Story by Online Reporter
A major umbrella body of indigenous Christian denominations, the Zimbabwe Indigenous Interdenominational Council of Churches (ZIICC), has submitted a detailed statement to the Parliament of Zimbabwe strongly supporting the Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3, describing it as a constitutionally grounded and development-oriented reform package.
Representing more than 8.7 million congregants nationwide, the council framed its submission to the Clerk of Parliament as both spiritual and civic, arguing that Parliament is exercising a clear democratic mandate under the Constitution.
“We submit this statement in full acknowledgement of the supremacy of Almighty God, in whose hands our future lies, as proclaimed in the Preamble to the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
“The Church has always been present at Zimbabwe’s defining moments: in the liberation struggle, in the making of the 2013 Constitution, and in the building of the Second Republic.”
The council firmly backed Parliament’s authority to consider and pass the Bill, arguing that legislative power rests solely with elected representatives.
“We therefore affirm, without equivocation, that the deliberation on and passage of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment No. 3) H.B.1. Bill, 2026 lies squarely and exclusively within the constitutional mandate of Parliament and Parliament alone.”
The submission added: “Parliament must act,” while dismissing arguments that parliamentary action on the Bill undermines democracy, stating: “Parliament’s exercise of that mandate is not and cannot be a threat to democracy, it is democracy itself.”
A central theme of the submission is support for longer governance cycles, including proposed extensions of presidential and parliamentary terms.
The council argued that Zimbabwe’s development framework requires stability, stating: “Vision 2030 is not a slogan to our congregants. It is a promise that must be kept.”
On the rationale for extending governance cycles, it said: “We see seven years not as an arbitrary number. It is the governance space required to plan, absorb disruption, recover, and complete programmes of the scale and ambition that Vision 2030 and NDS2 represent.”
The churches endorsed the proposed shift from direct presidential elections to a parliamentary selection system, arguing it would reduce electoral tensions.
They stated: “The removal of the direct presidential election is not a democratic regression. It is a recognition that the high-stakes, winner-takes-all presidential contest has been an unnecessary recurring source of political tension and social division in Zimbabwe’s post-independence life.”
They added that the reform would benefit ordinary citizens: “A parliamentary election of the President reduces the intensity of every polling day for the ordinary Zimbabwean who wants nothing more than to participate in their democracy and return home in peace.”
On traditional leadership, the council supported removing constitutional restrictions on chiefs’ political participation, stating that the change restores dignity and aligns governance with African customary systems.
It said: “Clause 21 of the Bill resolves this tension by restoring to our traditional leaders the full dignity of Zimbabwean citizenship while preserving the sacred dignity of their traditional office.”
On national reconciliation, the churches supported the winding down of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, arguing that its constitutional mandate had expired.
They stated: “Reconciliation is too important, too sacred, and too deeply rooted in the life of this nation to be confined to a single government commission with a ten-year constitutional mandate.”
The council pledged continued involvement, saying: “The churches represented in this submission will intensify our reconciliation and healing work across Zimbabwe’s communities in partnership with Government and traditional institutions.”
Concluding its submission, the council urged legislators to proceed with the Bill.
“We call upon Parliament to exercise the legislative authority that the people have vested in it… We call upon Parliament to pass this Bill in the national interest.”
The statement, signed by Bishop Dr Nehemiah Mutendi and Reverend Dr Andrew Wutawunashe, was submitted this Saturday and represents one of the most extensive institutional endorsements of the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3.
