It’s not over yet
So they tell us that Parliament is debating the Constitution Amendment Bill, nr 3 of 2026. It will be interesting to see whether there is a real debate, since there has been none yet anywhere.
Black News 
Even in the ZANU-PF Congress debate was not welcome. The Bill was bulldozed through without a debate; no reading of the Bill, no serious listening to different opinions, no vote, just the rowdy crowd we have got used to, shouting slogans to drown the voices of anyone who had thought about the proposals.
And it does demand serious thought; what is this Bill about? It is about taking away what little appearance of power we have as voters and taking away any limit on the power of the man in State House.
1) extending the terms of office of the President and parliament – which the Constitution says can only be done if it has been submitted to us as voters in a referendum
2) for the current president – which requires another referendum. The Constitution explicitly imposes this condition because if we should not trust even an angel from Heaven who wants to lengthen his own time in power.
3) depriving us of our power to elect the President, as if they are unsure of their ability to rig it next time.
4) allowing the President to appoint whoever he likes as a judge. The Consitution says the indepedent Judicial Service Commission must consult widely to select 3 candidates and submit their names to the President for him to choose one – as if bribing and bullying judges wasn’t enough to ensure they will never oppose the man at the top. This amendment says he will only need to “consult” the Legal Services Commission
5) allowing the President to appoint 10 more Senators
6) abolishing the Gender Commission and the Peace and Reconciliation Commission. Personally, I suspected from the beginning that the large number of Commissions was a ZANU ploy to make them unworkable by promising more than the Government can afford, but these two are among the most important and are needed now, possibly more than in 2013.
I will not repeat the other clauses of the Bill, which mainly tidy up details.
It is not too late for us to continue expressing our opinions on this Bill. We do not suffer from “election fatigue”: if they find rigging elections too tiring a task, we will let them take a rest
I do not think extending the time between elections would give officials any more time to do the jobs we elect them for: if electioneering has expanded to fill the 5 years between elections, is there any reason why it should not expand more to fill 7 years?
Even if it doesn’t, will that be enough for them to complete infrastructure projects some of which have been unfinished for up to 30 years?
It is good to see the retired generals who publicised their protest this week don’t think it is too late to stop this abuse of power. They are men who actually took up arms to fight for our independence. We hope that means they remember the ideals that drove them then. Meanwhile if you do remember, let’s start thinking how we go forward.
Government stopping destruction of houses in Stoneridge (admittedly that is just a pause until they decide what should be demolished to preserve wetlands) and its removal of Chinese illegal miners from Chimanimani are signs of hope. If we are loud and firm enough, they could back down again. These two examples are not the only ones; they are just last week’s news
