Opinion / Columnist
'Zanu PF has no legitimacy to amend constitution' said Biti - nonsense, you foolishly gave them legitimacy
13 Apr 2021 at 07:11hrs | Views
"Mnangagwa, Chamisa in fresh legal fight!" read the headlines. And my instinctive reaction was the sinking feeling of pending doom.
MDC A are going to challenge in the Constitutional Court the passage of the Constitution Amendment bill No. 1.
Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution stipulated that the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and judges be appointed following public interviews. And Amendment Bill No 1 gives the State President the power to appoint all these senior judiciary officers. This is problematic in that it undermines the concept of judiciary independence from the executive.
MDC A are not challenging the passage of the Bill on the substantive matter of judiciary independence but on procedural grounds.
"The starting point is that the Bill is illegal. The sitting and reading of the Bill happened in the Robert Mugabe era. Section 147 of the Constitution is clear that any motion lapses at the dissolution of Parliament. The Seventh Parliament was dissolved on May 28, 2018 and the motion also lapsed," explained Tendai Biti.
"That's unconstitutional and illegal, we will go to court about that. Zanu-PF can't unilaterally amend a negotiated Constitution, which was voted for by three million people in a referendum. The challenge should be how to implement the Constitution."
The best MDC A can therefore expect from the Constitutional Court is that the laid down procedure was not followed in the passage of the Bill. This will delay the date the Bill will be enacted nothing more!
Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and senate and that gives the regime the constitutional power and authority to amend the constitution.
As for the legitimacy; Zanu PF does not have legitimacy in so far as the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible. 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, a very significant number given Mnangagwa reported won with 2.4 million votes. Mnangagwa has since admitted there was no justification for denying the diaspora the vote. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll, a legal and common sense requirement.
"The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission Observer final report.
"As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards."
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime derived their fig-leaf legitimacy from the participation in the flawed and illegal elections by MDC A and the rest in the Zimbabwe opposition camp. What is worse, the MDC A knew that by participating in the flawed elections they would give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, as David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General admitted in his book.
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections," wrote Coltart.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
MDC A challenged the July 2018 elections results on the frivolous grounds that Chamisa garnered 2.6 million vote to Mnangagwa's 2.4 million only for MDC A to fail to produce the V11 forms evidence, the Polling Station vote count summary sheets. The substantive challenge was the elections were rigged given the denial of 3 million in the diaspora the vote, failure to produce verified voters' roll, etc., etc.
History is once again repeating itself; MDC A is challenging the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 1 on trivial ground and not on the substantive one. Such is the curse of having a corrupt, incompetent and utterly, utterly useless opposition party as MDC A.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been stuck for 41 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF regime that has been rigging elections to stay in power. The nation had its best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders wasted the opportunity and failed to implement even one reform in five years!
Zimbabwe would not still be stuck in this economic and political mess if MDC leaders were not so corrupt and incompetent.
"Zanu PF has no legitimacy to pass Constitutional Amendment Bill No 1" - MDC A gave them the legitimacy!
MDC A are going to challenge in the Constitutional Court the passage of the Constitution Amendment bill No. 1.
Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution stipulated that the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and judges be appointed following public interviews. And Amendment Bill No 1 gives the State President the power to appoint all these senior judiciary officers. This is problematic in that it undermines the concept of judiciary independence from the executive.
MDC A are not challenging the passage of the Bill on the substantive matter of judiciary independence but on procedural grounds.
"The starting point is that the Bill is illegal. The sitting and reading of the Bill happened in the Robert Mugabe era. Section 147 of the Constitution is clear that any motion lapses at the dissolution of Parliament. The Seventh Parliament was dissolved on May 28, 2018 and the motion also lapsed," explained Tendai Biti.
"That's unconstitutional and illegal, we will go to court about that. Zanu-PF can't unilaterally amend a negotiated Constitution, which was voted for by three million people in a referendum. The challenge should be how to implement the Constitution."
The best MDC A can therefore expect from the Constitutional Court is that the laid down procedure was not followed in the passage of the Bill. This will delay the date the Bill will be enacted nothing more!
Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and senate and that gives the regime the constitutional power and authority to amend the constitution.
As for the legitimacy; Zanu PF does not have legitimacy in so far as the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible. 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, a very significant number given Mnangagwa reported won with 2.4 million votes. Mnangagwa has since admitted there was no justification for denying the diaspora the vote. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll, a legal and common sense requirement.
"As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards."
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime derived their fig-leaf legitimacy from the participation in the flawed and illegal elections by MDC A and the rest in the Zimbabwe opposition camp. What is worse, the MDC A knew that by participating in the flawed elections they would give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, as David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General admitted in his book.
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections," wrote Coltart.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
MDC A challenged the July 2018 elections results on the frivolous grounds that Chamisa garnered 2.6 million vote to Mnangagwa's 2.4 million only for MDC A to fail to produce the V11 forms evidence, the Polling Station vote count summary sheets. The substantive challenge was the elections were rigged given the denial of 3 million in the diaspora the vote, failure to produce verified voters' roll, etc., etc.
History is once again repeating itself; MDC A is challenging the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 1 on trivial ground and not on the substantive one. Such is the curse of having a corrupt, incompetent and utterly, utterly useless opposition party as MDC A.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been stuck for 41 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF regime that has been rigging elections to stay in power. The nation had its best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders wasted the opportunity and failed to implement even one reform in five years!
Zimbabwe would not still be stuck in this economic and political mess if MDC leaders were not so corrupt and incompetent.
"Zanu PF has no legitimacy to pass Constitutional Amendment Bill No 1" - MDC A gave them the legitimacy!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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