By Cuthbert Nzou
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s labour movement on Tuesday accused the former opposition MDC parties of selling out on the people by agreeing to have Parliament instead of citizens leading the writing of a new governance charter for the country.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) that sired the MDC in 1999 accused the former opposition of exchanging principle for power in a unity government with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party – in a sign of widening rifts between the union and its progeny that could have far reaching consequences.
ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said the union, other civic organisations and the MDC – then a single party led by the labour movement’s then secretary general Morgan Tsvangirai – agreed at a national working peoples’ convention in 1999 to push for a people-driven constitution making process.
The labour body said it was surprised that the two MDC formations had agreed to a Parliament-driven constitutional reform process during talks that
culminated in the inking of the global political agreement (GPA) last September that led to formation of a power-sharing government last February.
“The ZCTU is custodian of the resolutions of the national working peoples’
convention (that preceded formation of the MDC) and will endeavour to follow to the book what was agreed then,” Chibebe said in a statement issued ahead of national convention beginning tomorrow and called to chart the course of the Parliament-led constitutional reforms.
He added: “We have not deviated from what was agreed at the convention of
1999. This is the song we used to sing with our colleagues in civic society and even those in the MDC before they went into government. Even the first MDC manifesto speaks about a people-driven process. We wonder what has changed now.”
The ZCTU, MDC and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) political
pressure group successfully mobilised Zimbabweans to reject a government
sponsored draft constitution in 2000 – divisions in the alliance could weaken the MDCs capacity to wrench concessions from Mugabe and ZANU PF
during the writing of the new constitution.
The union and the NCA last weekend boycotted a civil society convention in
the capital arguing that the organisations that organized the conference were in support of the Parliament-driven reforms. Mugabe has said any new constitution should be based on a draft constitution secretly authored by the MDC and ZANU PF on Lake Kariba and known as the Kariba draft.
Critics say the document leaves untouched the wide-sweeping powers that
Mugabe continues to enjoy even after formation of a unity government with
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, head of the smaller MDC formation. The ZCTU said Mugabe “brought our worst fears to life” when he said the Kariba draft constitution would be the reference document for the new constitution.
Chibebe said it was clear from the GPA that the three political parties agreed to use the Kariba draft as the main document for the current process.
“It is foolhardy for anyone to say and think that parties never agreed to use the Kariba draft when they appended their signature to the GPA,” Chibebe said dismissing claims that Tsvangirai last weekend said the Kariba draft would not be a reference document.
The political agreement signed by Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara clearly refers to the Kariba draft and totally ignores other draft constitution
produced over the past decade, situation that analysts say means the
document will take precedence over other drafts and probably over what
people may suggest during the outreach programme.
The ZCTU said: “There is a world of difference between a people-driven
process and Parliament-led process. The latter is led by people who have
vested interests and there is bound to be some form of bias towards
individual’s political party’s views. The ZCTU is still of the opinion that
a neutral person should be selected to lead the process.” – ZimOnline
