Constitution a living document: Zanu-PF

The Constitution is not a rigid and immutable document, but rather it is a living framework which can evolve to allow the state to remain dynamic and deliver on the aspirations of the people, the Zanu-PF Legal Affairs Department has said.

This comes as the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Constitutional Amendment No. 3 Bill of 2026, which proposes a Parliamentary process for the election of the President and seeks to replace the current five-year term with a seven-year term.

The Bill also introduces a raft of legal reforms aimed at strengthening constitutional governance, clarifying institutional roles, promoting political stability and enhancing the efficiency of the State architecture.

In a strategic document titled “Understanding the Party-State Constitution Nexus for Enhanced Governance,” presented yesterday at the Strategic Seminar for Zanu-PF Politburo members, the revolutionary party’s Secretary for Legal Affairs, Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi and his deputy, Cde Fortune Chasi, articulated the constitutional necessity of continued party guidance to fulfil the historic objectives of the liberation struggle.

The document also establishes a link between the Zanu-PF Constitution and the National Constitution, noting that both documents derive their legitimacy from the “people of Zimbabwe”, with the party’s constitution expressing a revolutionary will while the national constitution establishes the legal framework to attain that.

“Zanu-PF is the political embodiment of the people’s will, the National Constitution is its legal formalisation. Our guiding role is fulfilment of constitutionalism”.

The strategic document debunked the Party vs State fallacy that is often peddled by the opposition as being historically “illiterate and constitutionally unfounded”.

“The claim that Zanu-PF’s guiding role violates the Constitution is a deliberate misreading. The National Constitution’s Chapter 2 explicitly guides the State in ‘formulating and implementing laws and policy decisions.’ The Party provides this essential guiding ideology”.

The Zimbabwean model, the ruling party said, is the proven norm among revolutionary movements, not only in Africa where countries like South Africa and Mozambique have adopted it, but also in countries like China and Vietnam, which demonstrates that “sustained party leadership is synonymous with long-term stability and development.

The real agenda of the oppositional voices, the party noted, is actually “a political strategy to disarm the revolutionary vanguard and create a governance vacuum for external interference, contravening the constitutional objective of national unity”.

Crucially, the party document noted that the Constitution, which was written in 2013, was a necessary compromise among competing and ideologically divergent political actors and now requires refinement to respond to the aspirations of the people.

“A core constitutional principle is that the supreme law is a living document. Its amendability is a feature, not a flaw, allowing the state to remain dynamic,” reads the document in part.

“Forged during the Government of National Unity, it (the current Constitution) was a negotiated settlement. Certain provisions reflect the political pressures of that moment, not a pure expression of our long-term national vision.

“Therefore, amendment is not an attack but a responsible perfection. It is our duty to refine the supreme law, ensuring it is a tool for unimpeded development, not a constraint from a past compromise,” the document further noted.

Towards that end, the ruling party said the use of its “parliamentary mandate to enact amendments is the highest form of constitutional stewardship” as this aligns the national Constitution “with the need for stability, continuity and the unimpeded implementation of our national development programmes”.

Repeated political mandates conferred upon Zanu-PF over successive elections constitute “the ultimate expression of the popular will.

The document further dismissed as folly calls for Zanu-PF to abandon its historical mission through requisite statecraft.

“The Constitution states authority is derived from ‘the people of Zimbabwe’. To withdraw our guidance would betray this sovereign trust”.

“It is irrational to forsake the statecraft needed to achieve our historic objectives, which are now constitutional imperatives like ‘the equitable sharing of national resources.”

The strategic policy document also proposed that the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology serve as the institutional bridge between Zanu-PF doctrine and the constitutional obligation for “good, transparent and accountable governance”.