Maravi

(HERALD) Copac: Promises and lies

COMMENT - You cannot draft a decent constitution when it is written by individuals who seek to overthrow the government and permanently instate corporate (Anglo-American De Beers) rule. This is the real reason they want reduce the power of the state. The MDC are not democrats, and have no history of supporting real democracy.

Copac: Promises and lies
Saturday, 28 April 2012 21:41
Sunday Mail Reporter

There are still quite a number of “parked” issues in the draft Constitution that was submitted by Copac’s select committee to the management committee amid concerns that the new constitution seeks to take away executive powers from the Office of the President and give them to Parliament together with a host of some independent bodies that can easily be manipulated, it has been learnt.

Over the past few months, the Copac select committee has made people believe that only two issues to do with devolution and dual citizenship were still to be finalised. However, the draft that was exclusively obtained by The Sunday Mail last Friday clearly shows that there were “cosmetic changes” to the document to make it appear different from the initial draft that was leaked to the media in February.

It is understood that as a result of the many contentious issues in the draft that was presented to the management committee, there were divisions in Copac over the way forward.

Reports say Zanu-PF representatives in Copac wanted to review the draft clause-by-clause before submitting it, but the three co-chairs refused, arguing that the principals had said they wanted the document.

There are also reports that the co-chairs refused to review the draft clause-by-clause because they knew that it had not changed from the one prepared by the drafters alone which was widely condemned.

Last week, one of the co-chairs, Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, accepted that Copac had submitted an incomplete draft to the management committee.

Some of the issues that are still marked “parked” or “still to be discussed” include dual citizenship, the functions and competences of tiers of government, devolution of legislative authority, conflict between national and provincial legislation, the powers of Parliament to nullify provincial legislation and the voting rights of chiefs in Parliament.

Speaking to The Sunday Mail yesterday on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, a member of the management committee expressed surprise at the draft by the select committee.

“I went through this draft that has been presented to us as the management committee and, honestly, I think the select committee just decided to heap all its problems on us. Now we have to deal with issues that were included in the draft by the drafters and not views that came from the people,” said the member.

The member said the draft still included some issues that are supposed to be covered by Acts of Parliament and “it’s surprising why they want our constitution to be the first of its kind in this regard.”

The member said Chapter 6 Clause 6.1 (2) states that “the national executive authority of Zimbabwe vests in the President and the Cabinet”, yet in subsequent clauses like Chapter 13 under the Independent Institutions Supporting Democracy some of the executive powers are taken away from the President to Parliament.

“How and why should we give executive powers to bodies that are not accountable to the people and bodies that can easily be manipulated? The President should be the one with the executive authority because he is directly elected by the people,” said the member.

The member said the draft constitution was even trying to take away the powers to choose the dates for the next election from the President, saying these dates “should be decided in terms of this constitution.”

Concerns were also raised that while an impression has been given that the issue of devolution has been “parked” under Chapter 5.6, a closer look at the draft shows that only a few aspects of devolution have been “parked.”

“What the select committee has not told the nation is that, in fact, the parked aspects of devolution are insignificant as the whole draft was written with devolution in mind. As it stands, it is almost impossible to un-park devolution without up-parking the whole constitution,” said the member.

Chapter 4 under the Bill of Rights, the rights of Zimbabweans are presented as rights for everyone. For example, Chapter 4.12 (2) says “everyone is entitled to freedom of the Press and other media of communication…” while Chapter 4.13 says “everyone, including the Press . . . has the right to access any information . . .”

“Why are the rights of Zimbabweans being presented as ‘everyone has a right to this and that? When we say everyone it means even BBC, CNN and so on are included in our constitution. This is unacceptable,” said the member.

The member concluded saying: “All the so-called outstanding issues under the GPA have found expression in this draft constitution and issues to do with the security sector reforms have been sneaked into this draft constitution. Chapter 12 was made with the security sector reforms in mind.

“When one takes a closer look at this draft, one begins to see what some members of the select committee are calling the Mugabe clauses, the Chiwenga clauses, the Chihuri clauses, the Tomana clauses and the Gono clauses. It’s all there, but one has to have a legal mind to detect the mischief. The draft does not only seek to remove these individuals from office but it seeks to weaken the institutions they are leading. So this is still a personalised draft constitution.

“On the issue about the next election, the draft wants to make it appear as if these will be the first elections in the country, when we all know that the first elections in the country were held in 1980. As you know, all elections that were done before 1980 could not be considered as legitimate as they were held by an illegal regime.

“Now if the draft wants us to call the next elections the first elections, does this mean we are forgetting about all the elections since 1980? It’s as if we are creating a new republic altogether.”

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, CONSTITUTION, COPAC, MDC, MUNYARADZI PAUL MANGWANA

posted by MrK @ 4:19 PM