Constitution delay: Setting the record straight
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 19 January 2012 15:53
By Douglas Mwonzora
IN HIS article published in the Zimbabwe Independent of January 6, the
organising secretary of the MDC led by Welshman Ncube (MDC-N), Qhubani Moyo,
raised a number of issues worth reacting to. These include the accusation
that the delays in the constitution-making process have been caused by the
MDC-T and Zanu PF, that some people seconded to lead Copac are unsuitable
and that the publication of the national report is being suppressed and that
the only suitable leader at Copac is Edward Mkhosi who is from the party
Moyo belongs to.
The only factual issue raised in that article is that Mkhosi is a mature
man. In fact, some of us who have worked with this wonderful man regard him
as one of the best peacekeepers in the land. That he deserves to be in the
leadership of this important process should never be doubted. Unlike most of
his colleagues in the MDC-N, Mkhosi has never fronted for Zanu PF in
attacking the MDC-T unfairly.
It is clear that the constitution-making process has been delayed. The
causes of the delays are well known. The party responsible for the delay
has never been the MDC-T. It is, therefore, important to go into the dry
facts.
The first major programme in this process was the holding of the First All
Stakeholders’ Conference held in Harare in the middle of 2009. Moyo was
present at this occasion. Zanu PF MPs led by Patrick Zhuwao and Saviour
Kasukuwere led the disruptions of this conference on the first day. It took
the intervention of the three principals in the inclusive government to stop
these disruptions. The MDC-T had nothing to do with the barbarism displayed
by Zanu PF on that day and the resultant delay.
The second major programme was that of the outreach meetings. These meetings
were marred by politically motivated violence in some provinces. This
violence was perpetrated by Zanu PF supporters. Most of the meetings had to
be rescheduled by Copac in order to give the people in the affected areas a
chance to air their views on the new constitution. In Harare thousands of
Zanu PF militia bused from outside the capital led brutal attacks on members
of the public in Mabvuku, Chitungwiza, Dzivaresekwa and Mbare culminating in
the death of MDC Youth Assembly member, Chrispen Mandizvidza, at Mai Musodzi
Hall in Mbare.
The management committee had to intervene and ordered the process to be
redone. All right thinking people saw that the people who led to this sad
development were Zanu PF.
The third major programme was the uploading of the outreach data. The data
that had been gathered included views gathered from outreach, views from the
diaspora, institutional submissions, views from children and the views of
people living with disabilities.
When I was released from prison I discovered that Zanu PF had somehow
succeeded in excluding the views from the diaspora and institutional
submissions from the national data. The MDC demanded that the uploading of
data be redone in order to include these excluded views.
The people to blame are therefore not from the MDC, but those who had sought
to suppress the views of some sections of our society in the first place. It
would have been irresponsible for the MDC to accede to a report that had
such fatal omissions.
When it came to the analysis of data in May 2011, Zanu PF insisted on the
quantitative approach while the MDC-T and MDC-N correctly insisted on the
qualitative approach as resolved by the management committee meeting of
April 4 2011.
The disagreement inevitably caused delays. Even when an agreement had been
ironed out and signed by the Copac chairpersons on May 12, Zanu PF still
refused to honour the agreement with some members making outrageous
statements such as that its Copac chairpersons had been fed on alcohol to
accede to MDC-T demands. Somehow of course Moyo would find the MDC-T to
blame!
The issue relating to whether the select committee had to use the
quantitative or the qualitative approach took more than two months to
resolve. The MDC-T’s principal argument was that the process was
characterised by massive intimidation and the use of a purely quantitative
approach was undesirable. Subsequent events would show that the MDC was
correct.
It is important to note that the national report is not yet ready. What is
ready is the national statistical report that does not have explanations on
what certain figures really mean. The select committee resolved that the
national statistical report would be accompanied by narratives and other
documents for it to be a national report.
The committee then specifically resolved not to publish an incomplete
national report. In December 2011, some Zanu PF elements published what they
termed a national report in the Herald. This report did not have any
narratives accompanying the figures.
It did not include the views from the diaspora, children, people living with
disabilities and views from Zimbabwean institutions. The MDC-T then
vehemently protested against this fraudulent misrepresentation of facts to
Zimbabweans. Rightly it went public to condemn the so-called national
report. Probably Moyo wanted the MDC-T to keep quiet while the nation was
being misled.
In December 2011, Zanu PF sought to unilaterally stop the drafting process
when it felt that the drafts did not favour its entrenched positions. The
MDC found this totally unacceptable and it did not hide its opposition to
this unilateralism. There were attempts by some sections in Zanu PF who even
wanted to call for the ouster of some of the drafters. The MDC totally
rejected and resisted these sordid manoeuvres.
Only recently, a group of Zanu PF supporters led by so-called war veterans
disrupted a Copac meeting in Nyanga in a bid to force the drafters to
abandon the drafting process. Zanu PF is still dreaming of reverting to the
Kariba Draft Constitution if the current draft is thrown away, a thing that
would never happen.
Sadly Moyo sees nothing good about what the MDC-T has done in trying to stop
Zanu PF from hijacking the process. The temptation that Moyo is getting into
is to try to blame everyone who is not from his party while glorifying
everyone who is from his party. Such behaviour is common with political
parties and Zimbabweans must not take his accusation seriously. There is
always a tendency by political parties to portray themselves as a source of
reason even though they may not be.
Again this is natural.
The history of Copac must never be falsified on the basis of political
convenience. Instead of firing un-researched diatribes at other political
forces, Moyo as an organising secretary must concentrate on recruiting
members for his political party.
He must have the ability to analyse political facts not from a laptop, but
from the actual field of political play.
Mwonzora is the MDC-T national spokesperson and also the party’s
co-chairperson of Copac.