People from all the seven districts of Masvingo who are contributing in the national constitution making process are unanimously demanding for the merging of the country’s current ten administrative provinces to become five.
The provinces must be simply named North, South, East, West and Central.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) provincial director of elections and Masvingo Central legislator Jeffryson Chitando confirmed that in all of the meetings he has attended so far, the issue of having five provinces has remained on top of the agenda.
“In all meetings people are lobbying for merging of the current ten provinces. They are saying Zanu PF came up with many provinces especially in Mashonaland to build politics of patronage in such provinces.
“It seems the issue of merging provinces is topping the list of what the people want to be done in the new constitution,” Chitando said.
Villagers who spoke to The Mirror said the government is wasting a lot of money and resources through paying governors and workers in the current set up.
“We can reduce government expenditure by having five provinces. It would mean that we will only have five governors and that way, we can serve resources and money,” said a villager.
Besides having a guarantee that the provinces will be reduced to five, Masvingo is making it clear that the country’s president should be between 40 to 70 years old.
If Masvingo’s presidential age range proposal gets the nod from other provinces, Zanu PF will be forced to drop its traditional candidate President Robert Mugabe in the next elections since he will be 17 years older than the preferred maximum age by next year.
According to what the people want, a president should be allowed to be in office for only two terms.
The current constitution is silent on the president’s age and the number of terms that one can be in office.
-Masvingo Mirror
