MDC-T ‘Yes’ campaign futile: Zanu PF
09/09/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
ZANU PF has dismissed as “scandalous” and “futile” Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s weekend launch of a ‘vote yes’ campaign for the draft constitution, insisting
the document cannot be put to a referendum without the endorsement of all the three GPA parties.Addressing MDC-T supporters at the campaign launch in Harare, Tsvangirai ruled out further negotiations on the Copac draft. He said the constitutional reform process must be taken forward to a referendum leading to new elections. But Zanu PF officials said the MDC-T campaign was futile as long as there was no agreement between the GPA parties.
Said politburo member, Jonathan Moyo: “In the first place, this just shows that these guys have taken time-wasting to new heights because you cannot call on Zimbabweans to say ‘yes’ to nothing.
“The only draft that can be taken to a referendum should be agreed upon by the three parties to the GPA. Anything else is nothing and for Tsvangirai to say ‘yes’ to nothing is scandalous.
“Maybe this is a way of practising his wedding vows. If he wants to say ‘yes’ to (new love) Elizabeth (Macheka), he should not bother the rest of us.”
Tsvangirai weds Elizabeth next Saturday.
Zanu PF spokesman, Rugare Gumbo, added: “The MDC-T has an agenda to disrupt the constitution-making process.
“They are fully aware that they cannot go it alone and hold a referendum. Only the President has the legal mandate to call for a referendum. Theirs is a futile exercise and it will plunge them into the deep.”
The MDC formations have since endorsed the draft and are pressing for the document put to a national referendum.
But Zanu PF wants its proposed amendments discussed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC leader Welshman Ncube who are all due to meet on Monday. Tsvangirai, though, ruled out any further discussions.
“I am surprised by people who are saying the three principals are going to meet to discuss the draft constitution,” he said.
“I will not be part of that . . . I am saying let’s move forward because we are done with the draft. The Speaker (of the House of Assembly) should organise the Second All-Stakeholders.”
Ncube also said his party was already campaigning for a ‘yes vote’.
“We are holding our own rallies to support the draft,” he said.
“We accept that the process is not yet complete but we are also acknowledging that this draft was accepted by the select committee and the management committee where all the three parties signed for the draft so we cannot ignore that process.”
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairperson, Lovemore Madhuku, said the MDC campaigns were premature.
“How do you call for a Yes Vote when the Second All Stakeholders’ Conference has not yet been carried out and the process of taking the draft to Parliament has not yet been done?
“It means that the MDC-T is not recognising these two important stages and is dismissing them outright.
“It confirms that the draft which they are supporting does not have the views of the people but it is their own constitution which they are campaigning for.”
Labels: CONSTITUTION, LOVEMORE MADHUKU, MDC, NCA
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Tsvangirai should quit coalition govt: Madhuku
by Staff Reporter
02/07/2010 00:00:00
NATIONAL Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman, Lovemore Madhuku says Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai should pull out of the coalition government to prevent his Movement for Democratic Change party from becoming irrelevant.
Madhuku, who is also a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe told a conference held by Zimbabwe human rights groups at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa on Thursday that the MDC could lose credibility and support if it did not act soon.
He also said the next election should take place before May next year.
"If the MDC is not careful, it will be difficult for it to stand on a platform and promise change, because the people will not believe it.
“(The unity government) is a clear strategy on the part of Mugabe to cheat the people. It has succeeded in divorcing the MDC from its partners in the 2008 election," Madhuku said.
The NCA chairman said there were unbridgeable differences over ideas for a new constitution for the country.
He said it appeared Tsvangirai had believed that the formation of the unity government would lead to the writing of a new constitution.
Drafting a new constitution for the country was one of the key tenets of a power sharing deal agreed by President Mugabe and Tsvangirai after the inconclusive 2008 general elections.
However, Madhuku claimed the whole process had since degenerated into a farce.
"I have reports from reliable sources that whenever the constitutional consultation team is headed to a particular area, (it) is often completely evacuated.
"The 700 people involved in the (constitutional reform) exercise have no option but to just sit in a hotel in Harare. I can assure you that no people-driven constitution is being written," Madhuku told the conference.
Madhuku’s NCA has been campaigning for a new constitution but refused to back the current effort to write a new charter for the country arguing it was not “people-driven”.
The new constitution, once completed, would be put to a referendum leading to elections for a substantive government, possibly next year.
Labels: CONSTITUTION, LOVEMORE MADHUKU, NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT, NCA
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'No' to MDC, Zanu PF constitutional sham
by Lovemore Madhuku
25/02/2010 00:00:00
IT IS now 12 years since the formation of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). More significantly, it is ten years since the people of Zimbabwe rejected the Chidyausiku Commission’s Draft Constitution in February 2000.
This ‘no’ vote was significant particularly because it was the first time that we, as Zimbabwean citizens, refused to have the constitution of our country written by political leaders for the purposes of selfish political interests. It was a declaration by the people of Zimbabwe that: “We, the people, shall write our own constitution.”
There are others, who, since the historic ‘no’ vote in 2000, have argued that the people’s verdict on the Chidyausiku Constitutional Commission Draft was mistaken. As the NCA, we reject such an assertion with the contempt that it deserves. The No vote was an affirmation of the right of all Zimbabweans to be authors of our country’s social contract, with our democratic consent, understanding and belief.
In the 10 years that have passed since the historic 2000 ‘no’ vote, the NCA has been committed to the struggle to bring about a new democratic and people-driven constitution for Zimbabwe. We have never been self-righteous about this struggle and we have remained committed to it.
We have also always sought to join forces with those that share the principles that were established by the historic National Working Peoples Convention (NWPC) in February 1999, followed by the first Peoples Constitutional Convention in June 1999, re-emphasised in the Zimbabwe Peoples Charter of 2008 and re-acclaimed at the Second Peoples Constitutional Convention in July 2009.
It is from these four conventions that we draw our mandate to continue to seek a people-driven constitution for our country. It is also from the same that we have learned that constitutions are not supposed to be elitist documents merely because they have been authored in such fashion in countries either to the west or to the south of Zimbabwe.
Instead, our principles indicate that just as much as other countries were the first to do anything, Zimbabwe can be the first in Southern Africa, Africa or the World to author a people-driven constitution.
What do we mean by a “people-driven process”?
A people-driven process is democratic. It is transparent. It is independent of parochial and partisan interests of the political leaders of the day. It is led by an independent commission composed of all stakeholders and headed by an independent-minded Zimbabwean, preferably from the judiciary or clergy.
On the basis of our principles, we informed the political parties in the GPA that the Article 6 process was more political-party-driven than it is people-driven. This was and remains so because it is the political parties in Parliament who determine the nature and content of the constitutional reform process under Article 6.
The final outcome of the constitutional reform process under Article 6 is determined exclusively by the political parties in Parliament and not the people. Article 6 itself has been further weakened by arrogating all power to the three leaders of the three political parties in parliament, who are now christened “Principals” – an awkward description, given our rich political history.
The MDC was not yet in existence at the time of the historic National Working Peoples Convention (NWPC). Instead, it was formed as a result of that meeting with a clear mandate to pursue the objectives set out by the working people of Zimbabwe.
The ZCTU convened the NWPC and the NCA was one of the key players. One key objective was the struggle for a new, democratic and people-driven constitution. This is why the MDC played a key role in the 2000 ‘no’ vote and remained an ally in the years that followed.
This is also why, on March 11, 2007, in Highfield, Harare, the top leadership of the MDC and NCA shared the trenches when the dark forces of evil unleashed by President Mugabe and Zanu PF took the life of an NCA/MDC activist, Gift Tandare, and left Morgan Tsvangirai, myself and other leaders with permanent life-threatening injuries. We were in pursuit of a genuine people-driven constitution making process.
Given this history, we have, therefore, engaged the MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai and his top leadership on the current political party-driven constitution making process. Regrettably, we have agreed to disagree. The MDC is keen to pursue the current process as stipulated in their agreement with Zanu PF, while we are vehemently opposed to it.
We believe the MDC has abandoned its founding mandate on the constitution and is now bent on compromising the principles of a people driven constitution. Together with the ZCTU and ZINASU, we have established an alliance that is pursuing the founding ground of a genuine people-driven constitution. Our alliance will not allow the MDC leadership to preach the monumental falsehood that the current process is “people-driven”, merely because the MDC is part of it.
Our disagreements with the political parties that are signatory to the GPA are not without a proffering of alternatives. In March 2009, after the formation of the inclusive government, we had already indicated to the three political parties that the constitutional reform process should be overseen by an independent commission, headed preferably by a judge or such other neutral person, involving all of the political parties, civil society, farmers, business, women’s groups, students and citizens in the Diaspora.
We had also indicated that this inclusive government can only be viewed as a transitional government established to stabilise the national economy, ensure there is the facilitation of a people driven constitutional reform process, and thereafter the conducting of free, fair, democratic elections in terms of the new constitution.
As far as we can judge, the inclusive government, a year after it has been formed, is more pre-occupied with the retention of power. It has abandoned its “transitional nature” and wants to serve a full five-year term to 2013. It believes all the people of this country are so gullible that they cannot read this intention by this family of politicians who have now “found each other” and want to remain together for as long as possible. There is no longer the desire to serve the people.
Having said all of this, we must indicate that we are aware of the particular realities each and every citizen of this country faces. The high cost of living, the unaffordable health care, the low civil service salaries, the consistently poor state of our education system despite remaining unaffordable, the prohibitive costs of higher education and the lack of access to food, transport and power are issues that cannot be glossed over by making unrealistic promises as the inclusive government keeps doing.
Indeed, it is true that the work done by the inclusive government thus far has brought some stability to our economy. However, we reject the notion being popularised by the inclusive government that by bringing economic stability, it has also bought for itself immunity from criticism.
We are told that Zimbabweans must glorify the adage that “half a loaf is better than nothing,” even as they are getting “half a piece”. Zimbabweans are no longer expected to demand substantively decent livelihoods. In short, because we have an inclusive government that has brought some economic stability, we should cease to aspire to be a democracy!
We are aware that the so-called COPAC [Constitutional Parliamentary Committee] has still not undertaken any outreach. It has no intention to do so before acquiring huge resources (money and property) that will find their way to the pockets of individual politicians. This is why the leaders of COPAC claim that US$21 million of Western taxpayers’ money is not enough for their outreach!
We note, in particular, that both Zanu PF and MDC do not want the people to air their genuine views on a new constitution. Zanu PF is forcing the people to accept the Kariba Draft. The MDC is cheating its supporters into blindly supporting a document authored by its leadership and falsely entitled “MDC Position on the Constitution.” Its correct name is “Harvest House Draft.”
The new constitution coming out of COPAC will be a compromise between the Kariba and Harvest House Draft. We urge all Zimbabwean citizens to question the political parties as to their blatant partisanship in the writing of our national constitution. We will reject the compromise of Kariba/Harvest House Draft because it will be a defective document not representing the interest of our country.
Zimbabweans will vote NO to the draft constitution that comes out of such a flawed process. And in voting no, it is not as though we do not want a new democratic constitution, We want to write it ourselves: “We, the people shall write our own constitution.”
Comrades, colleagues and friends, the NCA is aware of the seemingly insurmountable challenges that face the struggle for a democratic and people-driven constitution. Some of these challenges include the violent political culture of Zanu PF, the resistance by the MDC leadership to embrace our struggle with honesty, and the decisions by the donor community not to support our particular struggle regardless of its correctness.
It is imperative that in the face of these challenges we do not allow ourselves to despair on the basis of those that seek to refuse Zimbabweans the right to make their own history, a history that like progressive histories in the world, does not have to suit the whims of experts, donors or those that claim to be more Zimbabwean or more popular than others.
It is a history that is premised on the consciousness that we are the people of Zimbabwe, we have fought the liberation war, fought the dictatorship of the de facto one party state under Zanu PF, and we voted ‘no’ in 2000 to a flawed constitutional reform process.
Our struggle for a new, democratic and people-driven constitution is at the heart of our pursuit of a Zimbabwe that is democratic, united and prosperous. To this struggle, we are fully committed.
We urge all Zimbabweans to remain focused on the appropriate destiny of our nation. The NCA will continue to provide the leadership and direction required until the attainment of a genuinely new, democratic and people-driven constitution.
Dr Lovemore Madhuku is the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly
Labels: CONSTITUTION, LOVEMORE MADHUKU, NATIONAL WORKING PEOPLES CONVENTION, NCA
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Zim begins work on new constitution
by
24/06/2009 00:00:00
ZIMBABWE on Wednesday launched efforts to write a new constitution to pave the way to fresh elections, a key step in the power-sharing pact meant to haul the country from a decade of turmoil.
"We count on our inner strength as a people and on our unflinching determination to turn a new page in our lives as Zimbabweans despite many obstacles," parliament speaker Lovemore Moyo told foreign diplomats.
Speaking ahead of the first public meeting on the constitution later in the day, Moyo urged the diplomatic community to support the process.
"The constitution-making process is taking place in an environment of acute resource constraints," Moyo said. "We call upon you, your excellencies, to lend your support to this process. We are happy with the progress made so far despite limited resources."
In April, parliament elected a 25-member committee drawn from members of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to spearhead the process.
Under the accord that created the unity government four months ago, a new constitution should be tabled in parliament by February next year, with a referendum on the charter held by July.
Moyo also assured the diplomats that the constitution-building process will be transparent, and not manipulated by politicians.
"As parliament we want to make sure that this process is as open, transparent, democratic and as inclusive as possible in order to accommodate the views of all Zimbabweans."
The unity deal aims to end political unrest that erupted after disputed elections last year, forcing Mugabe -- Zimbabwe's only ruler since independence in 1980 -- into a power-sharing deal with his rival Tsvangirai. - AFP
Labels: CONSTITUTION, KARIBA DRAFT CONSTITUTION, NCA
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Devolution 'dear to MDC' - Minister
08/06/2009 00:00:00
by Lebo Nkatazo
DEVOLUTION “is an issue which is dear to the MDC’s philosophy”, Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga has said. Matinenga said devolution was in the MDC’s manifesto and the party intended to see power decentralised when a new constitution is enacted, possibly in two years.
“It has always been a position of the MDC that power has unfortunately been concentrated in one person and we need to make people feel that they are part of Zimbabwe and that they are exercising some power,” Matinenga said in a radio interview on Friday.
He said devolution was “an issue which is very much alive in the constitution making process and I’m sure that this issue will thoroughly be debated, canvassed and addressed in our new constitution. ”
His comments follow a statement by Water Resources Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo who said the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai would back devolution plans which could see the country divided into five regions, each with a parliament of its own as well as a prime minister.
But Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) pressure group, warns devolution may fail to be adopted in the constitution if the current parliament-led constitution making process is not abandoned.
The NCA favours a “people-driven” constitution making process, free from political interference.
Madhuku said: “Good things in a constitution like devolution only come out of a good process. The current process is not a good one. So I don’t have to wait for … the draft to know that under the current process, Zanu PF will not accept devolution, they will shoot it down, the MDC will be forced to accept it if they go with that process. ”
Madhuku warned the MDC may be left fighting for its political future if devolution was not adopted.
“If we don’t get devolution in the constitution that Minister Matinenga is presiding over, then obviously, Sam Sipepa Nkomo and all those people who have put across that proposal will campaign for a ‘NO’ vote because I don’t see why they would accept a constitution without devolution. ”
Calls for devolution are particularly strong in the Matabeleland region where there is a perception that the Zanu PF government has deliberately sidelined the region.
But Madhuku insists calls for devolution are a national sentiment, as demonstrated by the MDC’s manifesto.
“I think Zimbabweans across the various ethnic divides here appreciate devolution. Devolution is not for Matabeleland; it’s devolution for the rest of the country so it is wrong for those … of course in this case Sipepa Nkomo announcing it might have served the impression that it’s a Matabeleland thing.
It’s not a Matabeleland thing. Devolution is an aspect of what we would want to see our country develop into, and this is why it is in the MDC manifesto, it’s a progressive thing. ”
He said the NCA’s draft produced in 2000 when Zimbabweans voted to reject a government-led constitutional reform process “is the best document on devolution that you can come across”.
He added: “The NCA draft came out from the input of the people so I’ve no doubt that if there’s a genuine constitution making process in this country, devolution would end up in the constitution in the manner close to what the MDC-T say.
“The unfortunate thing about the MDC-T’s position is that they will not get devolution from this process that they have embarked on. ”
Matinenga told SW Radio Africa’s Violet Gonda that a new constitution may be in place as early as the end of 2010.
He revealed: “The first step was the establishment of the (parliamentary) Select Committee which was done on April 12. In terms of the GPA (power sharing agreement), we must then hold the First All Stakeholders Conference within three months of April 12, which takes us to about 12/13 July.
“After that, we have four months of formal consultations which will take us to about mid-November. Then after that we have the time to do the real writing of the constitution, another three months which takes us to mid-February 2010.
“Then thereafter we go to a second All Stakeholders Conference which looks at the draft against what the people have said. Thereafter we take that draft to parliament and we go to a referendum. That is roughly the timeframe. ”
Labels: DECENTRALIZATION, DEVOLUTION, ERIC MATINENGA, LOVEMORE MADHUKU, NCA
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Power-sharing talks not a solution to current crisis in Zim - Dr Madhuku
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Friday, November 07, 2008 3:38:11 AM
AN amalgamation of civil society organisations in Zimbabwe has said the current bickering surrounding the proposed inclusive government shows that the unity government will not be a solution to the country's problems.
The National Constitution Assembly, made up of more than 40 civil society organisations, said on Wednesday that the current impasse on the sharing of ministries appears to be more about power-acquisition rather than sorting out the country's problems.
"The NCA notes that the continued impasse between the political parties also reduced the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe to one that appears to be more about the acquisition of power for its own sake as opposed to the setting up of a transitional authority," NCA chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku said.
"It also points to the possibility that even if this issue of Cabinet ministries were to be resolved at the scheduled SADC summit, the political parties will still dispute over lower government positions and further stall the functioning of a power sharing government. This means that the so-called power-sharing talks are not a solution to the current crisis in the country."
An extraordinary Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit has been called in South Africa on Sunday to attempt to bridge the gap between the Zimbabwean parties, which have failed to agree on sharing key ministries in the inclusive government.
Such a government was proposed by the African Union (AU) and SADC as a compromise for the disputed election earlier this year, which left over 100 people dead and more than 30,000 displaced in election violence.
The civil society organisations urged the SADC summit to adopt a three-point plan they have proposed to deal with the Zimbabwean problem.
The first pillar of the plan is that a transitional government must be set up, whether composed of the political parties engaged in the current dialogue or by neutral people with the immediate responsibility of addressing our humanitarian tragedy resulting from the food, health, water, and cash crises.
The second is that during the life-span of the transitional government, Zimbabweans must be given full freedom to write their own constitution in an open process.
The third is that free and fair elections must be held under the new constitution and under international supervision and monitoring.
"We appeal to SADC to adopt this three-point approach to the Zimbabwean crisis," said Madhuku.
Labels: LOVEMORE MADHUKU, NCA, SADC
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