By 
The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe is certainly smiling having passed AMMENDMENT NO.2 which sailed through.
65 Senators voted YES whilst 10 voted NO for Constitutional Amendment Number No.2 The Bill will now be presented to the Head of State President ED Mnangagwa for assent.
Magaisa a writer based in the UK had early in the day twitted on his handle
”Senators were due to vote on Constitutional Amendment Bill (No. 2).Critics say It is a disguised amendment of section 328 of the Constitution which is illegal because it can only be amended through a referendum. This BSR explains the section 328 defence mechanism:”
” CONSTITUTION is the Supreme Law of Zimbabwe. The Chief Justice must do the right thing and not dribble the law. ”said a follower on twitter of @WMagaisa.
One twitter said ”Others felt it was raping the citizenry with an amendment not wanted by the people.Another school of thought said, ED and Zanu PF really feel invincible right now but when the collapse starts it will be messy. Repealing and undoing of their illegality will be spontaneous and instant. Their empires will fold and sink into abyss, they will be a joke on everyone’s lips.”
Commenting on the issue of the Bill Amendment before it even sailed and also Media Freedoms on the sidelines of Transparency International of Zimbabwe workshop yesterday, NewsHawks Editor in Chief Dumisani Mleya said, ”in relation to freedom of the media we still have a long way to go.”
”we removed Mugabe not the system..”
There is a lot of discomfort around journalism..They have promoted one dimension on what they are looking for pluralism but there is no diversity..”
”its like licensing one broadcaster so many times..”he added ”when we remove AIPPA lets replace it with a little more democratic, a little more..thats what we want, we don’t want …that doesn’t take us forward…the media in Zim is growing.”
”when you remove AIPPA this must be replaced with a much more democratic much more liberal much more progressive law.We don’t want another one which retains the content of the former and the old one.That doesnt take us forward.So we have those concerns.But the Media in Zimbabwe is growing..”
”so that means we need to promote reforms not just in terms of the law..”
”the issue is about the system, individuals they only play a role..”
”WE have huge responsibilities..when we moved 2017 coup from Mugabe to Mnangagwa the system remained.We removed the captain but the ship basically kept sailing in the same direction..”
”So the media is still in a very difficult situation primarily because the system remains authoritarian it remains unreconstructed it remains unreformed and therefore repressive.”
”If you arrest a journalist first time 45 days, then the next time look there he has been acquitted(referring to Hopewell) on some of the charges but we all knew that there was no story there, they were just angry that Hopewell would expose the civid scandal corruption around covid, ”
”Thats the only reason its horrible on false allegations, on grounds that cannot be sustained..we see repression intensify, we see journalists being hunted down..thats how we read it the government does something good on this side but undermines everything that it has done…if you issue licenses to people who are affiliated to Zanu Pf…we will say its a small step forward it advances pluralism but we are saying pluralism advanced without diversity its the same it creates a monologue..”
” its like one step foward, 2 backwards..”
”Government must insist that journalists must remain professional.They must not insist that journalists must write what they want.They must allow journalism to thrive.They must not criminalise journalism.When journalism thrives it creates jobs addresses other social problems…so it is in the interest of us to have a thriving journalism..
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