By Farai Mutsaka
HARARE – Some senior Zanu PF officials, including ministers, this week made a shock move to delay the speedy completion of a new constitution as demanded by President Robert Mugabe, who is pushing hard for elections this year.
Zanu PF members of the Constitution Select Committee (Copac) on Wednesday made “impossible” demands that could have held back a draft to be handed to Mugabe and other coalition principals.
Copac is a cross-party parliamentary body driving the writing of a new constitution, viewed by regional leaders as key to future stability.
It was a bold move by the Zanu PF officials, who included Women Affairs minister Olivia Muchena, Education deputy minister Lazarus Dokora, Labour deputy minister Monica Mutsvangwa, Zanu PF Parliament chief whip Joram Gumbo and Beitbridge senator Tambudzani Mohadi.
Only a day earlier, Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — with the backing of Cabinet — had issued a statement expressing worry over the delays and giving Copac until next week to complete the draft.
Sources within Copac said the move was spectacular because Zanu PF co-chair to Copac Paul Mangwana had also announced to the media that the draft was ready on the same day the principals issued the statement. Tsvangirai’s MDC and Zanu PF have 10 members each to the select committee. The smaller MDC breakaway formation has two and decisions go by consensus.
According to sources, MDC select committee members were stunned when their Zanu PF colleagues came in with a new position paper on Wednesday, saying they wanted the draft revised. Their determination showed when they demanded that the entire select committee reviews the draft clause by clause, a process that had already been undertaken by Copac co-chairs.
Co-chairs and their advisors took three months to review the clauses amid bickering and horse trading and even then failed to agree on all clauses. They now expect the management committee or the principals to discuss the outstanding clauses, meaning Zimbabweans are likely to get a draft constitution negotiated by coalition government principals.
According to sources, Copac was supposed to complete the draft on Tuesday but Zanu PF members asked for more time to study the document.
“Initially, they (Zanu PF members) asked for three hours but said they wanted more time when the meeting reconvened at 5pm forcing postponement to Wednesday afternoon. They came back with a new position paper and demanded that the draft be amended.”
“They also wanted the entire select committee to embark on a process to review the draft clause by clause,” said a source who attended the meeting.”
The source said Zanu PF members wanted the amendments to start right from the preamble, arguing it failed to define the country’s boundaries as well as state that Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation.
“We knew then that the plot had thickened,” another source said, adding Zanu PF members were also unhappy the draft allowed for the setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission.
“It would have taken more than three months to do a clause by clause review given the kind of squabbling that characterises select committee meetings,” said a source.
“Mwonzora (MDC co-chair) pleaded with them to be reasonable. He told them it had taken a lot of trade-offs between parties for the draft to be completed and restarting the process would be retrogressive. He reminded them that the principals were getting anxious over the delays.”
The co-chairs insisted they will send the draft to the management committee as a “working document” while disgruntled members should approach the management committee. The management committee comprises of Zanu PF and MDC power-sharing talks negotiators. Mangwana yesterday refused to go into the matter.
“Everyone has freedom to say what they want because this is a free Zimbabwe. This was a closed meeting so I cannot disclose what each and every individual said. What is important to you is to know the outcome and the outcome is we resolved that the draft is ok and we are taking it to the management committee,” said Mangwana.
The Zanu PF Copac co-chair appears to have been in the dark about his party colleagues’ manoeuvres though. Mangwana told reporters on Tuesday that the draft was ready, even labelling Zanu PF hardliners such as former information minister Jonathan Moyo, who tried to derail the process, as workers of the devil.
“We are not going to be commenting on him (Moyo) because it is the work of the devil. They are messengers of evil as they wanted to distract our work as Copac,” Mangwana said on Tuesday morning, a day before his party colleagues hardened their stance on the draft.
The completion of a new constitution is one key stumbling block for elections this year as demanded by Mugabe, who is fighting old age and reports of ill-health. The 88-year-old recently said party members against elections this year should leave and join the MDC. Daily News
