Self-exiled former Higher Education deputy minister and ex-Magunje legislator Godfrey Gandawa has come out guns blazing against Constitutional Amendment Number 3 Bill (CAB3), branding it an attack on democracy and a choreographed bid to entrench State power.
In a viral video posted on social media, Gandawa said CAB3 lacked legitimacy because Parliament bypassed genuine public consultation in favour of a predetermined outcome.
He took aim at Parliament's claim that more than 500,000 submissions supported the Bill while just over 2,000 opposed it, calling the numbers fabricated.
"These are not statistics, they are stage props. These are not statistics, they are manufactured numbers designed to give an illusion of national consent. No credible demographic model can produce 99.45% approval rate. Not in a country this diverse, not in a country whose economy is in distress, not in a political climate this contested. This is not public participation, it is statistical fiction," Gandawa said.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
The former legislator argued that CAB3 was not reform but evasion.
"It is designed for a predetermined outcome...CAB3 is not democratic reform, it is a democratic evasion. The ruling party is not imposing the will of the people, it is imposing its will on the people and pretending to listen. Parliament is not deliberating, it is rubber-stamping," he said.
Gandawa accused authorities of avoiding a referendum because they knew the Bill would not survive a direct public vote.
"They avoid a referendum because they know the truth. CAB3 will not survive the people. So they avoid the people. They avoid scrutiny, they avoid legitimacy, they call it democracy," he said.
He warned that rewriting the Constitution to extend power would erode stability.
"The Republic cannot endure when leaders rewrite the constitution to extend their own power. A political order built on deception collapses under the weight of its own lies. The consequences will not come today, they will not come tomorrow but they will come -- slowly at first and all at once," Gandawa said.
"CAB3 is not a triumph of democracy, it is a final confession that democracy has been abandoned."
Closing in vernacular Shona, he said: "Pazvasvika apa pakuda chiranga mapenzi, and chiranga mapenzi chirikuuya" loosely translated means "we have reached a defining moment when madness must be confronted head-on and those behind it punished severely."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
CAB3, which is supposed to undergo voting in Parliament anytime soon, has triggered sharp national debate, with government defending it as constitutional modernisation while critics like Gandawa label it a power-consolidation exercise.
