GOVERNMENT spokesperson Ndabaningi Mangwana has called former Botswana President Ian Khama a washed-up has-been for criticising President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 (CAB3).

CAB3 seeks to extend Mnangagwa’s stay in office, lengthen the life of Parliament and totally do away with Presidential elections by introducing a system where legislators will be the only ones with that mandate.

It has already been debated and passed in the National Assembly and looks likely to be signed into law by July this year.

Khama had queried the Bill’s intent, how Parliamentarians were allowed to receive financial inducement to support it, and put Zimbabwe on a list of African countries whose leaders have amended constitutions so as to stay in power.

“Here we go again. Another power-hungry President has the constitution amended through rigging and cash inducements to extend his term of office,” said Khama on Facebook.

“Zimbabwe has now become the latest in a growing list of countries whose presidents want to cling to power and manipulate the constitution to achieve that.

“As I told Job Sikhala at the launch of his book “Footprints in the chains,” the only thing that has changed since Rhodesia and Ian Smith, is the name of his country and that of its leaders. Oppressors come in all colours.”

Mangwana, clearly irked by Khama’s comment, took to X, formerly Twitter, to lay into him.

Information ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana

“Who really cares about the opinions of some washed-up has-been seeking relevancy as a remedy to self-inflicted loneliness? Musatidenha,” said Mangwana.

If CAB3 is passed, Zimbabwe joins states like Cameroon, where 93-year-old Paul Biya has been in power for 43 years, Uganda, where 81-year-old Yoweri Museveni has been in power for 40 years and Rwanda, where 68-year-old Paul Kagame has been in power for 26 years.

Mnangagwa, who came to power in 2017 through a military-led coup that toppled former President Robert Mugabe, is 83.

“Zimbabwe and its long-suffering people have been subjected to the same from the days of Gukurahundi to present day,” added Khama.

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