admin
Copac members and their technical committee are at a retreat in Mutare where they are trying to come out with a common position on the drafting of the country’s supreme law.
Zanu-PF had called for the suspension of drafting, accusing the drafters of failing to use information gathered from the outreach programme.
Copac co-chairpersons, Cde Paul Mangwana (Zanu-PF) and Mr Douglas Mwonzora (MDC-T) said there was now convergence on most of the issues where the parties differed. But they said it was now unlikely that the constitution making process would be completed by January 19 as envisaged.
“The drafters have resumed their work after we gave them new instructions and things are now moving well,” Cde Mangwana said. “We are working very well and we are agreeing on many issues. Where we fail to agree, we refer the issue to the Copac management committee.”
Cde Mangwana said they would work hard to ensure they finish the constitution as a matter of urgency.
Mr Mwonzora said there was no discord in Copac on the need to move the process forward. “The gap-filling document is now ready for the drafters and now they can resume their work. We agreed that they are going to use extracts of the national report,” he said. “This process is extremely people-driven. However, we will not write in verbatim what people said, there will be a variation because what they said was not in constitutional language.”
Mr Mwonzora said it was not possible that they would put in the constitution everything that people said. Uncertainty had shrouded the constitution making process after Zanu-PF expressed concern with the way the drafters ignored views of the people gathered during the outreach programme.
Some of the issues that had been ignored include land, citizenship and minority rights.
Copac sources said the majority of people who took part in the outreach programme said they did not want dual citizenship and castigated homosexuality.
Online Reporter