adminZimbabwean professionals such as doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, lawyers, journalists and many others are sought after the world over. It therefore boggles the mind when Zimbabweans fail to conclude a simple task such as writing of a new constitution.
The inclusive Government in April 2009 appointed and mandated the Constitution Select Committee (Copac) co-chaired by the three parties in the inclusive Government to come up with a people-driven constitution to replace the present Lancaster House constitution which has been amended 19 times. The committee which is made up of 25 members drawn from the three parties in the inclusive Government is co-chaired by Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana of Zanu- PF, Mr Douglas Mwonzora of MDC-T and Mr Edward Mkhosi of MDC.
The committee was given 18 months to come up with a new constitution which means the draft constitution was supposed to be ready for the referendum by November 2010 but up to now the final draft is not yet out. Copac enlisted the services of three constitution writing experts, Mr Brian Crozier, Mr Moses Chenhengo and Ms Priscilla Madzonga to help in drafting the constitution.
What is disturbing is that despite engaging what could probably be described as the best brains for the job, the task cannot be accomplished. The committee has missed the deadline by more than a year and there are fears we could go for another month or so without finalising the draft.
The principals in the inclusive Government, the President Cde Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara have all expressed concern at the delay in finalising the writing of the new constitution. Copac is now blaming the constitution management committee for stalling the finalisation of the new supreme law.
According to Copac what is holding up the production of the final draft is the failure by the management committee to resolve outstanding matters.
The management committee is made up of the Global Political Agreement negotiators.
Copac has appealed to the three principals to intervene and force the constitution management committee to resolve the outstanding issues. The draft, according to Copac, is almost ready and once the outstanding issues have been resolved by the constitution management committee, it will produce the final draft.
The claims by Copac were however dismissed by one of the constitution management committee members Cde Patrick Chinamasa who said the committee was instead waiting for the draft from Copac. Cde Chinamasa said the only outstanding issue his committee was seized with was the devolution of power and this, he said, could not hold everything.
The blame game between Copac and the constitution management committee cannot be allowed to continue. The drafting of the constitution should be concluded as matter of urgency to allow the country to hold a referendum and then elections. We have already alluded to the fact that the nation assembled what it probably deems the best brains for the job and there is therefore every reason to be worried when such brains fail to deliver.
The nation is getting impatient and we want to implore Copac and the constitution management committee to move with speed to address their differences so that the writing of the new constitution is concluded as soon as possible. We should not allow spanners in the works at the last hurdle which is producing the final draft. We want to once again urge the two committees to be sensitive to the people’s concerns and act accordingly.
Online Reporter