Principals’ ultimatum on draft constitution laudable

completed by 15 March, by which time they should also receive the draft for perusal.
This action was long overdue.
It is quite clear that those entrusted with the authority to supervise the making of the new Constitution have been delaying for reasons best known to them.
The Principals suspect it is because Copac has become an eating place for those involved in the making of the Constitution.
They would not want it concluded lest their source of income dries up. Others suspect the whole delay is linked to election phobia.
They reckon there are election cowards who have concluded that as long as there is no new Constitution, elections will not be held and they can hang on to power for much longer.
Whatever the reason is, they are letting the people down. The Principals are right to demand the speeding up of the process.
It is important to remember that the decision to have a people-driven Constitution was one of the key components of the Global Political Agreement. Article VI of the GPA acknowledges that it is the fundamental right and duty of the Zimbabwean people to make a Constitution themselves and for themselves.
The agreement also states that the process of making the Constitution must be owned and driven by the people and must be inclusive and democratic.
It also put into place specific timeframes for the different segments of the constitution making process to be completed. None of these have been met. In fact they have overshot the whole process by more than a year. A process that was supposed to be completed within 18 months is now taking three years.
Initially the Copac people could hide behind funding problems. But now they spend most of their time in hotels in holiday resorts like Vumba and yet not much work is being done.
To make matters worse, they have allowed the drafters to drift away from their mandate of turning people’s views into constitutional issues. The drafters are working as if they are not cognisant of the GPA, which makes it clear that the constitution must be owned and driven by the people. We appreciate that some of their actions are motivated by the desire to fulfil another stipulation of the GPA that the new Constitution must deepen our democratic values and principles and that it must protect the equality of all citizens.
This can easily be achieved without throwing into the dustbin what the people have said.
They should also accept that this is not the first attempt by Zimbabweans to come up with a new Constitution. There is the 2000 draft, which was a pretty good draft that came out of a thorough consultative process. It was only shot down because of political expediency on the part of the opposition parties that sought to protect the interests of foreigners.
Then there is also the Kariba Draft, which the three parties to the inclusive Government had assented to, but later opted to go the route of the consultative process. So the basic elements of the constitution are available in these two previous drafts and we wonder why the drafters are now bringing in new things that were never raised in the 2000 process, or in the 2011 consultative process.
Even after the submission of the draft in a week’s time, the principals must emphasise that the timeframes for the remaining tasks must be adhered to strictly.
The GPA says the draft Constitution must be tabled within three months of completion of the public consultation process to a second All Stakeholders Conference. This target has been missed by a mile. They must now set a new date for the conference. The GPA also states that the draft Constitution and the accompanying report shall be tabled before Parliament within a month of the second All Stakeholders Conference. By now arrangements should be at an advanced stage for the second All Stakeholders Conference given that we expect the drafting process to be completed by 15 March.
The debating by Parliament can also be speeded up given the fact that the parties that are represented in Parliament have been involved in the drafting process and their views are adequately represented.
It is now critical to build consensus around the whole process so that time will not be lost in debating the draft in Parliament and that the three parties will campaign for the new Draft Constitution when the time for the referendum comes. There is now no reason for further delays. The draft should be wrapped up quickly and the political impasse settled through democratic and credible elections.