Jonathan Moyo attacks term limits

Politics
HIGHER and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo yesterday rubbished term limits for African presidents, claiming this was an elitist demand.

HIGHER and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo yesterday rubbished term limits for African presidents, claiming this was an elitist demand.

BY STAFF REPORTER

Moyo said the two term limit was an “odium” for African nations. Term limits were the centrepiece of both the 2013 Constitution and the rejected 1999 Constitutional Commission draft, which Moyo was part of.

Jonathan Moyo
Jonathan Moyo

“Calls for term limits in Africa are elitist constructions based on evil foreign agendas that seek to protect Africans from themselves,” he said on Twitter.

The former Information minister gave an example of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is angling for a third term in power,to claim Africans were being railroaded into a false controversy about themselves.

Moyo’s comments may unintentionally reignite debate on Zimbabwe’s presidential term limits, which Zanu PF was reportedly strongly opposed to during the constitution-making process ahead of the 2013 referendum.

President Robert Mugabe has been in power for 35 years and if he were to see out the rest of his two terms under the new Constitution as demanded by Zanu PF, he would have ruled Zimbabwe for 43 years.

Some staunch Zanu PF supporters have already called for Mugabe to be the party’s candidate in 2023 despite this being outlawed,raising the spectre of an amendment for the country’s supreme law.

Moyo said there was no evidence that African masses wanted term limits, oblivious to that a number of African countries, Zimbabwe included, had voted to have term limits in their constitutions.

He equated term limits to legislated oneparty States saying both were wrong.

A number of African leaders have recently sought to tweak their constitutions to allow them to run for third terms.

Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunzinza recently contested and won a third term, but the run-up to the polls was punctuated by bloodshed and displacement of people opposed to his term. Kagame, already 12 years in power,is said to be angling for a third term that will see him rule Rwanda for 21 years.

Congo’s Denis Nguesso-Sassou is also said to be coveting another term despite ruling from 1979 to 1992 and 1997 to now. He has reportedly fired ministers opposed to his latest dash for power.

Moyo rose to prominence as a rabid critic of Mugabe’s refusal to hand over power to a younger generation.