(TALKZIMBABWE) Copac draft: Zim wants strong president, fast land reform

Copac draft: Zim wants strong president, fast land reform
By: Floyd Nkomo
Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 6:53 am

THE preliminary results of the constitutional reform exercise indicate that Zimbabweans want a strong president and want the land reform exercise to continue at a faster pace, a source told the Zimbabwe Guardian on Thursday. The issue has shocked the MDC-T party which now wants a return to the Kariba Draft which they had originally abandoned in favour of a people-driven constitution.

Now that the people have spoken and indicated that they would like a strong president, empowerment and land reform, the MDC factions "are getting jittery" said our source close to the Copac process.

MDC-M secretary-general Welshman Ncube this week voiced the MDC's concern saying their views on the constitutional were out of sync with those of the people; and the two MDCs might have underestimated the nationalistic sentiment amongst Zimbabweans who want more control of the means of production.

Addressing a civic organisations meeting in Bulawayo last week, Ncube said people wanted a very powerful executive president who makes important decisions and appoints commissions which were state-controlled.

Said Ncube: “We are once again caught up in our visions of what our society is. We thought the people out there, their views would coincide with our views, the elite here and that if we went to ask them they will tell you they want democracy, want a president with limited power, and want commissions which are independent.

“We know that if you were to be faithful to the data which has come out of that outreach you won’t even get the Kariba draft because that data is far worse than the Kariba draft.”

The issues that the MDCs have been advancing - freedom of the press included, have proved less popular with Zimbabweans.

The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper yesterday quoted the MDC-M secretary general saying views gathered during outreach programmes "are far worse than what was being proposed in the controversial Kariba draft supreme law and do not meet expectations of political parties".

Ironically, Ncube wanted a Constitution that met the expectations of the people, not political parties -- a position also supported by the National Constitutional Assembly.

The Law Society of Zimbabwe has rushed to draft an alternative model constitution which they have presented to Copac and to the Minister for Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Eric Matinenga from the MDC-T.

Ironically, the lawyers' draft proposes to strengthen parliament and to diminish presidential powers. This is direct contrast to what the people want.

Interestingly, the draft submitted by the lawyers was compiled from three existing draft constitutions, including the one that was rejected by Zimbabweans in a referendum 10 years ago and had been written by a the Zanu-PF government.

The second one is the Kariba draft, co-written by Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations; which the MDCs wanted abandoned only a month ago.

The third one was drafted by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), although they have vehemently spoken against drafts that do not come from the people.

Copac co-chair Douglas Mwonzora from the MDC-T indicated that the views of the lawyers, the NCA and those from the Kariba Draft will be considered by the parliamentary committee.

This is a turnaround from their previous claim that the Kariba Draft was a redundant document and the people's voice had to be respected.

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been a staunch advocate of the people-driven constitution, has indicated that his party now prefers a negotiated constitution.

Zanu-PF says the Copac exercise should be respected and the people's voice should take precedence over negotiation.

Before the outreach programme, the parties clashed over the process with Zanu PF campaigning for the Kariba draft to be used as the basis for a new constitution. The Kariba draft, which critics argue favours most of Zanu-PF’s standpoints, was crafted by the three parties before the March 2008 harmonised elections.

Ncube said the rejected 2000 draft document was a better document.

“That 2000 draft constitution had provisions which said the presidential term would be limited to two (terms) ...meaning that President Mugabe would not be eligible to stand after this year to contest to be president,” he said at the Bulawayo meeting.

Our source told us that the MDC-T is worried that their handlers will abandon them as they have failed to guarantee the return of land to white commercial farmers.

"The MDC-T is in a quandary. The only way they could have pushed for return of farmland to whites was through the constitution.

"Now Zimbabweans have indicated overwhelmingly that they need a strong president and their land. The MDC has nothing to tell their funders, so they have to start another series of boycotts to tarnish Zimbabwe's image," added the source.