Civil society demands voice in crafting new constitution

Some came from as far as the remote Binga while others came from Dotito as representatives of the country’s civil society bodies, drawn from 243 organisations, temporarily buried their differences to ensure cohesion in the constitutional reform process.
The major aim of the 2009 Constitutional Convention was to adopt and affirm a set of principles on constitutionalism while committing to greater co-operation and co-ordination among civic society organisations in the constitution-making process.
The conveners also sought to generate a shared understanding of the history, current and context within which the constitutional reform discourse and process was taking place and seek clarity on imperatives for a democratic constitution-making process in Zimba-bwe, among other issues.
Not even the boycott of the weekend indaba by the National Consti-tutional Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which are opposed to the current constitution-making process, dampened the spirits of the delegates.
Speaker after speaker highlighted that their respective organisations would be taking part in the constitutional process in various ways.
They made it clear that they will not boycott the process, much to the chagrin of a rag-tag group of drunken youths that occasionally disrupted proceedings, chanting anti-Kariba Draft slogans thought to be the document President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF want to impose on the people.
Despite opposition to the imposition of the Kariba Draft crafted by representatives from the three political parties in September 2007 during power-sharing negotiations between ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations, delegates were categorical that they did not want to be left behind in the constitution-making process.
They vouched to take part in the Parliamentary-led process, emphasising that failure to participate would render the civic society irrelevant.
The process, in keeping with the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed between President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minis-ter Arthur Mutambara in September last year, has stoked huge debate.
ZANU-PF is campaigning for the Kariba Draft, which it wants to replace the Lancaster House Consti-tution that has been amended 19 times.
The MDC-M sees a sinister agenda in ZANU-PF’s preferred process. The MDC-M believes ZANU-PF wants to maintain its grip on power by pressing for a defective constitution that would allow it to abuse State apparatus.
The party led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai would want all the documents that have been drafted over the years as part of government and the civil society’s contribution towards the making of a new constitution to be used as reference        material. These include the one authored by the NCA and the other one rejected during the referendum of 2000.
“The bottomline is that people have displayed their willingness to take advantage of every possible opportunity to contribute towards the new constitution despite limitations to the process,” said Fambai Ngirande, a spokesman for the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NAN-GO), one of the key organisers of the indaba.
Ngirande said although Article 6 of the GPA, which relates to the Parliamentary-led constitution-making process had fundamental flaws, civil society organisations would be better served if they participated in the process rather than boycott it.
“Common issues have arisen, for instance, that it would be folly to boycott the current constitutional process and that it is not ideal to adopt the Kariba Draft as a basis for the crafting of the new constitution.
“Civil society representatives and other delegates are agreed that there is need for a conducive political environment torwards the drafting of the new constitution; this also includes freedom of assembly, association and the media,” said Ngirande.
There was a general consensus from delegates that the inclusive government should show political will in drafting of the new constitution by, among other things, embracing the spirit of the coalition government.
“Militia bases are being re-established and journalists are being harassed and human rights defenders still being persecuted,” said John Makumbe, a fiery critic of President Mugabe and ZANU-PF, who presented a paper at the indaba contextualising the constitutional reform process.
“ZANU PF should be running scared that civil society organisations are not boycotting the process. It presents them with a formidable foe. It would be difficult for ZANU PF to try and force the Kariba Draft down the people’s throats unless they resort to violence.
“I have a feeling we might be approaching a period which will be deadlier than post-March 2008 elections,” said Makumbe, in reference to political violence, which mired the run-up to the presidential run-off in June last year.
Useni Sibanda, the co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, along with Emilia Muchawa, the chairperson of the Women’s Coalition, said while the bulk of NGOs had agreed to embrace the constitution-making process, worries remained that the Parliamentary Select Commi-ttee might snub civil society organisations by failing to incorporate them in sub-committees.
“There has been a clear affirmation by the greater majority of the civil society that they want to influence the constitution-making process,” said Sibanda.
“It has dawned on all the civil society sector that failure to participate and influence the process would allow politicians to run away with the process,” he said.
Under Article 6 of the GPA, the three political parties to the power-sharing agreement were mandated to task Parlia-ment to appoint a select committee to spearhead the constitution-making process, a move that has not gone down well with the Lovemore Madhuku-led NCA and the ZCTU.
The NCA and ZCTU are of the view that the parliamentary process is not people-driven but “politicians driven”.
In a statement to the media released this week, the ZCTU said: “It has come to our attention that certain Members of Parliament, civic society organisations and individuals are approaching our structures and unions with the aim of enticing them to take part in the process.
“ZCTU affiliates, structures, workers, members of the public and friends are advised that, at its meeting of 20 September 2008, to review the Global Political Agreement signed by ZANU-PF, MDC-T and MDC-M, ZCTU general council noted that the GPA makes a mockery of the constitutional-making process by advocating a Parliamentary Select Committee that would be responsible for the drafting of a new constitution and the ZCTU therefore resolved that the Parliamentary-led process was flawed and thus not capable of producing a democratic constitution. That position still stands.
“Therefore, we would like to make it clear that the ZCTU is not part of the current process until further notice. Anyone who attends these meetings will be doing so in an individual capacity and not as a ZCTU representative.”
Delegates rejected the use of the Kariba Draft as the sole reference point in the process, emphasising the need to start on a clean slate.
Douglas Mwonzora, one of the three co-chairpersons of the Parliamentary Select Committee, who addressed the gathering, denied the three political parties intended foisting the Kariba Draft on the people.
“The position of the Select Committee is that we don’t favour any draft. Any political party is free to campaign for any draft, but it does not mean it will be imposed on the people,” said Mwonzora. “The process will be people-driven. So civil society organisations should not fear anything,” he said. 
Mildred Sandi, the chairperson of NANGO, said it was sad that other civil society organisations, especially the NCA, had chosen to boycott the constitutional convention.
“We would have wanted them to be here, but they have chosen to stay away. We have been with the NCA for a long time as the pioneers of a people-driven constitution. We regret that they failed to attend.”
But after the two-day deliberations, it was clear that from Binga to Dotito, people want a say in the crafting of the new supreme law of the land to replace the Lancaster House compromise constitution crafted in 1979.