A slate of amendments that critics warn will seriously reduce constitutional protections and freedoms in Zimbabwe cleared a first vote in Parliament on Wednesday.
After a stormy debate, lawmakers voted 61 to 28 to approve the Constitutional Amendment Bill.
The 22-clause Bill provides for a new 40-seat Senate, abolishes freehold property titles, strips landowners of their right to appeal against expropriation and allows the government to deny passports to its critics.
The document now goes back for further debate before a final vote expected next week.
Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s former propaganda chief and now Parliament’s lone independent, caused an uproar when he accused his former party of creating the second chamber to give it the political patronage it needs to ensure the 81-year-old leader can decide for himself when and how he retires.
Claiming knowledge of secret briefings by the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, (Zanu-PF) Moyo said the government party only planned to keep the Senate for five years.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the changes were needed to complete Mugabe’s ”fast track” redistribution of 5 000 white-owned commercial farms to black Zimbabweans.
He argued the land was acquired fraudulently, and white farmers were frustrating its return to its rightful owners with court appeals.
Prominent lawyers have described the amendments as ”the greatest challenge yet” to Zimbabweans’ liberties.
Nicholas Howen, head of the International Commission of Jurists, said the limits on freedom of movement were ”unwarranted, ill-defined and also dangerous”.
”Moving the legality of these expropriations beyond the protective reach of the courts, and removing the right to fair compensation are yet another step in undermining the rule of law in Zimbabwe,” he said in a statement issued on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.
”It violates Zimbabwe’s obligations under international law and is an attempt to reduce the authority of an independent judiciary as a check on government actions.”
The amendments need at least 100 votes to clear the final stage before Mugabe signs them into law.
”To only have 61 for the second reading is quite serious for him,” said Trudy Stevenson of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which opposes the Bill.
Zanu-PF has 108 seats, compared to 41 for the opposition. But there have been hints some disgruntled ruling party legislators might boycott the final vote.
Mugabe will ‘never’ accept SA loan
Meanwhile, talks on South Africa’s loan offer to cash-strapped Zimbabwe to prevent its expulsion from the International Monetary Fund are ongoing, the central bank’s chief said Wednesday, but Zimbabwe indicated it would snub the offer.
Hours after Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni said bail-out meetings were still being held, a senior Zimbabwean minister in Harare retorted that the loan was made at the behest of the IMF and that Zimbabwe would ”never” accept it.
Mboweni said in Pretoria that discussions between himself, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and their Zimbabwean counterparts have not yet been concluded.
”The discussion really has centered around what policies need to be undertaken in Zimbabwe to help boost economic performance, control inflation, bring about a more stable exchange rate and improve the production sector of the economy,” Mboweni told reporters.
”But more importantly, [it is] a discussion about what to do to avoid the possible expulsion of Zimbabwe from the International Monetary Fund,” the local South African Press Association news agency quoted Mboweni as saying.
”The discussions are nowhere near a billion dollar facility,” he added, referring to recent media reports which bandied the figure.
Mboweni’s comments come as Zimbabwean and IMF officials are locked in crunch talks on whether the southern African nation should be expelled from IMF ranks.
In Harare, Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told Parliament that the country would ”never” agree to the conditions for the loan, which is said to be between $200-million and $500-million.
”The IMF came to South Africa and requested South Africa if it can give a loan to Zimbabwe,” Chinamasa said in response to a question from an opposition lawmaker.
”We have never asked for financial assistance. We are being offered loans and we know some of the loans are being offered at the instigation of the International Monetary Fund.”
The loan talks are taking place before the September 9 meeting of the IMF board that is to decide whether to strip Zimbabwe of its membership in the lending club because of failing to meet its obligations.
Zimbabwe has fallen behind on repayment of IMF loans totaling $300-million and has failed to meet IMF demands on public spending.
South Africa earlier this month agreed to step in with a loan to ensure that its neighbour retains its IMF membership.
Talks held in Pretoria three weeks ago reportedly yielded a tentative agreement on a loan of between $200-million to $500-million including about $100-million to be paid to the IMF.
South Africa is pressing Zimbabwe to enact reforms to prevent the economy from sliding further into disarray and recession. ‒ Sapa-AP, Sapa-AFP