ZLHR not sincere on COPAC constitution.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights(ZLHR) has become prophets of doom on the constitution making process by speculating that the Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC )constitution would be a transitional document that shall be replaced by a permanent one in a stable post-inclusive government.

As opinion makers  in society , the ZLHR's comments and observations on constitutional issues are  perceived by ordinary people in the country as authoritative and hence shape perceptions.

Hence, the ZLHR must be the ones who could have taken an active role in putting forward real issues that helps the nation in constitution making process and not waiting in ambush only to turn around with a motive of denouncing the whole process.

Days and months and also precious time were spent by the COPAC sub committees in gathering views from different people around the country. It was commendable for COPAC teams to gather information and views from people on issues, which they wanted included into the supreme law of the country only for a group of individuals to dismiss the whole process as transitional.

That process which involved gathering of views from different societies and classes of people was upheld as the mark of a democratic society. So for the ZLHR to conclude that the COPAC constitution would be turned into a transitional document when completed and would be replaced when the Inclusive Government comes to an end is an insult to the people of Zimbabwe who hitherto had seen the COPAC constitution as a document that will be there for generations to come.

The constitution making process has been chewing up a lot of money and recently it was reported that COPAC was spending an average of US$100 000 a week on accommodation, travel and sitting allowances for its twenty (25) committee members helping in the drafting of the constitution. The budget for the whole process is running into millions and only for ZLHR to dismiss it as transitional.

The ZLHR must be sympathetic to the Zimbabwean economic situation by not issuing statements that invoke despondency for the people of Zimbabwe, as it is the taxpayer's money which is being used in the process. Zimbabwean people need progress on that draft constitution and they need a permanent document not what is being advocated for by ZLHR.

Zimbabwe is economically crippled.  Industry needs recapitalization. Various sectors of the economy in the country need recapitalization. Education is in dire need of money for stationery among several needs. Roads throughout the country are in a sorry state. Every corner of the country needs urgent attention but no capital to rectify such problems. Civil servants are underpaid. All workers save for the very few in the executive positions are failing to make ends meet. Families are surviving on a one meal per day because they cannot afford to have two meals per day as their earnings are not sufficient for that. Two meals per day is now taboo to a lot of families.

A lot of money instead of going towards recapitalization of various sectors of the economy is going towards the constitution making process. So for someone to say that the COPAC constitution would be a transitional document is really derogatory to the people and organisations who have been putting forward their efforts and money to make the process a success.

It was better for ZLHR to put forward recommendations and suggestions on what was supposed to be done by the parties in the inclusive government so that they produce a permanent document that can be accepted by all different people in the country.

The fact that the inclusive government had seen it fit to channel a lot of money into the constitution making process thereby starving other sectors of the economy is a clear indication that the parties in the IG are going for a permanent document which would be used by any political party which would win the next elections.

As if the issue of COPAC constitution being labeled a transitional document by the ZLHR is not enough, the same group of learned lawyers are now saying that the new constitution draft inspection expected to take place in the near future could end up in a chaos. The lawyers are saying that there is a high risk of the repeat of the chaos that erupted at the first all-stakeholders conference held in Harare in July 2009 which ended up with riot police called up to quell the violence.

While everyone in Zimbabwe is entitled to their views on the constitution making process, but for the learned group of lawyers to go on trying to discredit the whole process because they are not part and parcel of the drafting team is wrong. Those lawyers must be reminded that the environment that prevailed when the chaos during the all-stakeholders conference in July 2009 ensured is totally different with the one prevailing at the present moment hence one can not expect the same result.

For one to make such conclusions that there would be chaos during the inspection of the draft constitution only basing on previous events is just an assumption based on views that want to portray Zimbabweans as people who are backward and so chaotic as well as people who do not want peace and progress.

Why not think of Zimbabwean people as those who are able to correct their mistakes and do good for their country? The ZLHR's assertions of always seeing bad and not good things done by Zimbabweans show that they are only a learned group of individuals who are bend of misleading the public to please their western funders. They are abusing their status in society by being prophets of doom when it is imperative to give a well-informed assessment of events for the development of our economy and country.