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into the proposed draft constitution without the knowledge of Copac and called for their immediate dismissal.
Political observers and ordinary Zimbabweans said the drafters, Moses Chinengo, Priscilla Madzonga and Brian Crozier should leave office immediately given that their contracts had expired.
The people said the drafters’ design to subvert the will of the people had been exposed.
Political observer and social commentator, Professor Jonathan Moyo, yesterday said instead of drafting a new constitution on the basis of the views of the people, the drafters drifted from those views by inventing their own views.
“Now if this is not criminally scandalous beyond description, then nothing is.
“This fact alone not only proves that Copac’s first draft is so organically flawed as to be beyond mechanical clause-by-clause correction but it also necessitates the non-renewal of the contracts of the drafters if those contracts have indeed expired or their immediate dismissal if their contracts are still valid.
“Otherwise there’s no fat chance in hell that these three Machiavellian drafters who have corrupted their role can ever enjoy any national confidence or can be given any benefit of the doubt because they are just bad news and they cannot be taken seriously at all as neutral and professional legal drafters,” he said.
This comes amid revelations that the Constitution Select Committee overhauled the draft constitution the drafters recently produced. It also emerged that about 70 percent of the information from the six reviewed chapters was not solicited from the people.
“If someone can be hired, he can be fired. These three individuals have failed and should give others a chance otherwise we may spend a decade trying to come up with a constitution,” said Mr Benjamin Mugombi of Chitungwiza.
He added: “These people’s contracts expired on the 25th of January and there is no need for extending it. They are dangerous to the nation and should never be given another platform”
Others said the drafters should be investigated because they committed a “serious offence”.
“They must be investigated and arrested for ignoring popular views of the people. They have betrayed the trust Copac placed in them.
“How can they say the issue of land cannot be included in the supreme law and yet when we talk of a nation we talk of land.
“The three should be held accountable by investigators,” said Mrs Agnella Makoni.
Lucia Munemo of Mt Pleasant said new drafters should take judicial oath before embarking on this “important” national programme.
Munemo said it seemed the current drafters were paid to undermine the country’s core values.
“If they fail to produce what the people said in the outreach programme, they should be arrested for contempt.
“Mandatory jail terms should be set for this blatant disregard of the people’s views,” Munemo said.
“We have lost confidence in them and if this process is ever to continue then they should call it quits.”
Some said the holding of elections would solve the problems bedevilling the inclusive Government.
“It is clear the three political parties will never come up with a constitution and polls will be the only solution.
“The process lacks transparency but it is a public thing.
“It means something is being done clandestinely,” another commentator, Trevor Mazwi, said.
The drafters have been accused of trying to abet the regime change agenda by subverting the will of the majority of Zimbabweans gathered during the outreach.
Some of the clauses they smuggled into the constitution include the weakening of the powers of the executive president, the issue of gays and lesbians, dual citizenship, an attempt to create a federal state as well as omitting the land issue.
However, a clause on land reform was finally included during the overhauling process.
Copac has been battling to produce a new constitution for the last three years and has already exceeded the time it was expected to craft a new supreme law.
leeroy