admin
Stakeholders’ Conference following the completion of the Draft Constitution last week, which some feel has abandoned the people’s views.
The co-chairpersons handed over the draft constitution to Parliament’s presiding officers at Parliament Building yesterday.
Speaker of the House of Assembly Mr Lovemore Moyo and Senate president Edna Madzongwe received the document. They urged Government to ensure that enough resources were availed for the process to reach its logical conclusion without further delays.
Speaking during the presentation ceremony, Zanu-PF representative and co-chairman Cde Paul Mangwana defended the constitution making process, saying they had captured the people’s views.
“We shall show in the fullness of time that we were true to the people’s views,” he said.
“The system was thorough, we were not able to capture all of the people’s views, but we are able to explain why.”
Cde Mangwana said some of the questions that were asked during the outreach process made it difficult to come up with an answer that satisfied every political party.
“Some of the questions asked during outreach would result in answers that needed negotiations,” he said.
MDC-T co-chair Mr Douglas Mwonzora echoed similar sentiments.
“With this constitution making process, it became necessary to hold negotiations. There are instances were negotiations had to be done,” he said.
“There are instances were members of the public said divergent views with the same intensity and there are instances were the people of Zimbabwe gave us concepts, for example on devolution.
Also see
“There were negotiations within the context of what the people of Zimbabwe had said. We tried as much as possible to stick to what the people said.”
Speaking in an interview after the presentation, Cde Mangwana took a swipe at some of the critics of the draft.
“They have all been serving the devil and they have never changed, it is a falsehood for any journalist to call Professor Jonathan Moyo an expert in law, he might be an expert in other fields, but not law,” he said.
“It is also wrong to call Goodwills Masimirembwa an expert in law, he was actually blacklisted.
“He is highly treacherous because he participated in the process as part of the technical teams and I am surprised that he is such a turncoat. We expect criticism, but it has to be thought out.”
Sources, however, said the draft took a very condescending and dim view of Zimbabweans.
They said the draft constitution seeks to dilute the powers of the President as he/she will not have powers to appoint provincial governors and will not be able to dissolve Parliament.
Yet Parliament or the Senate, on the other hand, can impeach the President.
“On citizenship, the people said there should be no dual citizenship. Why should this be decided by Parliament?” said a source.
“Has citizenship has become a commercial transaction? It is no longer about loyalty to one’s country. If we were to go to war and someone has dual citizenship, which country will they fight for?”
Under Chapter 3.8 clause (e) of the draft entitled “Powers of Parliament in regard to citizenship”, the proposed constitution says an Act of Parliament may make provision for the prohibition or permitting of dual citizenship in respect of citizens by descent or registration.
The source also said during the outreach, people had said no to title deeds on land, as they preferred leasehold.
The draft, the source went on, does not even talk about indigenisation of the economy.
He said the clause on war veterans was “a joke” as it did not specifically stipulate who qualifies to be a war veteran, meaning that even those who fought on the side of the Rhodesian forces could claim to be war veterans.
Chapter 2.15 (1) of the draft constitution on war veterans says “the State and institutions and agencies of Government at every level must accord due respect, honour and recognition to war veterans, “that is to say (a) those who fought in the war of liberation; (b) those who assisted the fighters in the war of liberation and
(c) those who were detained for political reasons during the war of liberation.”
He also criticised the clause on the Attorney General, saying it does not give the AG the power to prosecute as this is given to a prosecuting authority, yet the AG should be the Government lawyer in charge of prosecution.
Under Chapter 5.27 in the draft, there will be an Attorney General appointed by the President.
A person is qualified for appointment as Attorney General if he or she is qualified for appointment as a judge of the High Court.
The functions of the Attorney-General are to act as the principal legal adviser to the Government, to represent the Government in civil and constitutional proceedings, to draft legislation on behalf of the Government, to promote, protect and uphold the rule of law and to defend the public interest and to exercise any other functions that may be assigned to the Attorney-General by an Act of Parliament.
However, the source said this chapter should have delegated to the AG the powers to prosecute.
The Zanu-PF Politburo is expected to discuss the draft constitution this week, after which it will come out with its position.
Meanwhile, Copac is expected to meet today to discuss the Second All Stakeholders Conference and publicity campaigns on the document.
“We are meeting as the Select Committee and we will then roll out the timeframes,” Cde Mangwana said.
Mr Mwonzora said the Second All Stakeholders Conference would be held before the end of August, while the document would be tabled in Parliament within 30 days thereafter.
After being debated in Parliament, it would then be gazetted before the referendum is conducted.
Online Reporter