By Mari Matutu| ANALYSIS | The days for submitting objections on Constitution amendment number 2 are running out. I will raise mine through my party MDC A for further presentation when the bill is debated.

1) While I object to the whole Bill but I will put my effort towards the clauses 3-10, 13, 14,16 , 19.
In short these selected amendments deal with:-
i) The issue of running mates is dealt with from amendment clause 3 -9. The main issue is should we have an elected deputy president or appointed deputy president. I will deal with this later.

ii) Clause 10 president want to appoint 7 MPs that do not come from voters.

iii) 13 &14 Talks about president wanting to appoint judges without public interview procedure.

iv) 19 Talks about president wanting to appoint the prosecutor General without going to public interview.

2) Like I said before I object to the whole Bill but chose the selected amendments listed above because they have one thing in common. The President want to appoint office bearers without public input.

3) Reasons of my objections to the listed proposed amendments are:

A) The preamble to the Zimbabwe Constitution says it all. The first word on the whole constitution is “We” and not “I”. It may look very short word in normal writing but it say it all in mathematics of democracy. It is two letter word and therefore defeat the “I” which is a single letter word. I say no single person shall ever decide on behalf of the mass. More particular to the facts pertaining to running mates. The office of the president runs the Executive arm of the state and as long as the “We” stand in our Preamble no single person can be given authority of an arm of the state direct from us and still stand the meaning of “W”.

B) Our Founding provisions list very pertinent issues that must be raised first to unmask the disrespect of the people of Zimbabwe shown by an attempt to have these amendments done.

a) Section 3(2) of Constitution binds us including the very parliament to debate this nonsense or person who came up with Bill.

It reads:
“(2) The principles of good governance, which bind the State and all institutions and
agencies of government at every level, include—
(a) a multi-party democratic political system;
(b) an electoral system based on—
(i) universal adult suffrage and equality of votes;
(ii) free, fair and regular elections; and
(iii) adequate representation of the electorate;
(c) the orderly transfer of power following elections;
(d) respect for the rights of all political parties;
(e) observance of the principle of separation of powers;
(f) respect for the people of Zimbabwe, from whom the authority to govern is derived;
(g) transparency, justice, accountability and responsiveness;
(h) the fostering of national unity, peace and stability, with due regard to diversity of
languages, customary practices and traditions;
(i) recognition of the rights of—(i) ethnic, racial, cultural, linguistic and religious groups;
(ii) persons with disabilities;
(iii) women, the elderly, youths and children;
(iv) veterans of the liberation struggle;
(j) the equitable sharing of national resources, including land;
(k) due respect for vested rights; and
(l) the devolution and decentralisation of governmental power and functions.”

These are the founding values and principles that We the Zimbabweans adopted in 2013.

b) If a person in the executive, which is a separate arm of the state want to be the Only person voted for in the arm of state, then using the unilateral power acquired from such vote, want to use the same power to go to Legislature and influence the composition of it by adding 7 people. If 7 people a added in a cabinet of 13 ministers it means all our resources are handled by people without our mandate. It will not represent our will. The same single person want to decide using powers from another arm of the state to decide the whole composition of Judiciary. Where is your mind taking us to? Where is the principle of separation of powers, where is your principle of adequate representation of electorate in all these amendments?
Where is your respect of people of Zimbabwe from whom you derive power from? Where is Transparency principle when you avoid public interviews of judges and Prosecutor General? To whom is a Chief Justice, or Judge of HC or Prosecutor General you appoint accountable to?
Should a president we the people elect die, or impeached for his own actions, where is the principle of orderly transfer of power from him to the person representing the will of the people when we avoid running mates?

c) I feel if the said amendments are to sail through then the Founding Principles of our Nation have to be revised and even the name of the State will have to change and be named after Pfee.

C) Section 162 of Constitution reads:-

“Judicial authority derives from the people of Zimbabwe and is vested in the courts, which comprise—
(a) the Constitutional Court;
(b) the Supreme Court;
(c) the High Court;
(d) the Labour Court;
(e) the Administrative Court;
(f) the magistrates courts;
(g) the customary law courts; and
(h) other courts established by or under an Act of Parliament

It is foolish to attempt to change all the the sections on how judges come to be in Court by removing the people and public interview and still want to say it is a court of the public, with authority of Judiciary as per constitution. It is treasonous to try and remove the people’ s authority from the judiciary.
The net effect is this-;
i) All nominations of presidents, MPs, Senators, and councillor which are done by judges and magistrates during election are going to be held by stooges appointed by incumbent and the whole electoral process is a charade.

ii) All the election disputes are going to be presided over by stooges of an incumbent.
iii) Because ZEC is chaired by a Judge then the whole election process is a circus.
iv) The president is going to be sworn into office by his stooge.
v) Because the nomination, election disputes, and electoral commission is now run by whole stodgy Judiciary the MPs who shall be in parliament is a bunch of unelected people and not representing anyone but the “I” in the hands of the president.
vi) The prosecution on behalf of the people is now Public Persecution. You are basically advocating for a Public Persecutor General instead of public prosecutor. By removing Public interviews of a Public Prosecutor you can never remain with a public Prosecutor General. Impossible.

D) Section 164 of Constitution. I will not quote it but its Judiciary independence. We the people of Zimbabwe spelt quit clearly in 2013 that:

i) The courts are independent and are subject only to this Constitution and the law, which they must apply impartially, expeditiously and without fear, favour or prejudice and never be dominions of an individual or arm of the state by any name.

ii)The independence, impartiality and effectiveness of the courts are central to the rule of law and democratic governance. We cannot have rule of law and impartiality of courts if the whole bench is subject to appointment of single man with some other authority to run the government. Never.

E) Just like Judiciary authority the Executive also attain its power direct from the people . s88 of Constitution reads

“88 Executive authority
(1) Executive authority derives from the people of Zimbabwe and must be exercised in accordance with this Constitution. (2) The executive authority of Zimbabwe vests in the President who exercises it, subject to this Constitution, through the Cabinet.”

Very Clear that the authority of executive powers is derived from the people, just as is the judiciary authority is also derived from the people. How can a person vested with executive authority want to give a Judiciary authority to Judges or prosecutor if his choice our own authority without our consent and let those people exercise such powers on us. How is that possible? Just as we see people being Persecuted by an Appointed Persecutor General. We have right to refuse to be Prosecuted by such person. We do not know him. We never gave authority.

I may add on but bottom line is this bill is pointing a middle finger to the people of Zimbabwe. It is even a treasonus action that is spending our money to help a person to hijack our sovereignty and put us under a dominion of one man. Where he and Clans man can steal millions right in front of you and all evidence and paper work is presented but because the Public Prosecutor has become a Public Persecutor and all Judges are stooges that can lock up a person for raising a placard saying Mnangagwa imbavha or a person who toyi toyi may be a security threat to the state yet a person who steal millions of money meant to save lives during this COVID 19 is so smart not to sleep in dirty cells. Same cells lawyers representing a person challenging the very same Persecutor’s appointment by president imposter made a home for two nights. Thanks to this crap.

If any MP from any party stand for this nonsense the the authority and power is already in the “WE” of our Preamble.

Talumba, Sibonga, Ndatenda, Mashuma, I thank you