Opposition politician and Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume has said Zimbabweans should not abandon the Constitution simply because it is being violated.
Ngarivhume, who is also the Finance and Administration Coordinator of the Defend the Constitution Platform (DCP), said giving up on the Constitution would be dangerous.
The DCP is a broad coalition of opposition leaders, civic organisations and human rights defenders formed to oppose attempts to amend the Constitution and extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term beyond 2028.
Ngarivhume warned that the national debate is now taking a worrying direction, with some people arguing that the Constitution has become meaningless and that defending it is therefore pointless or even wrong.
He said this view is misguided and risks undermining the rule of law. Added Ngarivhume:
“This argument may sound radical. It is not. It is reckless. A constitution does not cease to exist because it is violated.
“If that were so, no people anywhere would ever have reclaimed democracy through lawful struggle.”
Ngarivhume made the remarks after former CCC leader Nelson Chamisa said there was no Constitution left to defend in Zimbabwe.
Chamisa’s comments came just days after Ngarivhume, Jameson Timba, other opposition politicians and several human rights defenders launched DCP.
In response, Ngarivhume said Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution remains valid, stressing that it is the only founding document approved directly by the people through a national referendum. He said:
“It is not a gift from the state. It is a covenant among citizens. Its violation by those in authority does not dissolve it; it indicts them.
“To declare the constitution a nullity because it has been breached is to reward its violators. It is to say that illegality succeeds by repetition.
“It is to concede that once power disregards the law often enough, the law evaporates. That logic leads not to renewal, but to permanent arbitrariness.
“There is an important distinction that must be preserved: constitutional breakdown is not constitutional extinction.
“Zimbabwe is indeed experiencing a breakdown of constitutionalism — a failure to comply with, respect, and uphold the constitution.
“That breakdown is precisely what makes constitutional defence urgent.
“One does not abandon a bridge because it is damaged while standing in floodwaters. One repairs it because there is no other safe crossing.”
Ngarivhume said that those who claim the Constitution is dead undermine their own position when challenging the status quo. He said:
“Those who argue that the constitution is dead must answer a hard question: by what lawful instrument, and with whose consent, will the next order be built?
“Until that answer exists, abandoning the constitution does not hasten liberation; it postpones it.
“Zimbabwe does not suffer from an excess of constitutionalism. It suffers from systematic violation.
“The solution to that violation is not surrender, but organised, principled, citizen-driven defence.
“The task before the nation is not to declare the constitution irrelevant, but to make it real.”
Related:
Timba Calls On Zimbabweans To Resist Mnangagwa Term Extension Plans
Chamisa’s Sudden Return To Politics Raises Eyebrows