Copac debate torches storm

a shoddy job so much that their work was not consis­tent with the US$40 million spent on the programme.
Mr Msukuma, who cited several clauses in the draft constitution which he said showed some deficien­cies, said he was left with no option, but to sus­pect money could have been embez­zled. Mr Msukuma was one of the three guest speakers, who included Cde Mangwana and MDC-T co-chairper­son, Mr Douglas Mwonzora.
The debate was organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Students Union.
Earlier on Mr Msukuma had said the draft constitution was “treason­ous” in that it conferred Parliament powers to impeach the President and remove him from office instead of leaving that role to the people who would have elected him.
It was the allegations of embezzle­ment that were the last straw that saw Cde Mangwana, who together with his counterpart, Mr Mwonzora, who had finished presenting their papers, rising to interject. This threatened to derail the public debate.
“I rise to protest to these allega­tions. We did not come here to be insulted, don’t abuse us. You will realise that some of these allegations are defama­tory and won­der if you will be able to prove them in a court of law,” fumed Cde Mang­wana. He said Copac was subjected to rig­orous auditing and if there were any irregularities, they would have been noticed.
“Let’s have an intellectual debate. We have no problem if you engage us in an intellectual debate and not to insult us.”
Mr Msukuma remained adamant and argued that he assumed that this was a public debate.
“I will apologise but will not retract. I thought I was just throwing out facts.” In his presentation, Mr Msukuma castigated the Copac draft on several aspects that include homo­sexuality, dual citizenship, the execu­tive pow­ers, among others, saying Copac had devi­ated from the people.
He questioned the prudence of con­sulting the people when their views were not going to be included.
But in his presentation, Cde Mang­wana said negotiations and compro­mises were inevitable.
Cde Mangwana said the draft out­lawed homosexual activities, but the issue was being “deliberately misinter­preted by people who prac­tised homosexuality” to cover up for their vices.
In his presentation, Mr Mwonzora said all documentation used to come up with the draft Constitution would be made available to the second stake­holders conference to be held between October 4 and 6, 2012 in Harare.