Draft saga: Govt suspends referendum activities

Constitu­tion by polit­ical parties in the inclu­sive Government, an official said yes­terday. Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs permanent secretary Mrs Vir­ginia Mabhiza yesterday said Govern­ment legal officers should have started moving around the country informing people on the contents of the draft. This had been delayed because of the differences, she said.
Mrs Mabhiza said the pre-referen­dum activities were supposed to help people make decisions from an informed position during the referen­dum.
“Everything has halted because of the impasse,” she said. “Government teams should be moving around the country simplify­ing the draft to the people such that when they go for the ref­erendum they would know what they would vote for or against.
“It’s not all the people out there who have got knowledge of the legal language used in the Constitution, hence the need to make it easier for the masses.”
The two MDC formations hur­riedly endorsed the draft Constitu­tion after it was produced by Copac, while Zanu-PF, after auditing it against the national report, pro­posed amendments.
The revolutionary party discovered that the draft did not reflect the peo­ple’s views.
The MDC formations have rejected the Zanu-PF amendments, saying the draft pro­duced by Copac was final.
The matter is now before the prin­cipals in the inclusive Government.
Mrs Mabhiza said the legal officers were not going to push for a “YES or No” vote dur­ing their awareness cam­paign.
“We have got more than 80 legal officers in the ministry who were sup­posed to work with Copac officials moving around districts and provinces explaining the draft,” she said.
“The officers will not have any side because their duty is simply to explain what is in the draft to the people,” she said.
Mrs Mabhiza said Treasury had not yet provided the funds to be used in awareness campaigns.
“The money should come from Treasury and if it is released now, offi­cers will still move in the provinces explaining to the peo­ple what has stopped the process,” she said.
“It is not fair for someone down in Dande not to know what is going on in the process.
“We also expect to receive money from UNDP for these processes,” said Mrs Mab­hiza.