(TALKZIMBABWE) New Constitution: Donors suspend funding

COMMENT - So these 'donors' want to determine what is in the Constitution of the people of Zimbabwe. This is the role of 'donor aid' in neocolonialism.

New Constitution: Donors suspend funding
TSM/TZG
Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:03:00 +0000

Select committee co-chair Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana (L) and Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga. DONORS who were funding Zimbabwe's constitution-making process have suspended funding for the project after failing to directly influence the project, reports from the capital Harare say.

The weekly Sunday Mail reports that the European Union, USAID, Germany, the United Kingdom, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Sweden and France — took the decision to stop funding the project after a recent training workshop for Members of Parliament, thematic sub-committees and outreach teams.

"The financiers are already refusing to settle a US$930 000 bill that the Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac) incurred during the two-week workshop," says the Sunday Mail.

"The financiers had pledged to pool US$16 million through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), but ... they have now vowed not to settle the above debt."

Select committee co-chair Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana from Zanu PF was quoted as saying the donors’ decision was in apparent protest against their failure to directly influence the process.

He said the select panel turned down their proposal to assist in developing talking points that will be used to solicit public opinion on the content of the new Constitution. He revealed that members of Copac’s secretariat met UNDP representatives in Harare last Friday where the latter indicated they would not undo their purse strings.

He said the onus was now on Government to gather the necessary resources.

“The activities we undertook were in line with a work plan that the UNDP approved and they had, in fact, asked hotels to accommodate delegates to the workshop, saying they would pay,” Mangwana was quoted as saying.

“But what they have done now paralyses our operations and puts us in a quandary. We wonder whether they (the donors) were genuine to start with.

“They had offered to develop talking points for us, but we refused, saying the people should do this as the process should be people-driven.

“It would appear they are unhappy with the outcome of the workshop, which went on to successfully develop the talking points. We are now suspecting more sinister political motives.

“Delegates’ allowances and transport reimbursements had to be paid from funds we received from the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs.”

Last month, the UNDP and donors pledged to channel US$18 million towards the constitution-formulation process after the task had stalled for months owing to inadequate funding.

Under the arrangement, the UN agency would contribute US$2 million while other donors would cover the remainder. The committee was to carry out its operations in terms of an agreed work plan after which the financiers would settle the bills.

Mangwana said inadequate funding remained a major impediment to the constitution-making process.

“I don’t know how the Minister of Finance will deal with the US$43 million allocated under this year’s National Budget vote of credit because this, too, has to be raised through donors,” he said.

“It is clear that without a proper funding procedure we will not move from here.”

Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga from the MDC-T party was quoted by internet sources as denying media reports claiming the constitutional outreach programme had been suspended.

Matinenga tried to water-down the stalling of financing by the Western financiers saying the management committee, of which he is a member, had merely ‘delayed’ the process.

He said he had asked "the Secretariat and Select Committee to compile a report on the various allegations dogging it" according to an online report

"As the Management Committee we felt duty bound to investigate those allegations. It’s good management practice. We want to move to the next stage after making sure the first stage has been done properly," was quotred as saying although he did not say what the allegations were.

Efforts to reach Matinenga on the latest development proved fruitless.