AG’s office accused of using ‘mischievous’ information to extend president’s term

A leading legal scholar has accused the Attorney General’s Office of publishing “mischievous and misleading” information to facilitate the extension of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term of office without a referendum in order to push ahead with the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill (No. During a debate on CITE’s X Space discussion on the proposed amendments, on Thursday, Dr Justice Mavedzenge, a comparative constitutional law scholar and international human rights lawyer, accused the Attorney General’s Office of distorting constitutional provisions in order to justify extending the President’s term of office without a referendum. He questioned whether the Attorney General, Virginia Mabiza, is either afraid to tell the President the truth or actively complicit in what he termed “sinister plans to subvert the Constitution.” “On Wednesday the Attorney General’s Office published what I consider to be a mischievous and misleading flyer, which says the only term limit provision for the President is Section 95(2),” he said.

The flyer, according to Mavedzenge, sought to advance the argument that Section 91(2), which disqualifies a person from election as President after serving two terms, is the sole term limit clause, thereby implying that amending Section 95 would not trigger the referendum requirement under Section 328(7). “I can understand when persons without basic legal knowledge fail to make a connection between Section 91(2) and Section 95,” he said. “But I struggle to understand how a whole Attorney General’s office can miss this.” Section 91(2) provides that: “A person is disqualified for election as President or Vice-President if he or she has already held office as President under this Constitution for two terms, whether continuous or not, and for the purpose of this subsection three or more years’ service is deemed to be a full term.” Section 95, titled Term of office of President and Vice-Presidents, stipulates that the President’s term is five years and coterminous with the life of Parliament.

Dr Mavedzenge said the relationship between the two sections is straightforward, as Section 95 defines the five-year tenure, while Section 91 builds upon that structure by limiting the number of such terms to two. His concern, however, went beyond textual interpretation. “It has left me with two questions, and I’m sure that those are the questions that other Zimbabweans would also have,” he said.