Harare – Kadoma Member of Parliament, Gift Mambipiri, has delivered a blistering condemnation of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill (CAB3), describing it as “money and power-hustle on steroids” while presenting seven reasons why the Bill must be rejected.

Mambipiri, speaking on behalf of the 150,000 people of Kadoma, began by declaring his total rejection of “the text, the motive and the spirit behind every one of the 22 Clauses that constitute this Bill.”

“Here at Parliament, I know we are calling it a reform Bill, we are calling it CAB3 but in the ghettos where we are coming from, people are calling it money and power-hustle on steroids,” Mambipiri declared.

He then proceeded to outline seven reasons why the Bill should be rejected.

The first reason, he said, was that the people of Kadoma had commanded him to reject the Bill because it does not address their immediate concerns.

“This Bill does not address the issue of raw sewage that we encounter on our streets each and every day. This Bill does not deal with the salaries for the teachers and nurses but it simply addresses the question of power at a higher level, which is not immediate to us,” Mambipiri said.

He reinforced this by arguing that the Constitution must be people-driven, but this Bill was “fathered by the Executive and is simply being midwifed here in Mt Hampden, far away from the people and for that it must be rejected.”

For his second reason, Mambipiri dismissed the argument for term extension using a clever football analogy.

“Those who are trying to justify term extension have always told us about Mbappe who can keep scoring and scoring and scoring but they have not budgeted for that day when we have a Wilfred Mugeyi who will miss scoring and miss scoring and miss scoring,” he said.

Mambipiri emphasized: “The Constitution is not made for good people, is not made for good days. The Constitution is made for bad moments and for bad people who need the restraining chains.”

He debunked the argument that longer terms are needed to complete projects, using the example of the Harare-Bulawayo Road dualisation project commissioned in 2005.

“Until today, that road has only been done 60 kilometers. If we were to allow the President who was there then to wait until that project ended, it simply means we would still be having the same President 25 years later,” he argued.

Mambipiri also raised concerns about transferring the Voters’ Roll from ZEC to the Registrar-General, warning that “the Voters’ Roll is the election” and should not be placed under an entity that reports to a Minister and ultimately the President.

“We would rather have the Voters’ Roll stay with ZEC because ZEC has opportunities to come here to Parliament and account,” he said.

He concluded by citing the Law Society of Zimbabwe, which he described as “not a group of bush lawyers,” and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference as credible institutions that have raised concerns about the Bill.

“I, therefore, call upon this House, Madam Speaker in our wisdom or lack thereof, to take heed of what we have been advised, not only by the Law Society of Zimbabwe, but also by the heads of Christian denominations as well as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference,” Mambipiri said.