Zimbabwe presses ahead with bill to extend president’s term to 2030

Harare. Zimbabwe’s government introduced a bill to parliament on Tuesday that would extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term by two years to 2030, despite criticism from a fractured opposition and some veterans of the country’s liberation war.

The draft legislation is expected to be debated on Wednesday at its second reading in parliament.

Mnangagwa, 83, is currently expected to step down in 2028 after serving two five-year terms as head of state. However, his supporters want to amend the constitution to extend presidential terms from five years to seven.

They also propose changing the system so that presidents are elected by parliament rather than through direct popular vote.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi introduced the bill in the lower house of parliament.

Political analysts say the bill is likely to sail through, as Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party holds a two-thirds majority in the lower house and also controls the upper house through traditional leaders and allied representatives, giving it the numbers needed to amend the constitution.

Ziyambi has previously said the legislative process is expected to take about a month.

ZANU-PF has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, first under longtime leader Robert Mugabe and later Mnangagwa, who took over after a 2017 coup.

On Tuesday, a group of retired generals and former civil servants publicly opposed the bill, saying they had met Mnangagwa last month to raise their concerns. They said the president told them: “whoever wins, wins”, referring to the fate of the proposed constitutional changes.

Some war veterans and activists have also challenged the bill in the Constitutional Court, which has reserved judgment while it considers the case.