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(NEWZIMBABWE) Mugabe faces fight over constitution takeover

Mugabe faces fight over constitution takeover
New consitution ... Copac chairmen Edward Mkhosi, Douglas Mwonzora and Paul Mangwana
23/10/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe faces resistance in his bid to wrest control of the new constitution from Parliament with Copac chairmen insisting that GPA Principals have no role in the process while leaders of other political parties accused him of trying to usurp the powers of the legislature.

Copac, a Parliamentary committee, has been steering the process to write a new constitution but Mugabe told delegates to the second all-stakeholders conference in Harare Monday that he, along with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Arthur Mutambara, would have the final say on the new constitution.

Said the Zanu PF leader: “Ivo vatatu vamuri kuona ava, tisu takanyora ichi chinonzi Global Political Agreement.

“Ndisu zvakare takati kumember dzedu dzeParliament hapana anoti kwete, mese munosungirwa kuvhota. Zvino idemocracy iyoyo? I am saying this because sometimes Parliament thinks that it is full of sovereignty that it should control the acts of the Principals, hazviite.”

Mavambo Kusile leader Simba Makoni said there was no basis for Mugabe’s claim in the GPA and accused him of trying to usurp Parliamentary authority.

“The GPA Principals have no mandate to finalise the country’s constitution. Nowhere in the GPA are the so-called Principals given a role, let alone final say, in the making of the new constitution,” Makoni said in a statement.

“The import of the President’s remarks is that the people’s views do not matter at all … the three GPA leaders are not the only people in Zimbabwe; the country has fourteen million citizens.

“But) this should not surprise anyone, since disregard of the will of the people has been President Mugabe’s hallmark for the past two decades.

Copac co-chair Douglas Mwonzora said Mugabe’s statement was an attempt to interfere in the affairs of the legislature.

“I don’t agree with the President,” Mwonzora said in an interview.

“It was just a statement and I didn’t actually get what he meant in terms of at what stage are the principals going to come in. The legislature is an equal arm of the State just like the judiciary and the executive.

“Copac will produce a national report after tabling the matter to Parliament that’s when our job end. The executive will only come into the fold when the document reaches cabinet.”

Mwonzora’s Zanu PF counterpart, Paul Mangwana, said the Principals could only intervene in the event of a deadlock adding: “There is always this structure - the principals have given us (management committee) . . . they can always come in on areas where the Select Committee cannot reach a consensus.

“If we are able to deal with those views, then there will be no need for them to come in but in the event that we have conflicting views, then principals will intervene.”

MDC leader Welshman Ncube, who boycotted Monday’s opening ceremony, claimed that Mugabe was planning to hand control of the process to a Cabinet committee chaired by Mutambara.

Meanwhile, the conference ended Tuesday with delegates still divided over proposed changes to the draft although Mwonzora insisted that no major changes had come up adding a referendum on the document would likely be held in January next year.

“There is no new thing brought up except minor terminology changes. Most delegates have expressed confidence in the COPAC draft,” he said.

“The delegates have also seen for themselves that there is no homosexuality in the draft, it was just propaganda, political grandstanding peddled by people who wanted to have this process abandoned.

“We have always said we wanted elections with a new constitution and now that the process has been a success, it is possible to have a referendum this year but logistically it might be impossible but by January we should have a referendum.”

Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa added: “We are prepared to bend backwards just to have this process through.”

Labels: CONSTITUTION, COPAC, DOUGLAS MWONZORA, PAUL MANGWANA, ROBERT MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 3:44 PM