The Presidential Spokesman George Charamba has said that 2018 elections are set to be held in July.

Speaking in a ZiFM radio discussion, Charamba said President Emmerson Mnangagwa will most likely proclaim a July election date.

He said this was according to the New Constitution.

In the wide ranging interview, Mr Charamba said his office had received a document on the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) but he had reservations.
“Why don’t we have AIPPA, what is it about AIPPA that is objectionable? This is exactly my biggest  problem.

“Just now I have had a submission from the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) and they raised that paper on the basis of two purported considerations. One to say that AIPPA was out of sync with the new constitution and the second aspect was that AIPPA was standing in the way of a level playing field in the impending 2018 harmonised elections.

“But I went through, meticulously, the submission from Misa. I was hard put to find any particular element related to the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

“If anything they were raising issues to do with child protection simply because they thought that child protection clauses would be contained in AIPPA yet we have a whole Act that protects children.”

He said in the document, Misa was also focusing on other matters that had nothing to do with AIPPA.

“They were also raising issues about the right to be forgotten which is not a constitutional issue but an emerging issue from social media which many jurisdictions are still grappling with and over which there is no closure.

“Of which really we went through that whole document, I had difficulties in putting my finger on any issue that I would trace back to the constitution,” said Mr Charamba.

He emphasised that any statutory provision which is out of sync with the constitution becomes ultra vires the constitution.

Mr Charamba said in terms of elections, he was also of the same view that AIPPA has to be updated to  make it in sync with the ever changing media environment.

“On that one we are together. As a matter of fact this particular week, barring other circumstances, I intend to invite the Minister of Justice to our office so that we can read the submissions on AIPPA as well as BSA together to ascertain if they have any issues that they have raised.

“As you are aware there is a whole draft of provisions that are before Parliament which will be considered ahead of elections,” he said.

As part of electoral reforms, political parties have called for the opening of airwaves, particularly in the public media, to ensure equitable coverage.  – state media