Harare – A group of former Zimbabwe army commanders have demanded that the country must hold a referendum before any constitutional amendments that seek to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa term of office to 2030.
Fronted by Air Marshal (Retired) Henry Muchena, the former army Generals and ex-senior civil servants who are ex-combatants said constitutional amendments must be subject to a referendum not the current scenario where cabinet and parliament want to decide the mutilation of the charter.
”Call a referendum. Let the same Zimbabweans who gave us that Constitution speak again. If the amendments have merit, the people will affirm them. If they do not, the people will reject them. Either way, the will of the majority must be the final word,” Muchena wrote in a letter to parliament.
”We call on Parliament to do the right thing and submit these proposed amendments to a national referendum, as democratic principles demand. Anything less is not a constitutional amendment.”
The long letter by Air Marshal Muchena accused the ruling elite of being used by corrupt individuals that are popularly known as Zvigananda to speed up the constitutional amendments outside a referendum.
”If these amendments are truly in the national interest, let them be put to the people,” he said.
”We therefore ask, with heavy hearts: are we now reversing everything we bled for through these amendments?
”Are we returning to the era of Ian Smith, when only a privileged elite the Zvigananda as we called them the likes of Mazaiwana, Gumede and others had the right to participate in governance? Zvigananda have since re surfaced,” he added.
Muchena said a few Members of Parliament cannot decide on constitutional amendments in a country with 17 million people.
”This is totally unacceptable,” he said.
”We did not fight for a Zimbabwe where the majority are spectators in their own country’s affairs. We fought so that every Zimbabwean regardless of wealth, status, or political affiliation would have an equal and inviolable voice.”
”Now, men and women who did not endure a single night in the bush, who never buried a comrade, who did not witness what we witnessed these individuals seek to strip away that constitutional mandate without so much as consulting the people. They seek to do this quietly, without a referendum, without the people’s voice being heard. We frown upon this,” Air Marshal said.
”Those championing these constitutional changes are driven by a different kind of opportunity, the opportunity for personal enrichment, for the consolidation of power, for the protection of privilege.”
Muchena said the former liberation fighters are rebelling but exercising their “most fundamental right in any democracy the right to speak.”
”We remain loyal to the party, loyal to the nation, and loyal above all to the people of Zimbabwe, in whose name every sacrifice of the liberation struggle was made,” Muchena said.
Zimbabwe’s constitution allows the president to serve two five year terms but the new amendments want to increase the presidential term to seven years.
Mnangagwa and his supporters want his tenure to be increased from 2028 to 2030, a move that has been criticized by the majority.