‘New Constitution’s principal drafters must be fired’

instructions from Copac that they should incorporate the peoples’ views.
Analysts said people at the helm of the constitution-making process had failed to steer a people-driven process by producing a “neo-liberal” first draft Constitution that undermines national security and sovereignty.
Political analyst Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday said it was impossible for three political parties to negotiate a new Constitution as they have different ideologies, a view that was echoed by constitutional lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, who said each clause would reflect a political position.
Prof Moyo said Copac should be restructured if the dream of coming up with an appropriate supreme law was to be achieved.
“They have failed to stick to the National Report and this simply means they are all incapable of taking us anywhere,” Prof Moyo said.
“If the process is to continue, the document has to go back to new drafters who should stick to what the people said in the National Report.
“The drafters have failed and if they are not changed, it means there won’t be any Constitution to talk of.”
Prof Moyo said the country should go for elections using the current Constitution.
“It is only after elections that people can talk of a Constitution because one political party would be in charge,” he said.
“We have Amendment 18 that was negotiated by the three political parties in Copac and that is enough to hold elections because they incorporate all Sadc guidelines for free and fair elections.
“The only way forward is elections, otherwise we would spend a decade trying to come up with a new Constitution.” Prof Moyo added: “The draft is a systematic attack on Zimbabwe where the drafters have become drifters by drifting away from the views of the people. This draft exposes the poverty of the inclusive Government.”

Stakeholders have queried how the drafters came up with a whole draft without an officially released National Report.
Professor Madhuku, who heads the National Constitutional Assembly, a civil society initiative, said as long as the constitution-making process remains the preserve of political parties, successive drafts will remain mere political games.
“As long as the process exclusively remains in the hands of political parties, the draft constitution will remain a political game. Each provision there will reflect a political position of one party or the other,” he said.
“That does not deserve to be described as a Constitution. This is what was rejected long ago because the draft does not reflect the views of the people and we will reject it if it comes that way,” Prof Madhuku said.
Media commissioner and diplomat Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa described the three principal drafters as ‘‘legal midgets” who should resign as their design to subvert the constitution-making process had been exposed.
“They (drafters) should be sent packing failure of which we go for elections,” he said.
“The process has been corrupted by bad faith of the three drafters. They have abused the whole process to score political goals.”
Cde Mutsvangwa said the Constitution management committee should instruct Copac to stick to the National Report.
“The drafters have subverted the thinking of Zimbabweans and we should find people who are comfortable with what people said by using the National Report otherwise we will be held at ransom as is the case,” he said.
Cde Mutsvangwa said the first draft was aimed at reviving a “moribund illusion”, adding that it was a “neo liberal document”.
He said some people at the helm of the constitution making process wanted to find a place for white Rhodesian rights that were rejected long back.
“These are recycled white Rhodesian liberal ideas that have nothing to do with the reality of the Zimbabwe situation,” he said.
“These are the works of people like Geoff Feltoe. These neo-liberal ideas were politically trashed by racist extremism of Ian Smith. The revolutionary victory of 1980 consigned them to the graveyard and now we have the legal mis-education that has been the bane of post political independence UZ law faculty trying to resurrect.”
He said it was clear some people wanted to effect regime change through the constitution.
“It is sad that the extremely motivated and highly committed minds that played leading roles in the demise of white racists Rhodesia are being avoided by those purporting to come up with a people driven constitution,” said Cde Mutsvangwa.
“Within Zanu-PF ranks that is the worst form of treachery. It is surprising that some within us are avoiding such revolutionary luminaries and hiding in pants of MDC political neophytes.”
MDC spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chihwayi said Zimbabwe’s constitution should be a “home-grown document.”
He said his party would guard against anyone who tampered with the views of the people.
“It is still a draft proposal and we hope to encounter the final draft at the Second All Stakeholders Conference for discussion,” said Mr Chihwayi.
“However, we do not expect anyone to smuggle foreign ideas other than what was said by the people of Zimbabwe.
“There is no need for Zimbabweans to panic because they have a right to reject a tampered with constitution. All Copac has to do is respect the will of the people and they have no right to manipulate the views of the people.”
Cde Rutendo Chikukwa, who was a team leaders during the outreach said she was shocked by what she read in the draft as it did not reflect the views her team gathered in over 70 meetings countrywide.
‘‘I challenge Copac to release even the videos that were recorded during the outreach, you will see for yourselves how far that draft drifted from the views of the people. I am very disturbed,” she said
Others urged President Mugabe to call for an election saying a constitution written by three divergent political parties could never be truly national and would have the same inherent weaknesses that necessitated the 19 amendments to the Lancaster House Constitution.
Copac has been battling to produce a new constitution for the last three years and has already exceeded the time it was expected to have a document.
The first drat constitution it produced recently has said condemnation from various sectors who view it as containing imported ideas.