Analyse and Discuss the Concept of Separation of Powers with Regard to the Three Arms of the State in Zimbabwe. How Has the New Constitution Tried to Improve the Mechanism of “Checks and Balances” Within and Among the Three Arms of State? (100)

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Separation of Powers is a model of governance for democratic States such as ours, Zimbabwe, where the State is divided into three separate and independent branches (powers) with distinct areas of responsibility. The constitution of Zimbabwe uses the concept of Separation of Power as a means to remove the element of dictatorship and instil the element of consensus whilst power limiting provisions are put in place against abuse of Public Trust. These constraints, also referred to as checks and balances, come in various forms. In some cases, an authority’s power to act is qualified by the requirement to conduct consultations with another person or authority prior to taking action. In other cases, the constitution requires an authority’s actions to be approved by another person or authority before taking effect. With regards to Zimbabwe, the three branches of State are the Executive (Government), which enforces law, the Legislative (Parliament), which makes the laws, and the Judiciary (Courts), which interprets law. Thus the Zimbabwean governance is based on a constitution authored on the doctrine and concept of separation of powers as a means to safeguard the National interests of sovereign States against abuse of internal power. The role of the Executive, or government, is to enforce the law as formulated by the legislative and interpreted by the judicial therefore the Executive arm of government has sole Authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the State. The separation of powers is consequently designed to distribute authority away from the executive branch to preserve individual liberty in response to cruel leaderships or otherwise defunct leaderships. As a check, the people of Zimbabwe vote by way of secret ballot every 5 years as a constitutional right to elect, and re- elect leaderships. Separation of Power offers a solution
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