HON. SEN. KOMICHI: Thank you Madam President. I want to thank the Hon. Minister for bringing the Bill into this august Senate so that we can add our views. I want to start by saying that the background of the national Constitution that we unanimously voted for in 2013 which was people-driven – is very important. It must be applauded that the people of Zimbabwe in Chiendambuya, Tsholotsho, Binga and other rural areas were able to add their views to the Constitution.
What we are saying is that the historical background of this Constitution came from the people. People said that for the country to be well managed, and for us to have confidence in the leadership; we came up with the Constitution. For sure we sat down and it was a people driven project. On coming up with this Constitution, we had learnt a lot from the governance that was in place before this Constitution. We also realised that if power lies in the hands of one person, it can be too much and leads to corruption by one person. Power is sweet and can lead to corruption.
We said was that power that was vested in one person should be divided among other arms of the State which are the Judiciary, Parliament and the Executive, including independent Commissions. The powers that were taken and were being used during the old dispensation were too many. The President had too much power before the new dispensation and it created what we call a big man. In other words, it created a dictator. People become frightened when the Constitution is amended. The powers that were stripped from one person are now going back to that person.
Power that had been given to the people to craft this Constitution is now being taken and put in the Office of the President. It has been taken from Parliament to the Office of the President but what we are saying is that the power of Parliament is derived from the people. The power of the President is derived from the people as well and the judiciary derives its power from the people. So why are we then today taking that power which we had given to the nation to oversee and putting them in one office? This frightens us the people of Zimbabwe when the powers that had been availed by the new Constitution are being withdrawn.
If we are to amend the Constitution now, it will likely lead to more problems in the future. What has gone wrong Madam President? Section 98 on the running mate states that the President is supposed to pick two Vice Presidents and the choice is his. He has the privilege of choosing two Vice President. It also states that one should be the First Vice President and the other Second Vice President. Why is it that now we want to change and amend the Constitution? We are saying that when you go for elections, the three of you should all contest. We are giving powers to say that if a person is elected to power, he now has the powers to say that I do not want this Vice President. What if we meet out there and clash on other interests that are not really to do with governance? I can have the power to dismiss you as the Vice President. If you give me such powers, I can do whatever I want and can use the Constitution to fight my personal vendettas against people.
Section 101 of the Constitution talks about smooth succession which is good in the event that the President dies or becomes incapacitated. The first Vice President will become the President and that provides for smooth transition on succession. It does not waste time nor does it cause any stagnation in the nation. When the late President Magufuli passed away, the following day Madame President was sworn in and there was no problem. We also witnessed that in Malawi when the late Bingu-wa-Mutharika passed on; Joyce Banda smoothly took over. So why can we not do the same as Zimbabwe? Do we think that when people are chosen as the First and Second Vice Presidents, they become enemies of the President of the nation yet we will have chosen that person through our system? So the examples of countries that I have given – United States of America does the same thing whereby if the President becomes incapacitated, the Vice President takes over.
We thought that we had modernised our way of life and had done away with the issue of fighting for positions. In my opinion, I think that it is not right for us to meddle with power of the Constitution. I do not think that it is right to withdraw these powers from the people. I fear creating dictatorship and also the challenges that we faced during the old dispensation – we do not want to see that. Why should we pile power in one office? When we share, there is smooth running of the country. We are happy with the Government of the day because we were using the Constitution but tomorrow if we encounter any conflict or challenges, we will not be able to solve them.
On the issue of judges that has been mentioned, the Constitution states that the power of the judiciary comes from the people, meaning that people hold power in this institution. Why is it that these people no longer have the power to select the judges? What is the problem? Our Constitution is very clear. We should not change things. We used it when we nominated Chief Justice Malaba and we were all happy because people were involved. This is to say that when a judge is elected through the public process, that judge is accountable to the people. A judge should not be accountable to a person because once a judge is accountable to a person the independence of the judiciary is compromised.
The Constitution also talks of the independence of the judiciary. Why are we meddling with the independence of the judiciary? What has gone wrong? We do not even have a historical background of the challenges that have been faced because of this clause. Is there anywhere where we are regretting what has been done so far? Why do we want the judge to be appointed? If I am appointed as a judge, tomorrow I will put my trust in the person who appointed me and it will compromise my professionalism because when his relatives appear before me, I am forced to be biased and a sense of patronage is created within the system. The sitting judges will end up acting in a manner that seeks promotion and they will no longer have that independence to do their work. So we want to encourage separation of the three arms of the State; that is the Judiciary, Parliament and the Executive. When we do that, we are going to create a system whereby the three arms will be accountable and taking orders from the other arm of the State. Power must be distributed among the three arms of the State, which should be independent. These two sections, I feel we need to reconsider them. With these few words Madam President, I thank you for the time that you have given me
