By Ziyah News Editor
For the umpteenth time, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has rebuffed a clique within the ruling party ZANU PF pushing for an agenda that he stays in power beyond his constitutionally allowed two terms. The latest rebuttal comes after President Mnangagwa met the Zimbabwean community in China upon where the question once again popped up.
The President addressed the Zimbabwean diaspora community affirming his earlier assertions that are on public record that he is a constitutionalist who abides and sticks to the constitution.
“I have said before that I am a constitutionalist, meaning I follow the dictates of the constitution, to add on, I am one of the people who contributed to the writing of the constitution. So to those whom you gossip with thinking that I would extend my stay (in power) no, that will never happen.”
“I had my time given by the people of Zimbabwe, when it’s over, someone will come in to take over. So this question of having a third term does not arise especially under my watch, I am in my second term and I already know even the date when I will leave and someone comes in,” said President Mnangagwa to loud applause from the Zim community in China he was addressing.
The 2030ist as has the clique agitating for the President to extend his stay has become known, started in the province of Masvingo and has become a common feature slogan at most of the ruling party’s programs and events, throwing the country back into the era of the first Republic where speculation, factionalism reigned supreme in the later years of the Former President Mugabe’s reign.
Opposition parties and some civic society organisations have vowed to oppose the move if it goes beyond just political talk, and the ruling party which has a majority in parliament, starts actioning the plan. The 2030ist idea would require significant constitutional amendments to abolish he two term limit and also circumvent the clause which say the incumbent must not be a beneficiary of an constitutional changes on the term limits.