Maravi

(HERALD ZW) ‘Zanu-PF won’t move an inch’

‘Zanu-PF won’t move an inch’
Saturday, 25 August 2012 21:27
Emilia Zindi

The Zanu-PF Politburo has resolved not to open nego­tiations on the amendments it made to the draft Con­stitution, saying the changes are final.

Speaking to journalists after an extraordinary Polit­buro session at party headquarters yesterday, Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo said the supreme decision-making organ outside congress endorsed the alterations which will now be translated into local lan­guages and subjected to public scrutiny.

He said the refined draft will also be submitted to the inclusive Government principals for considera­tion.

“As a party, we have endorsed our amendments. The rest now remains with the principals to the inclu­sive Government,” said Cde Gumbo.

“As far as we are concerned, we are no longer going to discuss anything about the draft Constitution. We have finished.”

Cde Gumbo dismissed MDC threats to declare the amendments void, saying the proposed Constitution was a national initiative that did not belong to individ­ual political parties.

He said it was important for drivers of the constitu­tion-making process to recognise the role of the princi­pals who appointed them to undertake the task.

There was room, he said, to amend the document even after party representatives in the Constitution Select Committee (Copac) appended their signa­tures.

“They are not the principals. Therefore, they should accept amendments. It is important for other parties to realise the Copac draft Constitution involves three political parties.

“It is not an MDC-T document but an effort of all the parties, unless they want to make it an MDC doc­ument. Some people are questioning the manner in which we scrutinised the draft. However, what we are simply doing is to make the amendments avail­able so that Zimbabweans judge us. We are going to summarise the amendments before dis­tributing them to the people of Zimbabwe.

“Our representatives have appended their signatures to the Draft Constitution so that it is referred to as a Copac document so as to avoid possible theft by other people.”
Last month, the management committee overseeing the Con­stitution-making process pro­duced the final draft of the pro­posed Constitution.

The MDC formations both endorsed the document in its entirety while the Zanu-PF Politburo combed through it, effecting changes to contentious clauses. Among the amend­ments were the removal of so-called gay rights, devolution of power and dual citizenship. The MDC formations argue that Zanu-PF should table its con­cerns before the Second All-Stake­holders’ Conference.

Sadc leaders, who held a regional summit in Mozam­bique last week, resolved that the facilitator to the Global Political Agreement, South African President Jacob Zuma, should be invited to help resolve any major sticking points that emerge around the Constitu­tion.

Speaking at a SAPES policy dialogue in Harare last Thurs­day, Zanu-PF management committee member Cde Patrick Chinamasa said the two MDC formations should avoid han­dling the process based on emo­tions.

He commended President Mugabe and Zanu-PF for closely examining the draft.
“We cannot do that (become emotional) with a supreme doc­ument. We all want a new Con­stitution but need to treat it seri­ously,” he said.

“After those long hours of scrutinising and verifying the document, I can tell you that I was put to task. After the last meeting, I said to President Mugabe ‘I wish we would do this more often, not only on the Con­stitution but on other national issues’.

“Unlike other negotiators in the manage­ment committee, who are also principals in their parties, it was different with me because I was asked to explain every sen­tence, comma and full stop; that is why it took time.”

Labels: CONSTITUTION, RUGARE GUMBO, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 4:45 PM