11 Dec 2014 NCA STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT MUGABE`S DISMISSAL OF SOME MEMBERS OF HIS CABINET AND HIS APPOINTMENT OF NEW ZANU (PF) LEADERS. The NCA party is alarmed by the announcement that President Mugabe wants to elevate his two ZANU PF Vice Presidents to the positions of Vice Presidents of the country. This is unconstitutional. The option of the President to appoint one or two Vice Presidents is only exercised soon after the President is sworn into office. Once the President has decided to appoint one vice President, he cannot change his mind and have two Vice Presidents during the same term of office. The President cannot replace Vice President Mujuru by two Vice Presidents. This is what paragraph 14, sub-paragraph 2 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution says. In specific terms, it says: “Without delay the person elected as President in any election referred to in subparagraph (1) must appoint not more than two Vice-Presidents, who hold office at his or her pleasure”. “Without delay” is a very clear expression. The nation must know, right from the start, whether the President will have one or two Vice-Presidents. Once he makes his decision, he is not given power to change his mind during the course of his five-year term. This is perfectly sensible. The president made his decision in August 2013. He decided to have one Vice-President. That is the end of the matter. He can only appoint one Vice-President for his entire five-year term. There are many good reasons why the Constitution so provides. One is cost to the nation. In terms of section 102, a person who has ceased to be Vice-President earns a pension for life which is equivalent to the salary of a sitting Vice-President. The nation must prepare for the costs involved and this must be known at the beginning of the term of the President. If the President appoints two Vice Presidents, the nation will be paying for three Vice-Presidents including former Vice President Mujuru. The nation had not contemplated such a state of affairs since the President, for one and half years after his election, was working with one Vice President. Knowing the stubbornness of President Mugabe, the NCA party has instructed its lawyers, Mbidzo, Muchadehama & Makoni to file an application in the Constitutional Court to stop the President and/or declaring the appointment of two Vice-Presidents null and void. The application will be filed today (11 December 2014). On another note, the NCA party calls upon President Mugabe to reduce his Cabinet which is too big for the country. A maximum of 18 Ministers is what our country can afford. Issued By Madock Chivasa NCA National Spokesperson +263 775 614 471 +263 772 904 492
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 08:14:09 +0000
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