Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) COPAC report will not released: MDC-T

COMMENT - So much for transparency from the MDC.

COPAC report will not released: MDC-T
02/09/2012 00:00:00
by Brian Paradza

MDC-T Secretary for Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Jesse Majome, has dismissed as nonsensical calls by Zanu PF that Copac make public its national report insisiting that releasing the document not provided for in the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Zanu PF claims the Copac draft constitution published on July 18 ignores views of the people gathered during the national outreach programme and contained in the National Report. The party has challenged Copac to make the document public but Majome, who is also Copac’s spokesperson, said this was not provided for under the GPA.

“There is nowhere in the GPA where it says after the process you release the national report,” she told reporters in Harare. “Article 6 of the GPA is clear on the functions of Copac (and) in any case, the Select Committee is answerable to Parliament and that body has not demanded such action from us.”

The constitutional reform process appears stalled after the MDCs rejected several amendments to the draft constitution proposed by Zanu PF which the party says align the Copac draft with the national report.

Said politburo member Jonathan Moyo in the Sunday Mail: “It is now very clear and beyond any contradiction that the July 18 so-called final Copac draft with fraudulent signa­tures is not based on the views of the people as required by Article VI of the GPA which Tsvangirai claims is part of the Constitution of Zimbabwe when it - along with the rest of the GPA - is clearly not.

“A draft that is supposed to be based on the views of the people but which does not have those views and yet claims to have them is clearly a fraud and a fraud is criminal and can­not be taken to a referendum.”

But Majome said Zanu PF’s demand for publication of the report was a smokescreen and accused the party of trying to derail the process.

“Zimbabweans must read for themselves the GPA and not listen to what Jonathan Moyo writes,” she said.

“They (Zanu PF) would want to cause confusion so that the process is abandoned. Such unreasonable statements you hear being churned out daily are shameful.”

The MDC parties have declared the constitutional reforms – carried out over the past three years and which cost about US$40 million - deadlocked and asked the regional SADC grouping to intervene and help take the process forward.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and SADC GPA facilitator President Jacob Zuma of South Africa are expected to travel to Harare to try and help break the deadlock.

Labels: COPAC

posted by MrK @ 3:18 PM