The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has signalled it will not weigh in on Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Amendment Act 3 (CAA3), which extends President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s tenure until 2030, asserting that all domestic legal steps were followed.
South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya shared the bloc’s position on the sidelines of the SADC summit in Durban, which concluded on 17 August. Magwenya said the amendment process had “followed various domestic legal steps” and that the regional body does not normally comment on such matters unless they escalate into a crisis.
CAA3, signed into law in July, has sparked sharp divisions in Zimbabwe. Critics argue that presidential term extensions should not have benefited the incumbent and that the amendment should have gone to a public referendum. However, Zanu PF successfully challenged the referendum requirement, allowing the bill to pass without a popular vote.
The amendment also removes direct presidential elections, shifting that power to Parliament and the Senate, and transfers voter registration from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to the Registrar General’s Office. This week, Mnangagwa used his new authority to appoint ten additional Senators, including allies such as Kudakwashe Tagwirei.
“It is not really for SADC to comment on those domestic processes for as long as those processes are being carried out within domestic legal frameworks, which is what has happened in Zimbabwe,” Magwenya said. “It is not something that SADC will express a view on because it has not constituted a crisis that the region needs to grapple with.”
South Africa has taken over the SADC chairmanship from Zimbabwe.