President Emmerson Mnangagwa is legally required to either assent to the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill within 21 days of receiving it from Parliament or return it with specific reservations, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has said.
The remarks come as Parliament prepares to hold an extraordinary sitting to consider amendments made by the Senate to the constitutional Bill.
The Senate last week passed the legislation with an overwhelming majority but proposed several amendments to provisions that had not been addressed by the National Assembly.
Speaking in an interview Hurumende News Hub , Minister Ziyambi said once the National Assembly approves the Senate amendments by the required two-thirds majority, the Bill will be transmitted to President Mnangagwa for assent.
“Once the National Assembly votes again and attains the mandatory two-thirds majority, Parliament will prepare the Bill and send it to His Excellency for assent. Normally, he is required to assent to it within 21 days,” Ziyambi said.
He said the Constitution provides limited grounds for the President to withhold assent.
“If he has issues or reservations, he can take it back to Parliament, specifying exactly the areas that he has reservations with for the House to consider. Otherwise, the law does not give him leeway not to sign,” the minister said.
Ziyambi described the legislative process as largely complete and praised the Senate for its scrutiny of the Bill.
“We think that this is now a process that is completed and we are very happy with the level of debate and the level of alertness within the Senate,” he said.
According to the minister, some of the amendments proposed by the upper chamber addressed legal gaps that had been overlooked during the Bill’s passage through the National Assembly.
He said one of the key issues related to the procedure for convening Parliament after a general election.
“After every election there must be someone who calls Parliament to sit for the first time. In this case, that’s the area that the Senate cured. We had overlooked it and it was going to create a legal hurdle,” Ziyambi said.
He added that the amendments were expected to clear the way for the Bill’s completion once the National Assembly concludes its consideration of the changes.
Members of the National Assembly have been summoned to attend an extraordinary sitting to deliberate on and vote for the Senate amendments.
In General Notice 1003 of 2026, Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda said the sitting had been convened in terms of Section 110(2)(c) of the Constitution.
“His Excellency, the President, Dr E.D. Mnangagwa, has summoned the National Assembly to sit on Tuesday 30 June 2026 at 1415 hours to consider the amendments to Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill (H.B. 1B, 2026) that was passed by the Senate,” the notice said.
The notice further directed all Members of the National Assembly to attend the sitting.
If approved by the lower house, the amended Bill will be sent to President Mnangagwa for assent, marking the final stage of the legislative process.
