Copac thematic meetings delayed

by three weeks amid fears that the process will not meet the September 30 deadline.
Copac co-chairperson Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana yesterday confirmed the delay.
Cde Mangwana said a number of events delayed the meeting.
“The delay has been due to a lot of events. The MDC-T has made it abundantly clear that it would only release its members for the meetings after their congress in Bulawayo.
“This has led to a delay of three weeks and the situation was also compounded by recent public holidays,” he said.
Cde Mangwana said the committees had been geared to meet the September 30 deadline they had set for themselves as all the systems were in place.
He said this was after Copac received US$9 million to complete the process.
Government and donors provided the money for the process.
Cde Mangwana said the thematic committees would now meet on May 2 to deliberate on public submissions made during the outreach programme.
The process is expected to be completed by May 20.
This process will be followed by the actual drafting, which was earlier supposed to be completed by the end of May, but would now be obviously delayed.
After the draft constitution is ready, it would be followed by all-stakeholders’ conference that will discuss the draft constitution.
The draft had been scheduled to be tabled before Parliament at the end of June.
Thereafter a referendum will be held.