DUDUZILE NKOMO, Harare | Wednesday 9.00pm.
Duduzile Nkomo CONTROVERSIAL Zimbabwean member of Parliament Dzikamayi Mavhaire has repeated his call for President Robert Mugabe to step down.
Mugabe has been in power for 18 years, since the country attained self-rule in 1980.
Mavhaire, introducing a motion in Parliament which called on the government to undertake a comprehensive review of Zimbabwe’s constitution, also said there should be a referendum on a new constititution.
Currently the constitution does not specify the number of terms a president can remain in office. Mavhaire wants the terms be limited to two five-year terms.
Mavhaire first called for Mugabe’s resignation in March, and was heavily censored by the ruling ZANU PF party for doing so. He was fired from the central committee and suspended from holding any position in the political organisation for two years.
Mavhaire has also criticised the state-controlled media for its broad coverage of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, while ignoring “the same shameful scandal involving your own President who took someone’s wife and had two children with her”.
Mavhaire said had it not been for the foreign press and independent press, Zimbabweans would not have understood issues related to President Mugabe’s relationship with his personal secretary, Grace Marufu, who is now Zimbabwe’s first lady. The two started their relations well before Mugabe’s first wife, Sally had died, Mavahaire said.