HARARE — The government will not press ahead with merging the Gender Commission into a single human rights body, and will leave intact the constitutional bar on chiefs holding political office, justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told the National Assembly on Wednesday, as he wound up a seven-day Second Reading debate on the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill that is set to be put to a vote on Thursday.

Ziyambi told MPs that two of the most contested provisions in the Bill – the proposed folding of the Gender Commission into a consolidated commission with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, and a clause that would have allowed traditional leaders to participate in partisan politics – had fallen when the Bill reached the Committee Stage, in line with the recommendations of the Joint Committee that scrutinised the legislation.

On the Gender Commission, the minister said the debate had drawn rare cross-party consensus.

“If you allow me to speak about the issue of the Gender Commission, all the Members were in unity that this clause and that the provision be not adopted,” he said.

He said government had tabled the merger “in pursuit of institutional efficiency” and that the argument “was made in good faith, but consultation is not theatre.”

With the Joint Committee’s recommendation grounded in public submissions and echoed across the House, he said, the government “stands guided by that recommendation. Let no-one say the people spoke into the wind.”

On traditional leaders, Ziyambi said the Bill had sought to resolve what he called a real contradiction in the current constitution, which seats chiefs in parliament and counts their votes toward constitutional majorities while barring them from political life.

He acknowledged the case for allowing chiefs to participate had been “pressed with conviction” by MPs including Farai Jere, who had argued they should be appointed rather than elected.

But he said the Joint Committee had identified “the decisive principle” against the change: chiefs preside over courts of customary law and must stand apart from partisan contest.

“This principle is unassailable. The government is persuaded…,” he said.

Both concessions were carried through when the Bill reached Committee Stage on Wednesday evening: the clause altering the Gender Commission’s status was formally withdrawn, with Ziyambi telling the Committee “we have considered leaving the Gender Commission there,” and the clause touching the political rights of chiefs was likewise dropped from the Bill.

Opening his reply, Ziyambi gave MPs a numerical account of the debate, which ran over seven sitting days.

He said 182 members had made substantive contributions – a record he contrasted with the 19 members who spoke at the Second Reading of the first constitutional amendment in 2017 and the 18 who spoke on the second in 2021.

Of the 182, he said, 111 had supported the Bill outright, 31 had supported it while raising reservations on specific provisions, 10 had raised issues without taking a final position, and 30 had opposed it in its entirety – putting 139 of the 182 “positively disposed towards the Bill.”

He said the Joint Committee had received 540,037 written submissions, of which 537,102 supported the Bill and 2,935 opposed it, with provincial public hearings drawing 54,231 people through the doors – figures he repeatedly invoked against MPs who questioned the legitimacy of the consultation process.

He contrasted the turnout with the 1,447 citizens recorded at hearings for the first constitutional amendment in 2017.

Much of Ziyambi’s reply was devoted to the Bill’s central and most contested provisions: shifting the election of the president from a direct popular vote to election by parliament, and lengthening the national electoral cycle, with the effect of extending President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s second and final five-year term and that of the current parliament by two years from 2028 to 2030.

Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change MPs argued that constitutional safeguards prohibit incumbents from benefiting from the proposed amendments.

Ziyambi said the changes were aimed at five “afflictions” he had identified in his original Second Reading speech – disputed presidential contests, policy paralysis from permanent campaigning, corruption fed by instability, the politicisation of the public service, and social polarisation.

He rejected arguments from opposition MPs that the changes amounted to a disguised extension of presidential term limits requiring a referendum, telling MPs that the constitution defines a term limit as a cap on a person’s tenure in office, a description he said applied to none of the provisions being amended.

“The national electoral cycle provisions, which this Bill amends, carry no cap or limit on any person and they never have,” he said, insisting that the two-term rule introduced in 2013 remained “untouched by this Bill in letter or spirit.”

On the broader question of legitimacy, Ziyambi said the Bill had been scrutinised by eight parliamentary committees in total – three thematic committees of the Senate and five portfolio committees of the National Assembly – which he described as the most extensive committee scrutiny ever given to a single constitutional amendment in Zimbabwe.

After concluding his reply, the Bill entered Committee Stage where MPs debated it clause by clause into the early hours of Thursday morning.

The Committee Stage produced running procedural disputes, including an extended argument between Ziyambi and opposition MPs, including a heated exchange over diaspora voting rights in which Ziyambi told MPs he did not have “instructions” or “authority” to extend a ruling on the matter, though he said diaspora Zimbabweans could in principle be allowed to register and vote in their home constituencies pending further engagement with “the principals.”

Shortly before midnight, the Temporary Chairperson reported the Bill to the House with amendments. It was then referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee, with the Consideration Stage and vote by the National Assembly scheduled for late Thursday, setting up a fast-moving final stretch for the Bill which will be kicked up to the Senate if approved.

Zanu PF commands a two thirds majority in the National Assembly and the Bill is expected to easily pass. The ruling party also overwhelmingly controls ​the Senate through traditional leaders and other proxies who generally vote with it, ‌giving ⁠it the numbers to change the constitution.