New constitution by April says Matinenga
Saturday, 08 May 2010 19:34
ZIMBABWE will have a new constitution by April next year despite delays in launching the outreach programme to gather people’s input into the supreme law, a cabinet minister said last week.Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric Matinenga who has been answering questions from anxious Zimbabweans on Kubatana.net, an online platform for civil society activists, said the outreach would finally start later this month.
The Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac) had said the programme would start three weeks after the training of rapporteurs that ended on April 9.
However, little has happened to show that the committee is ready for the most important phase of the process of drafting the country’s new supreme law.
The delays have been partly blamed on the acute shortage of funds but a number of donors have chipped in with significant donations over the last few weeks.
“I am glad that the indications up to now are that we are on our way to fulfil this important requirement of the GPA, even though we are a bit slow,” said Matinenga.
“We have also trained the rapporteurs, who are the persons who are going to be reporting what each and every person says during the outreach meetings.
“It may be towards the end of May, but I am confident that come mid-May we will be able to roll it out.”
He also allayed fears that the process would be manipulated by political parties.
Civil society groups have reported that Zanu PF is re-training its militias in rural areas to force villagers to push for provisions made in the so-called Kariba draft.
The draft produced by negotiators from the three governing parties guarantees President Robert Mugabe of the sustenance of his sweeping powers and does not address concerns about the non-restriction of terms one can
serve as president of the country.
“People must not fear,” Matinenga said. “They must not be taken in when people say the Kariba Draft will determine the constitution of Zimbabwe.
“Let me assure people that there is no special place for the Kariba Draft in the constitution-making process,” said Matinenga.
“What we have agreed as the three political parties is that the outreach teams should be gathering information on the basis of talking points . . . nobody is going to be waving the Kariba Draft.
“So people should feel free, when they attend these outreach meetings, they need to contribute to the making of the constitution for Zimbabwe.”
When the draft is complete it would be taken to an all stakeholder’s conference, followed by a referendum.
He said the constitution could be ready by April next year at the latest.
The GPA says a new constitution must lead to fresh elections and indications are that this would happen next year.
BY BERTHA SHOKO