{"id":23701,"date":"2026-02-13T05:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-group-asks-au-to-block-plan-to-extend-presidents-term\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:28","slug":"zimbabwe-group-asks-au-to-block-plan-to-extend-presidents-term","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-group-asks-au-to-block-plan-to-extend-presidents-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe group asks AU to block plan to extend President\u2019s term"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe\u2019s National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) has formally petitioned the African Union (AU) to intervene over what it describes as an attempt by ZANU-PF to amend the Constitution and extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s term of office.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The civic platform argues that the proposed constitutional changes undermine democratic principles and violate regional and continental governance standards to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>NDWG leader Job Sikhala said the group has called on the AU to invoke its own governance and democracy protocols, which he claims Zimbabwe would be breaching if the amendments proceed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have asked the AU to step in and uphold its own protocols. Zimbabwe is bound by these frameworks, and any move to alter presidential term limits for political convenience would be a direct violation,\u201d Sikhala said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He added that the petition seeks to draw continental attention to what the group views as a constitutional manoeuvre with far-reaching implications for democratic governance in Zimbabwe.<\/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":[26],"class_list":["post-23701","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"\u00a0Zimbabwe\u2019s National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) has formally petitioned AU to intervene","published_date":"2026-02-13 07:14:33","news_description":"\u00a0Zimbabwe\u2019s National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) has formally petitioned AU to intervene","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23701","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\/23701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26592,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23701\/revisions\/26592"}],"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=23701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}