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(TALKZIMBABWE) Copac compromised by ‘secret agents’

Copac compromised by ‘secret agents’
Posted by By Tafadzwa Musarara at 2 January, at 23 : 42 PM Print

THE recently appointed writers of the constitution have released the first four chapters of the draft constitution to the three political parties. What a heap of bovine excrete!

The findings of the Copac outreach programme were consolidated in a report called the National Report co-compiled by the main three parties namely ZANU-PF, MDC-T and MDC-N. Thereafter, the writers were assigned to write the constitution in the requisite legal format based on the National Report.

There is a serious glaring disparity between what the people said during the Copac outreach programme and what has be written to be the provisions of the new constitution. In their Drafter’s Letter 4.1 dated 9 December 2011, the writers have copied the “… Constitutions of countries in Sub-Saharan such as Kenya, South Africa, etc”.

The draft is simply way out of tangent.

So far the draft Chapters released, which are Chapters 1,2,3,4 have touched on, inter alia, the topical issues of death penalty, gay rights, dual citizenship, war veterans welfare and recognition of indigenous languages.

With the goodwill of the editor, I will be unpacking these chapters in serialised format.

Gay Rights

According to the National Report, the people of Zimbabwe in all provinces including the MDC T strongholds (Manicaland, Bulawayo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, etc) said “NO” to the recognition of gay rights in the new constitution. In their wisdom (or lack of it) the writers stated in Chapter 4.6 (section 3), “Everyone has the right not to be treated in an unfairly discriminatory manner on such grounds such as their nationality, race… natural difference, etc”.

It is the term”natural difference” that from legal perspective, will import gay rights into our constitution. This phrase is not in our current constitution neither was requested to be incorporated to be in by the people during the hearings. It is such terms that lawyers will argue in court to interpret the gay rights are justiciable, or acceptable.

When South Africa wrote their constitution in early 1990s, the people through their representatives never consented to the enshrinement of gay rights in their constitution. In fact their Marriage Act of 1961 enacted by the repressive Apartheid regime did not recognise same sex marriages.

The shock only came in 2002 when Marie Fourie and Cecelia Bonthuys, lesbian couple, applied to the Pretoria High court seeking an order to compel the Department of Home Affairs recognise their marriage. The application was turned and the lesbian couple appealed to the Constitution which ruled that not recognising the same sex marriage was unconstitutional and therefore legalised the gay marriages. The judgment went further to order the Parliament to come up with a new law legalising ‘chingochani’.

How did they reach that decision? The applicants (the lesbian couple) simply argued that section 9.3 of the South African Constitution directed that… “the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, etc.”

It is the phrase “sexual orientation” the Lesbians used to argue their case.

In our Zimbabwe case the writers are using “natural differences” to provide for a loophole that gays and lesbians will now use to apply to courts of law to have their union recognised.

When David Cameron declared that UK will not financially assist any recipient state that will not recognise gay rights, Mugabe called him “Satanic”. Ghana, country described by Obama as the leading democracy in Africa, its President Mr Atta Mills said Cameron was showing a “bullying mentality”. Last year, Ghana received GBP90M from UK but said, “If they must take their money, so be it.”

Gay rights will simply tear apart our African social fibre which regulates how we relate with relatives, neighbours, strangers, etc. I simply can’t fathom any one of my three sons bringing in another man as a partner. How will one relate to him? Muroora? If he will be called ‘muroora’ what will be his role in the big family or in the clan. Definitely no children. A constitution must not be used to destroy people’s cultures, norms and beliefs.

The genesis of the phrase “natural difference” must be traced and the writers must stop playing God on the wishes of the people.


Death Penalty

The National report, which the writers have, says that all the provinces support the continuation of the death penalty. But our writers wrote in Draft Chapter 4.1(Right to Life) section 3, “No law may prescribe death as a penalty and from the effective date no executions may take place in Zimbabwe.” But why?

In the last festive season, already more than ten people were killed in fights over women, beer and one dollar debt. It is such callous and destructive behaviour that the penalty seeks to deter. If one person takes the other’s life, then he/she abrogates his/hers. The USA government still have the death penalty in their law books. The people of Zimbabwe spoke in support and the writers are doing the opposite. Bandits!

Languages

The National report states that all the ten provinces want all major and minority languages are official languages. This will abate the preservation of these languages and their cultures.

It also prevents the dominance of their tribes and or languages over the other in national program. The writers in Drafters Letter 1.1 dated 8 December 2011 page 6 says that, “It seemed to us that rather than specify every single indigenous language that is spoken in – and even you seem to be unsure about how many they are and how they are spelt – it would be better to specify just the three main ones…”

The writers proceed in Draft Chapter 1 section 6 (2) states, “English is the language of record.” Majority of African countries have their own native languages declared languages of record. The people of Zimbabwe wanted the same and writers are drafting something else.

Everyone thought recognition of each‘s vernacular language is the bedrock of national unity.

According to section 19 of the current constitution, the holding of the next elections is squarely indexed to the conclusion of the constitution making process. It is possible that there is a fourth force that is engineering this confusion so that the whole process is thrown into deep turmoil, consenquently, delaying elections.

I am quickly getting to believe rumours making rounds that the USA and UK intelligence units have put many key people in the constitution making process on their payrolls.

It is those party representatives in Copac who will not query this fraud committed by the writers so far are on this dirty payroll.

Political party leaders must now seriously consider recalling their Copac representatives.

It’s very difficult to talk when your mouth is full.

Tafadzwa Musarara is the chairman of Resources Exploitation Watch, a civic group. You may contact him on musarara@yahoo.com.

Labels: COPAC

posted by MrK @ 5:28 PM