Speaker Sir. This is a defining moment in our constitutional evolution: a journey rooted in the liberation struggle fought and won by the heroic sons and daughters of the soil, shaped by the aspirations of our people, and given formal expression in the Constitution we adopted by and for ourselves as Zimbabweans in 2013. Constitutions, by their very nature, are not monuments cast permanently in stone.They are living instruments of good governance, designed to respond to changing realities, to emerging challenges, and to the ever-evolving needs and aspirations of society.
The true strength of a constitutional democracy lies not in rigid permanence, but in its capacity for lawful, reasoned and progressive adaptation. Speaker, this Bill is therefore not an abandonment of our constitutional order in any way, shape or form, but a continuation of it. It is the product of practical experience, of institutional reflection, and of the honest recognition that after more than a decade of implementation, certain provisions of the 2013 Constitution require refinement to enhance their functionality, their coherence, and their service to national progress.
I ask this Honourable House to weigh the Bill in that spirit. A Republic confidentbefore you, is not a leap into the unknown, but a measured step, informed by the realities of constitutional governance, by lessons drawn from our history and comparable jurisdictions, and by our shared determination that the supreme law of our land should remain an instrument for development rather than an obstacle to it. Let me begin, Mr.
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Speaker, as candour requires, not with what the Bill does, but with what it does not do, because a great deal of what has been said about it, beyond the walls of this Chamber, bears little resemblance to the text that lies before Honourable Members. First, it does not give the President a term extension or a third term. Second, it does not take away the right to vote, which is enshrined in the timehonoured principle of universal adult suffrage.
Third, it does not at all concern itself with succession in any political party. Fourth, it does not postpone the nation’s elections to some distant or unknown year. Fifth, it does not concentrate power, or the running of our elections, in the hands ofthe President.
None of these things is true of the Bill before this Honourable House. I will return to each of them in its place, and I will show, clause by clause, why each charge fails against the text. But I wanted Honourable Members, and the members of the public who are following our proceedings, to hear at the outset and in plain terms what this Bill does not do.
What, then, does the Bill do? Speaker Sir, the Bill contains 22 clauses; effectively 21, if we discount its title. This does not mean it does 21 things, because when all is said and done, it actually seeks to do two main things, around which it aligns with the constitutional text.
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