{"id":37459,"date":"2026-06-18T17:11:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37459"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:11:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:11:34","slug":"zimbabwe-parliament-passes-bill-to-allow-mnangagwa-to-stay-in-power-until-2030","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-parliament-passes-bill-to-allow-mnangagwa-to-stay-in-power-until-2030\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe parliament passes bill to allow Mnangagwa to stay in power until 2030"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a \u200bbill to extend presidential terms from \u200cfive to seven years, which would allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remain in power until 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Two hundred sixteen lawmakers voted in favour of \u200bthe draft legislation, breaching the 187 \u200bmark needed for a two-thirds majority.<\/p>\n<p>The bill \u2060now moves to the upper house of \u200bparliament, where it is also expected to sail \u200bthrough as Mnangagwa&#8217;s ruling ZANU-PF party controls it through traditional leaders and other proxies who generally vote with \u200bthe party.<\/p>\n<p>Signs that Mnangagwa, 83, wanted to \u200bstay in power beyond the end of his second term \u200cin \u20602028 emerged roughly two years ago, when his supporters started chanting slogans at ZANU-PF rallies that he needed more time to complete his \u200bagenda.<\/p>\n<p>The party \u200blast year resolved \u2060to change the constitution to lengthen presidential terms and the plan received \u200bcabinet backing in February.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say the \u200bbill \u2060is a ruse for Mnangagwa to stay in power for longer, though its backers argue it \u2060will \u200bstrengthen accountability and foster political \u200bstability.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#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-37459","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Two hundred sixteen lawmakers voted in favour of \u200bthe draft legislation","published_date":"","news_description":"Two hundred sixteen lawmakers voted in favour of \u200bthe draft legislation","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37459","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\/37459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37460,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37459\/revisions\/37460"}],"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=37459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}