The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) says it has instructed its lawyers to file an application in the Constitutional Court to stop President Robert Mugabe from swearing in his newly appointed two deputy presidents saying their appointment violates the country’s constitution.
NCA spokesman Madock Chivasa says the president is violating the country’s constitution by trying to replace the fired Vice President Joice Mujuru with two vice presidents.
The party is quoting paragraph 14, sub-paragraph 2 of the Sixth Schedule of the constitution that says “without delay the person elected as president in any election referred to in sub-paragraph (1) must appoint not more than two vice presidents who hold office at his or her pleasure”.
The party argues that President Mugabe should have appointed two vice presidents “without delay” immediately after elections, not to wait for over a year to do so.
The NCA is also contesting the exclusion of women from the presidium yet they constitute the majority of the citizenry.
Law lecturer Alex Magaisa of Kent University in Britain says the NCA has come out with an interesting case, which may face some impediments in the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, the Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai says it will soon try to impeach President Mugabe on allegations that he violated the constitution when he fired former Vice President Mujuru.
MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu told the NewsDay newspaper that the president did not follow the constitution in firing the former vice president.