‘Copac sacrificing national interests’

These comments were triggered by Copac management committee’s decision to refer the first draft of the Constitution to the entire select committee to ensure that it conforms to views of the people gathered during the outreach.

This comes amid reports that the Copac draft contained several ‘‘parked issues’’ even where people made their preferences very clear.
Political and social commentator, Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa, yesterday said the people pushing the process wanted to come up with a liberal Constitution.

“The problem is that the constitution making process is being spearheaded by legal midgets who are try­ing to come up with a liberal constitution that do not recognise the contributions of the people who fought for this country’s liberation.

“They want the constitution to deal with individuals such as President Mugabe and other Zanu PF politi­cians yet the document must be neutral,” he said. Copac is being accused of deliberately ignoring the views of the people contained in National Report, which the team is being accused of deliberately failing to make public.
Ambassador Mutsvangwa said it was baffling that members of Copac ignored what the people said during the out programme and decided to come up with a “white” liberal constitution.

“The people have already said what they want and it is surprising why they continue to ignore the wishes of the people. They want a constitution similar to what Abel Muzorewa and Ian Smith wanted . . . they want to rewind the clock back to 1979. The process is being driven by people who do not have empathy for the people of Zimbabwe who fought to liberate this country. They shun liberation intellectuals,” he said.
“They are supposed to learn from the American Constitution. It was written by some revolution intellec­tuals, the people who understood the revolution and liberation of America from the British. Ours is being written by legal midgets who are white liberals,” he said.

On Monday, Copac co-chairpersons said they had made “major strides” on dual citizenship where they agreed that an Act of Parliament will allow or prohibit dual citizenship.

This is despite the fact that the National Report makes it clear that dual citizenship was shot down by the majority. There was also no agreement on devolution, even though in the National Report, the majority view is for a unitary State. Copac sources have since said the draft was not different from the one that sparked outrage when The Her­ald published it two months ago. They argue that the only change was the “syntax and choice of words”.

The first draft was rejected and referred back to the drafters as constitutional experts described it as an “orches­trated” attack on the country’s moral, cultural and revolutionary pillars.

GPA principals have ordered the management committee to submit the draft this week.The two con­tentious issues, devolution and dual citizenship, were rejected by the public during the outreach programme, but they remain “parked” and unresolved matters.

The writing of the new Constitution, that started three years ago, has been stalled on several occasions due to disagreements among political parties driving the process.

Said a commen­tator who declined to be named: “The subject of devolution should be dispensed with.
“In Zimbabwe it does not matter where one lives. If one wants to refer to oneself as a person from Matabeleland North, Mata­beleland, Masvingo or Mashonaland

East etc, it is up to them. But as a nation we should now abolish the pol­icy of National Identity Cards (IDs) that state a person’s district.
“We can still retain birth certificates that state individuals places of birth. But IDs which are used when seeking employment should not state an individ­ual’s district of origin. If they do state, then the information can be used for discrimination in the job recruit­ment process.”