Copac must value people’s views

Zimbabwean people, failed to be called the people’s constitution as it failed to accommodate the people’s aspirations.
The Second All Stakeholders’ Conference held recently, sought to make the people come up with suggestions on what needs to be either included or excluded in the final draft constitution? A number of issues were raised by thematic committees, which were reviewing chapters from one up to 18 of the draft constitution.
Since the outreach programme on the constitution making process was carried out, followed by the Second All Stakeholders’ Conference, it should be realised that such very important processes were carried out by Copac in order to get views from the people on what the new constitution should be like.
At all the stages, throughout the drafting of the new constitution, people’s views were sought as a basis to come up with a people-driven constitution. As such, people’s views should be taken aboard as a prescription in healing people’s concerns.
The National Statistical Report, which was presented to the people during the Second All Stakeholders’ Conference showed that some of the people’s views were neglected in favour of the Copac’s negotiated views. In some instances, you find that people wanted a situation where the President should have executive powers vested in him since the same people elected him.
They argued that, the President’s powers should not be shared within the Cabinet as the latter consists of officials appointed by the President. They said that one cannot share his/her powers with his appointees. Their argument was that when it comes to matters of public policy, appointees would not voice their concerns as they would be in fear of their jobs.
Another interesting thing is that the National Statistical Report revealed that the issue of the presidential running mates was not from the people, but was of Copac’s making. Copac wanted this concept enshrined in the constitution arguing that it is normal in these modern times. People wanted a situation where the president appoints his/her deputies. They argued that the president should have his prerogative to choose his/her deputies without being put under pressure.
For the constitution to be called a people driven one, Copac should swallow its pride and make sure that people’s views are taken seriously. They should realise that people’s time and effort were invested into the constitution making process so that everyone feels that he/she has a stake in the final draft.
In another instance, people came up with suggestions that the President should tender his/her resignation to the Chief Justice as he was responsible for swearing him/her in. Copac suggested that the President’s resignation should be tendered to Parliament, thereby contrasting what the people proposed. In this way, Copac should let what the people proposed prevail over its proposals in order to avoid a situation where political parties’ views override contributions by the people.
It should also be noted that people came strongly against the ballooning of the House of Assembly’s representatives and proposed its downsizing. While it is true that having a lot of parliamentarians would be an opportunity for some people to get employed, Zimbabwe is so small to accommodate an enlarged Parliament.
Reducing a Copac proposal of 270 members to at least plus or minus 150 members would make the country save resources which can be channelled to other essential services like health delivery systems?
Copac should realise that an enlarged Parliament would be a menace to ratepayer’s money as this is accompanied by affluent life. Imagine the vehicles, allowances, hotel bills during the life of Parliament and other essentials that come with one being a parliamentarian. So people’s views should be taken aboard so that the constitution reflects people’s views and not the Global Political Agreement (GPA) negotiators’ views.
In other issues revealed in the National Statistical Report, the majority of the people agreed that the Supreme Court should remain the apex court, with a few saying that the Constitutional Court should be the apex.
It was revealed in the report that 46 percent wanted the Supreme Court to be the apex while 23 percent  were for the Constitutional Court. With figures clearly articulated in the national report showing what really people said, Copac should stick to what the majority proposed. While negotiations for a compromise on certain clauses are not wrong, such negotiations should be guided by people’s proposals.
Zimbabweans came strongly against dual citizenship because it compromises patriotism. The report revealed that more than 52 percent were against people having dual citizenship. So it is another area where Copac should not play around with people’s views, but allow them to prevail over their negotiated views.
As the country awaits the final draft constitution, which is supposed to go to the referendum, Copac should not disappoint the nation by coming up with a final negotiated position instead of the people’s views.

The writer is a Harare-based political and social commentator.