution in order to allow the president to go beyond the constitution. He provided for the limit, the cut-off limit, which is 2028.

“But these were consultations that were put in place in order to sanitise an illegality, a constitutional coup which was already in the process.”

He also criticised the scope of the outreach programme, saying it fell far short of adequately representing citizens, particularly in urban areas.

In Harare, only the City Sports Centre hosted the hearings, while in Chitungwiza the process was limited to the Aquatic Complex, despite the large populations in both.

“So, yes, they were chaotic. There were fewer than what we had in 2013 when we came up with this constitution. In 2013, we had more than 4,000 consultations with Zimbabweans, divided into 1,070 wards. At the very basic minimum, we were supposed to have had 1,970 consultative meetings,” he said.

Several pro-opposition organisations withdrew from the hearings, arguing that the process was merely a box-ticking exercise that ignored dissenting voices.

Meanwhile, Zanu PF mobilised its supporters to attend the hearings in large numbers in support of the proposed amendments.

Responding on the same platform, Zanu PF Director of Information Farai Marapira defended the process, saying the bill was informed by party resolutions driven by grassroots demands.

“You cannot mutilate the constitution by constitutionally changing the constitution. As Zanu PF, we have got our democratic internal processes, and through these processes..

“Our grassroots communicated to leadership that there were issues that they needed changed, and these issues are reflected in the resolutions, which come from the party, and resolutions guide government business,” said Marapira. *_-NewZimbabwe_*