NCA resolve to de-campaign government led constitutional process
By Lance Guma
26 July 2010
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) has resolved to campaign against
the government backed constitution making process, after describing it as
far from being people driven. Speaking on Monday at the end of a three day
conference NCA spokesman Madock Chivasa told our ‘Rules for our Rulers’
programme that they will use a combination of demonstrations, public
meetings and road shows to get people to reject the flawed government
process and its resultant draft.
Since Saturday members from the NCA, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) and a faction of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) have
been meeting to plot their resistance to the government process. NCA leader
Dr Lovemore Madhuku, ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe and ZINASU
President Tafadzwa Mugwadi, were among those who addressed the meetings.
One of the resolutions to come from the meeting calls on all NCA leaders in
the national and provincial structures to quit their positions if they are
taking part in the process driven by the Constitutional Parliamentary
Committee (COPAC). Chivasa said all those in this situation were compromised
and could not be expected to carry out their mandates properly within the
organization.
Last week Friday MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa was particularly scathing of
the outreach exercise, saying his party will have to meet and decide whether
to continue participating in the sham exercise. He said it was clear people
were not being allowed to express their views and that ZANU PF was
frog-marching people into torture bases and telling them what to say during
outreach meetings.
Meanwhile Chivasa said the NCA intends to move away from its traditional
dependence on donor funds and will seek other means of funding its
activities. He said they would embark on a membership drive and get members
to pay subscription fees to pay for their activities.