{"id":23592,"date":"2026-02-11T05:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T03:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-cabinet-backs-reforms-that-may-keep-president-in-power-until-2030\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:22","slug":"zimbabwe-cabinet-backs-reforms-that-may-keep-president-in-power-until-2030","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-cabinet-backs-reforms-that-may-keep-president-in-power-until-2030\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe cabinet backs reforms that may keep President in power until 2030"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe\u2019s cabinet has approved draft legislation that could allow 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remain in office until at least 2030.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Under the proposals, the method of electing a President would change from a direct public vote to selection by Members of Parliament. The draft also seeks to extend presidential terms from the current five years to seven years, with a maximum of two terms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the government would conduct public consultations before the bill is tabled in Parliament for debate. Both chambers of Parliament are dominated by the ruling Zanu-PF party.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The proposals are expected to face legal challenges. Constitutional experts argue that any change to presidential term limits would require a national referendum. They also note that amendments of this nature cannot be applied to benefit a sitting President.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13964,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-23592","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zimbabwe\u2019s cabinet has approved draft legislation that could allow 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remain in office","published_date":"2026-02-11 07:21:44","news_description":"Zimbabwe\u2019s cabinet has approved draft legislation that could allow 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remain in office","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26513,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23592\/revisions\/26513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}