News / National
Drafting of new constitution to go ahead - Mwonzora
24 Jan 2012 at 11:41hrs | Views
Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC national spokesperson and Copac chairperson has reiterated MDC's commitment to the drafting of a people-driven constitution amid efforts by Zanu PF to derail the process.
Zanu PF and the Ncube formation have been claiming that the publication of the national report is being suppressed.
"It is clear that the Constitution making process has been delayed.
The causes of the delays are wellknown," said Mwonzora.
"Specifically, the party responsible for the delay has never been the MDC. It is therefore, important to go into the dry facts.
"The first major programme in this process was the holding of the First All Stakeholders' Conference held in Harare in the middle of 2009.
"Zanu PF MPs led by Patrick Zhuwao and Saviour Kasukuwere led the disruptions of this conference on the first day," he said.
The MDC had nothing to do with the barbarism displayed by Zanu PF on that day and the resultant delay.
"The second major programme was that of the outreach meetings. These meetings were marred by politically motivated violence in some provinces perpetrated by Zanu PF supporters.
"Most of the meetings had to be rescheduled by Copac in order to give the people in the affected areas a chance to air their views on the new Constitution," said Mwonzora.
In Harare, thousands of Zanu PF militia bussed from outside the capital led brutal attacks on members of the public in Mabvuku, Chitungwiza, Dzivaresekwa and Mbare culminating in the death of MDC Youth Assembly member, Chrispen Mandizvidza at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare.
"The Management Committee had to intervene and ordered the process to be redone. All right thinking people saw that the people who led to this sad development were Zanu PF.
"The third major programme was the uploading of the outreach data. The data that had been gathered included views gathered from outreach, views from the Diaspora, institutional submissions, views from children and the views of the people living with disabilities," he said.
He said when he was released from prison in Mutare last year, he discovered that Zanu PF had somehow succeeded in excluding the views from the Diaspora and institutional submissions from the national data.
"The MDC demanded that the uploading of data be redone in order to include these excluded views.
"The proper people to blame are therefore not from the MDC but those who had sought to suppress the views of some sections of our society in the first place. It would have been irresponsible for the MDC to accede to a report that had such fatal omissions," said Mwonzora.
When it came to the analysis of data in May 2011, Zanu PF insisted on the quantitative approach while the MDC and Ncube's formation correctly insisted on the qualitative approach as resolved by the Management Committee meeting 4 April 2011.
"The disagreement inevitably caused delays. Even when an agreement had been ironed out and signed by the Copac chairpersons 12 May 2011, Zanu PF still refused to honour the agreement with some members making such outrageous statements as that its Copac chairpersons had been fed on alcohol to accede to MDC demands," said Mwonzora.
"The issue relating to whether the Select Committee had to use the quantitative or the qualitative approach took more than two months to resolve.
"The MDC's principal argument was that the process was characterised by massive intimidation and the use of a purely quantitative approach was undesirable.
"Subsequent events would show that the MDC was correct," he said.
He said it was important to note that the national report is not yet ready.
"What is ready is the national statistical report that does not have explanations on what certain figures really mean.
"The Select Committee resolved that the national statistical report would be accompanied by narratives and other documents for it to be a national report," he said.
In December 2011, some Zanu PF elements published what they termed a national report in The Herald. This report did not have any narratives accompanying the figures.
Mwonzora said the report did not include the views from the Diaspora, children, people living with disabilities and views from Zimbabwean institutions.
The MDC vehemently protested against this fraudulent misrepresentation of facts to Zimbabweans.
The MDC went public in condemning the so called national report.
In December 2011, Zanu PF sought to unilaterally stop the drafting process when it felt that the drafts did not favour its entrenched positions.
The MDC found this totally unacceptable and it did not hide its opposition to this unilateralism. There were attempts by some sections in Zanu PF who even wanted to call for the ouster of some of the drafters. The MDC totally rejected and resisted these sordid manoeuvres.
Only recently, a group of Zanu PF supporters led by the so-called war veterans disrupted a Copac meeting in Nyanga in a bid to force the drafters to abandon the drafting process.
Zanu PF is still dreaming of reverting to the Kariba Draft Constitution if the current draft is thrown away, a thing that would never happen.
Mwonzora said the history of Copac must never be falsified on the basis of political convenience.
Zanu PF and the Ncube formation have been claiming that the publication of the national report is being suppressed.
"It is clear that the Constitution making process has been delayed.
The causes of the delays are wellknown," said Mwonzora.
"Specifically, the party responsible for the delay has never been the MDC. It is therefore, important to go into the dry facts.
"The first major programme in this process was the holding of the First All Stakeholders' Conference held in Harare in the middle of 2009.
"Zanu PF MPs led by Patrick Zhuwao and Saviour Kasukuwere led the disruptions of this conference on the first day," he said.
The MDC had nothing to do with the barbarism displayed by Zanu PF on that day and the resultant delay.
"The second major programme was that of the outreach meetings. These meetings were marred by politically motivated violence in some provinces perpetrated by Zanu PF supporters.
"Most of the meetings had to be rescheduled by Copac in order to give the people in the affected areas a chance to air their views on the new Constitution," said Mwonzora.
In Harare, thousands of Zanu PF militia bussed from outside the capital led brutal attacks on members of the public in Mabvuku, Chitungwiza, Dzivaresekwa and Mbare culminating in the death of MDC Youth Assembly member, Chrispen Mandizvidza at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare.
"The Management Committee had to intervene and ordered the process to be redone. All right thinking people saw that the people who led to this sad development were Zanu PF.
"The third major programme was the uploading of the outreach data. The data that had been gathered included views gathered from outreach, views from the Diaspora, institutional submissions, views from children and the views of the people living with disabilities," he said.
He said when he was released from prison in Mutare last year, he discovered that Zanu PF had somehow succeeded in excluding the views from the Diaspora and institutional submissions from the national data.
"The MDC demanded that the uploading of data be redone in order to include these excluded views.
"The proper people to blame are therefore not from the MDC but those who had sought to suppress the views of some sections of our society in the first place. It would have been irresponsible for the MDC to accede to a report that had such fatal omissions," said Mwonzora.
"The disagreement inevitably caused delays. Even when an agreement had been ironed out and signed by the Copac chairpersons 12 May 2011, Zanu PF still refused to honour the agreement with some members making such outrageous statements as that its Copac chairpersons had been fed on alcohol to accede to MDC demands," said Mwonzora.
"The issue relating to whether the Select Committee had to use the quantitative or the qualitative approach took more than two months to resolve.
"The MDC's principal argument was that the process was characterised by massive intimidation and the use of a purely quantitative approach was undesirable.
"Subsequent events would show that the MDC was correct," he said.
He said it was important to note that the national report is not yet ready.
"What is ready is the national statistical report that does not have explanations on what certain figures really mean.
"The Select Committee resolved that the national statistical report would be accompanied by narratives and other documents for it to be a national report," he said.
In December 2011, some Zanu PF elements published what they termed a national report in The Herald. This report did not have any narratives accompanying the figures.
Mwonzora said the report did not include the views from the Diaspora, children, people living with disabilities and views from Zimbabwean institutions.
The MDC vehemently protested against this fraudulent misrepresentation of facts to Zimbabweans.
The MDC went public in condemning the so called national report.
In December 2011, Zanu PF sought to unilaterally stop the drafting process when it felt that the drafts did not favour its entrenched positions.
The MDC found this totally unacceptable and it did not hide its opposition to this unilateralism. There were attempts by some sections in Zanu PF who even wanted to call for the ouster of some of the drafters. The MDC totally rejected and resisted these sordid manoeuvres.
Only recently, a group of Zanu PF supporters led by the so-called war veterans disrupted a Copac meeting in Nyanga in a bid to force the drafters to abandon the drafting process.
Zanu PF is still dreaming of reverting to the Kariba Draft Constitution if the current draft is thrown away, a thing that would never happen.
Mwonzora said the history of Copac must never be falsified on the basis of political convenience.
Source - MDC
