MDC-A MP Sues Mwonzora Over Constitutional Amendments
Chitungwiza North legislator Godfrey Sithole (MDC Alliance), has dragged MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora together with 67 other senators to the Constitutional Court seeking the revocation of the Constitution Amendment (No 1) Act whose passage they voted for in Senate.
He also cited Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda, Senate president Mabel Chinomona and Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi as respondents in the matter.
Constitution of Zimbabwe (No 1) Act amended the Constitution to allow the President to appoint judges without public input.
According to the papers he filed on Wednesday through his lawyers Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Attorneys, Sithole argued that the senators failed to exercise their legislative role as provided for in the Constitution by passing a law that lapsed in July 2018.
He further contended that the Constitution of Zimbabwe No 1 Bill ceased to exist as part of the agenda of the Eighth Parliament on July 29, 2018, after a dispute over the piece of legislation in the Senate spilt to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).
In March 2020, the ConCourt ordered a fresh voting process for the proposed constitutional amendments which required two-thirds of Senate votes for it to be signed into law.
However, the voting process was contested by MDC Alliance legislators Jessie Majome and Innocent Gonese.
The ConCourt ruling, under case CCZ4/20, upheld the legislators’ argument that the Senate failed to achieve the two-thirds majority votes required to pass the Bill into law.
Sithole is now seeking the suspension of the judgment which ordered the Senate to conduct a fresh vote in respect of the Bill in accordance with the procedure for amending the Constitution within 180 days of the granting of the order.
He argued that the order was in violation of section 147 of the Constitution as the Senate resuscitated a Bill that had lapsed in July 2018.
Sithole also argued that senators, who were not members of the Eighth Parliament, voted for the purported reading for a Bill for which they did not participate at the Reading or Committee Stage or public hearings.
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