Opposition legislator Godfrey Sithole of Chitungwiza North yesterday urged members from the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front to join hands to impeach President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
It was, however, not clear how this would benefit the opposition as the constitution says that if a President is removed from office he is replaced by his first deputy who will serve the remainder of his term.
Mnangagwa has been in office for just over a month which means anyone who take over will serve for four years and 10 months.
Speaking in Parliament during question time, Sithole said: “The crisis in the nation Mr. Speaker Sir; of fuel and the crisis of increases in prices, I think calls upon all Parliamentarians whether you are ZANU-PF or MDC, that we join hands like what we did in November 2017. Then invoke Section 97.”
Section 97 is about the removal of the President or Vice-President from Office.
Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda told Sithole that he would have to bring that as a motion.
The constitution says the issue of removing a president or a vice-president from office can only be kicked off by a joint resolution of the Senate and the National Assembly and must be passed by at least half their total membership.
The Senate has 80 members and the National Assembly 270.
ZANU-PF has 180 seats in the National Assembly, though one is currently vacant, while the MDC has 87. One seat was won by an independent candidate, another by the National Patrick Front and a third by the MDC-Tsvangirai.
The MDC has 24 seats in the Senate. ZANU-PF has 35. One belongs to the MDC-T. There are also 18 senator chiefs and two senators that represent the disabled.
The MDC would therefore need the support of at least 64 ZANU-PF legislators just to kick off the motion.
It needs the support of 123 ZANU-PF legislators for the impeachment.
According to the constitution, reasons for impeachment are:
- serious misconduct
- failure to obey, uphold or defend this Constitution;
- wilful violation of this Constitution; or
- inability to perform the functions of the office because of physical or mental incapacity.
Zimbabwe has been under siege since the beginning of this month when Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya announced new measures that have not gone down well with the pubic.
Ncube introduced a two cents per dollar tax on transactions up from 5 cents per transaction while Mangudya re-introduced foreign currency accounts trashing the bond note and electronic money.
Prices of goods, including those that are locally manufactured have skyrocketed, and most have been removed from the shelves as businesses figure out the pricing.
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