Own Correspondent|Government recently gazetted 27 proposed amendments to the Constitution which will bring about a nearly completely new looking constitution.
We give you below a summary of the closes that the ZANU PF government is pushing through.
Currently, the Constitution allows for the President to appoint only five Cabinet ministers from outside Parliament, but once the amendment Bill is passed, the President will be empowered to appoint two more.
Reads the Bill in part: “Section 104 (“Appointment of Ministers and Deputy Ministers”) (3) of the Constitution is amended by the deletion of “up to five” and the substitution of “up to seven”.
The composition of the National Assembly will also be changed to include 10 more parliamentarians elected through proportional representation.
In a development to facilitate implementation of one of the resolutions from the Zanu-PF National People’s Conference held last month, the women’s quota clause will also be extended.
In addition, Section 161 of the Constitution is also being amended to allow for the decoupling of the drawing of constituency boundaries and the national census.
Currently, the Constitution obligates the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to draw up new electoral boundaries every 10 years, immediately after a national population census. The next one is due in 2022.
On devolution, the Bill proposes to “remove Members of Parliament from membership of provincial councils, merge the provisions relating to provincial and metropolitan councils by removing the special provision relating to the latter (they will no longer be chaired by mayors, but be elected in terms of Section 272 like provincial councils), and provide for the election of 10 members of Metropolitan Councils by a system of party list proportional representation.”
Other proposed changes include the establishment of the Public Protector’s Office, the establishment of the Office of the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet and renaming of the Civil Service Commission back to the Public Service Commission.
Also, the Bill proposes that the Prosecutor-General be appointed by the President on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission without public interviews.
The tenures of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court judges will also be extended after reaching the age of 70, for up to five years subject to a favourable medical report.
The amendments also include clauses permitting the President to appoint at least two more non-constituency Cabinet ministers and also extending the women’s quota in Parliament by another two terms.
The women’s quota was set to expire during the current Parliament.
In addition, the amendments will include a provision for the introduction of 10 extra seats in the National Assembly reserved for youths — one from each province.
Furthermore, the Bill seeks to terminate the joint election of the President and his deputies through removal of the “running mate” clause.
Joint election of the country’s top leadership was set to commence in 2023.