Siphakeme .Mnindwa
Zvamaida Murwira, Harare Bureau
THE call for Constitutional amendments for President Mnangagwa to extend his term beyond 2028 has nothing to do with him and has not been done at his instigation but was conceived by the revolutionary party and formed part of its Annual National People’s Conference resolutions.
Addressing Zanu-PF Mashonaland West Province Provincial Co-ordinating Committee members last weekend, Politburo member, Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi, said current efforts to amend the Constitution to extend President Mnangagwa’s term were solely a decision of the revolutionary party’s general membership.
He said at no time did President Mnangagwa canvass for the extension of his term and any suggestion to that effect was preposterous, given that the position of the First Secretary was known that he was a constitutionalist.
Cde Ziyambi said Zanu-PF was pushing for an extension of the President’s term in line with a resolution that it took at its conference in Bulawayo in October last year.
“Our plan with resolutions is that they come from the people starting from inter-district, and they go to the province where they are debated. Our provincial chairman takes them to the national level and they are consolidated at the conference. Once consolidated at the conference level, they become Zanu-PF resolutions. That point ought to be clear,” said Cde Ziyambi.
“At no time did President Mnangagwa say he wants this or that, about the issue of 2030. It is us as the people and general membership of Zanu-PF who expressed our desire about what we want him to do. Now, if you hear someone saying anything about our President that he has done this or he intends to do that, tell them that it is not him, but it is us as the people and as Zanu-PF. He is not in the equation or this discourse.”
Cde Ziyambi said his discussions with President Mnangagwa, whenever they meet, did not include issues around extension of his term.
“Even if I am to meet with him, I will tell him that ‘we are seized with our issues as the general membership of the party, which has nothing to do with you, I do not even want to hear about your views about it,’ I do not even talk to him about it because it is our issue.
“We are now in the process of fulfilling our issue and desire as Zimbabweans, we now need to be united because it’s us who have expressed this desire. Once we start the programme and it goes through Parliament to amend the Constitution to fulfill our objective, once it comes back to the people during the Referendum, starting today, let’s mobilise people, telling them that Zimbabweans want President Mnangagwa to remain in office until 2030.
This is our desire as Zanu-PF.”
Zanu-PF party structures have been calling for Constitutional amendments following a resolution at the party’s Conference in Bulawayo that was unanimously adopted.
The rank and file of the party felt that President Mnangagwa had pushed several signature projects that had transformed lives so much that they felt he deserved to have a term extension for him to complete his work and vision.
