Constitution-making process kicks off

The process to write the new constitution is included in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) forged between ZANU-PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations in September 2008, which subsequently allowed President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara to form a government of national unity (GNU) in February last year.
On Monday the co-chairpersons of the Parliamentary Select Committee summoned legislators from the three political parties selected for the constitution making process for orientation workshops designed to prepare the lawmakers for a rigorous countrywide consultative process, envisaged to take 65-days.
The consultation process is tentatively set to start on Thursday  next week after the training of all the 560 people selected to coordinate the exercise, which is expected to usher in fresh elections, seen as the only permanent solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis.
Sources privy to the process told The Financial Gazette that members of the House of Assembly and the Senate were briefed at an extraordinary parliamentary caucus held on Monday about their roles in the outreach programme.
Representatives of civil society organisations selected for the process would be orientated and trained on Monday and Tuesday next week, according to Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, one of the three co-chairpersons of the Parliamentary Constitutional Select Committee, before being deployed in and around the country to solicit for views on a new constitution on Wednesday.
“It’s so far so good,” said Mangwana. “We have held a joint caucus with all the legislators and training. Civil society representatives will start training next week then join with the legislators for the outreach programme thereafter,” he told The Financial Gazette.
Douglas Mwonzora, the other co-chairperson of the Parliam-entary Select Committee, concurred with his ZANU-PF counterpart, describing the caucus as “highly successful”.
Mwonzora said the members of the constitutional making process would hit the ground running next week after the training.
“We are happy with the progress so far. The thematic committees would be working on talking points to be used during the consultative process,” said Mwonzora.
He denied speculation that the Kariba Draft or any other constitutional draft would be used as a reference point during the consultative process.
“It’s untrue (that we will be using the Kariba Draft), that is why we are working on talking points to establish a format to use during the consultations,” he added.
After the consultations, there would be a three-month period to present a Constitutional Plan before the Constitutional Assembly.
The Plan would be submitted to a Parliamentary vote after the Assembly has approved it.
At the end of this process, the new Charter would be subjected to a referendum to allow Zimbabweans to express their opinions through a secret vote as what happened in February 2000.
Analysts who spoke to The Financial Gazette said the start of the constitutional making process at the dawn of the New Year augured well for the GNU after several false starts.
“Its progressive that the constitution-making process has begun although it has been delayed by a couple of months,” said Trevor Maisiri, a political analyst with the African Reform Institute, a Harare-based political think-tank.
Maisiri however, doubted that the 65-days earmarked for the process and the 560 members constituting the consultative process were adequate to cover the whole country with an estimated population of 12 million people.
“Depending on the methodology and processes to be undertaken during the consultations, if everyone of the 560 commissioners were to at least interview and consult with say 30 people per day in the totality of 65 days, we will eventual have about 975 000 Zimbabweans who will be consulted,” said Maisiri.
“In that regard, we may end up having input from a restricted number of the populace, thereby defeating the whole essence of broad-based participation and consultation,” he said.
Maisiri added: “Let the people of Zimbabwe support the process but let’s also be wary of the temptations of allowing ZANU-PF, MDC-T and MDC-M to stand out and dictate the process in the typical pretence of representing every Zimbabwean.”
Lawton Hikwa, a Bulawayo-based political analyst, said the outreach programme was a most welcome development.
“Zimbabweans have been yearning for a home-grown constitution for sometime and this is the best opportunity to satisfy the need. Personally, I feel that a comprehensive and exhaustive outreach should result in a good constitution likely to drive this country forward,” said Hikwa.
He pointed out that under the GPA Article VI, it is stated that the parties acknowledge the right and duty of Zimbabwean people to write their own homegrown constitution. Hikwa said he had no doubt the three political parties to the GPA were serious about the constitutional process.
“But you should note that the GPA is a framework whose interpretation regarding its implementation might vary among the political parties. That is not unusual and should not be perceived as lack of seriousness among the parties,” added the Dean of the faculty of Communication and Information Science at the University of Science and Technology.
Effie Ncube, the chairperson of the Matabeleland Constitutional Reform Agenda (MCRA), said any of the three political parties found to be not serious about the current process should be censured.
“We need a new constitution to be able to run free and fair elections in this country,” said Ncube.
“A new constitution will also allow us as a nation to establish the rule of law and good governance and to ensure accountability in the conduct of public affairs and that we have sufficient checks and balances against the violation of democratic freedoms and human rights,” he said, adding that MCRA has held more that 100 meetings on the new constitution in and around Matabeleland.
According to Ncube, the rural folk in Matabeleland have indicated during the organisation’s outreach programmes that they want the constitution to guarantee control of local resources, devolution of power, limited executive presidential powers, a strong legislature and judiciary, among other things.
The coalition government has indicated the new draft should be on the table by August this year but Hikwa said it was too ambitions a timeline.
“A constitution is a fundamental and a very important document to be penned in a haste. Countries that are perceived to be the best in the world wrote their constitutions within realistic timelines, for example South Africa.While deadlines are important for accountability and confidence building, this cannot be the norm with a constitution making process,” he said.
In the meantime Zimbabweans wait with bated breath to see whether it’s for real that work to replace the 1979 Lancaster House Constitution, which has been amended 19 times, the last amendment being the one that ushered in the inclusive government, has now begun after several months of stagnation due to bickering among the political parties.