Constitutional changes could be ED’s Hobbesian moment

Twenty-seven is the number of changes that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration wants to make on Zimbabwe’s Constitution, passed only seven years ago.

The intended changes, announced over a fortnight ago, range from scrapping the contentious provision of presidential running mates to the selection of judges and prosecutors, which will be the carte blanche of the President.

Red flags have expectedly been raised over the letter and spirit of the exercise, with reservations that the President could be shoring power on himself and taking advantage of his party’s majority in Parliament to undo progressive provisions in the Constitution that was approved in a 2013 referendum.

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