With the increased human rights abuses and the militarisation of government operations by the ruling party in Zimbabwe, it shows that the country has a long way to go in terms of conducting its operations based on the national constitution, even after citizens adopted the supreme law of the land through an overwhelming ‘Yes’ vote in a 2013 referendum.

The Programmes Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Human Rights (HR) NGO Forum, Musa Kika, raised concern over the issue and called on the President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to respect and uphold the rule of law.

Kika stated that the seven-year-old constitution had become merely a written paper as the so-called ‘New Dispensation’ had crafted its own laws outside what people voted for, through various statutory instruments that are now over 300 since it came into office two years ago. He added that it was a shame that a constitution that was adopted seven years ago at such a great expense, with over 95 percent of voters voting yes for it, was now being disregarded by the government.

He noted, ‘It is disheartening that at this date, we are talking about abductions, assault, torture and extrajudicial killings that are proscribed or prohibited by that Constitution. All these years have been long enough time to allow the government to have aligned various laws to the new Constitution but we are facing a lot of unconstitutional conducts’.

‘Zimbabwe had been short-changed by the government as a lot still needed to be done to fully implement it as expected. We have not seen a lot of things in the Constitution being implemented. Such things as the devolution of powers but the government has already proposed a second amendment of the Constitution without aligning the laws to it. This shows a lack of commitment and a lack of sincerity to abide by the social contract on the part of the government. So we have a long way to go’, Kika said.

Source: New Zimbabwe

Photo source: Marco Verch