Harare – Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi on Wednesday made a stunning admission in the National Assembly, revealing that a key controversial clause in the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill Number 3 (CAB3) was not a creation of the ruling party but was originally crafted and moved by senior opposition figures Charlton Hwende, Tendai Biti, and Alan Markham.

In a hard-hitting second reading speech that sought to dismantle claims that the Bill concentrates executive power over elections, Minister Ziyambi pointed to Clause 2 of the Bill—which transfers voter registration and the maintenance of the voters’ roll from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to the Registrar-General’s office—and declared that the idea was born on the opposition benches two years ago.

“The proposal to retain voter registration to the Registrar General did not originate with this government. It first came from the opposition benches of this House on 18 May 2023,” Ziyambi told a packed House.

He detailed that during the 9th Parliament, at the Committee Stage of the Electoral Amendment Bill, Hon. Charlton Hwende moved the transfer of the voter registration function from ZEC to the Registrar-General.

“He was supported, Mr. Speaker, strongly and on the record by the Hon. Tendai Biti and the Hon. Alan Markham, who pointed out that the Registrar General had already registered well over a million citizens and that everything the Commission was doing in this field, the Registrar General was already doing,” Ziyambi said.

The Minister added that the record of that parliamentary sitting is a public document, verifiable in Hansard by any journalist or citizen.

‘I Agreed With Them’

Ziyambi revealed that he personally concurred with the opposition’s logic at the time, arguing that there was no need for ZEC to duplicate the civil registry’s work.

“I told them then what I tell this House now. I agreed with them. There is no need for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to register voters. It is better to have the separation,” he said.

He explained that the function was originally placed with ZEC out of “mistrust of one official—Mr. Tobaiwa Mudede,” who has since left office. The Minister argued that keeping voter rolls with the Registrar-General is a matter of administrative efficiency and biometric accuracy, not partisan control.

Progressive Amendment Stalled by Constitution

According to Ziyambi, the only reason the opposition’s 2023 proposal was not implemented was a constitutional barrier.

“The Constitution gives this function to the Commission and only an amendment to the Constitution can move it. That moment has now come Mr. Speaker,” he said, thanking Hwende specifically.

“So, I want to thank the Hon. Charlton Hwende… This is a progressive amendment that he proposed then, but we could not do it because we needed to amend the Constitution. We are now completing through the proper door what this House had already, across its divisions, found common ground to do.”

Political Fallout

The revelation places prominent opposition figures Hwende and Biti—both fierce critics of the current administration—in the unusual position of having laid the legislative groundwork for a reform now being championed by ZANU PF.

Neither Hwende nor Biti immediately responded to the statement by the minister. But parliamentary insiders noted that the disclosure could complicate the opposition’s narrative that CAB3 is an authoritarian power grab by the executive.

The Minister used the disclosure to blunt charges that the Bill was rushed or designed to rig future elections, insisting that the clause represents a rare moment of cross-party consensus aimed at creating a cleaner, more credible voters’ roll.