Tendai Ruben Mbofana
This is according to Justice, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, in an interview with the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.
These constitutional amendments are supposed to transfer the registration of voters from the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) back to the CRD (Civil Registry Department).
This is how this process had been carried out until 2009, before this was changed after a public outcry over the shambolic nature of the voters’ roll under the Registrar General’s Office.
Now, the government is proposing for those who acquire their national identity cards at the CRD after attaining the age of 18 years to automatically be registered as voters
At the same time, when a death certificate is issued for a deceased individual, their name is immediately removed from the voters roll.
This is intended to drastically simplify the voter registration process whilst simultaneously ensuring the reliable cleaning up of the voters’ roll in the event of death.
These constitutional amendments will also revert the delimitation of electoral boundaries to an independent commission as opposed to ZEC.
In so doing, the electoral commission will focus exclusively on its core business of managing elections.
Who would be against such seemingly progressive changes, for which most of us have been clamoring?
In fact, Ziyambi, in the Sunday Mail interview, made sure that it was not lost on Zimbabweans that these amendments had been pushed by the opposition.
This is when all the red flags and alarm bells in my mind went up and started to ring roundly.
Since when has the ZANU PF regime ever given credit to the opposition for anything positive in this country?
Is the norm not praising and glorifying President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa for his supposedly ‘visionary leadership’ as a ‘listening president’?
Why credit Charlton Hwende and Rusty Markham of the CCC party, instead?
Can anyone else smell the stinking fish I am also smelling?
I have a disturbingly gnawing feeling that the Mnangagwa administration is up to its dirty tricks again – something they have turned into an art form.
What this regime does and says should never be simply taken at face value and accepted naively.
Let us go back to 2021, when the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 2) Act was enacted.
Was this not packaged as a progressive move designed to empower women and youth in Zimbabwe – through the extension of the women’s quota while introducing a youth quota in parliament?
Who, with a sound mind, would not have celebrated this as a step in the right direction?
Did we actually not see the government, with Mnangagwa at the fore, taking advantage of every opportunity to tout this masterstroke of empowerment brilliance?
In the end, these constitutional changes sailed through both houses of parliament and immediately received the presidential seal.
However, was this really what these amendments were all about?
Did we not find ourselves with a Chief Justice (Luke Malaba) who was supposed to retire that year after reaching the constitutionally mandated age of 70 years, continuing in his office?
Did we not see the president awarded more powers in the selection and appointment of judges?
And, were we not shocked to learn that a presidential candidate was no longer required to have a running mate?
This was all after the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 2) Act changed the retiring age for judges, expunged the public interview process for judges, and removed the presidential running mate clause.
The legality of the changing of judges’ retirement age is still debatable since section 328 (7) of the Constitution clearly states that:
An amendment to a term-limit provision, the effect of which is to extend the length of time that a person may hold or occupy any public office, does not apply in relation to any person who held or occupied that office, or an equivalent office, at any time before the amendment.
Nevertheless, such provisions have never stopped the government from violating the law.
They went ahead unperturbed, and Malaba is still the Chief Justice today.
In other words, these amendments were really about consolidating Mnangagwa’s grip on power as opposed to empowering women and youth.
Nonetheless, by carefully hiding the real reasons for the constitutional changes, the Mnangagwa administration was able to avert any meaningful resistance from the public.
I see the same happening with these proposed new constitutional amendments – to do with registration of voters and the delimitation of electoral boundaries.
I may be wrong, but a voice in my head is telling me that this is when amendments to the presidential term limit will be brought in – carefully tacked away from public scrutiny and debate.
The nation will be made to feel excited about the new electoral laws – touted as a victory for the opposition and something the people always wanted.
Who will then vote against that?
Yet, in voting for the constitutional amendments, parliamentarians will also be voting for presidential term changes.
Even if any such amendment can not and should not benefit Mnangagwa, however, we have already seen how this regime feels about respecting the law!
We need to be very careful and vigilant when dealing with this regime as nothing is always as it appears.
When these proposed constitutional changes are finally brought before the nation, let us pay meticulous scrutiny to each and every clause.
We should not allow ourselves to be bogged down with the excitement of what seems like progressive electoral changes.
Let us call out and bravely stand against anything else that may be hidden in the backseat.
The Zimbabwe regime has already proven themselves experts at Trojan horse tactics.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/