Constitution cannot be left to chance

A Constitution is a fundamental document that guides the governance and developmental processes of any given nation. The document lays out the guiding principles for political, social and economic direction of the country.

Thus, the document is very important and can be considered sacred. In fact, it is the socio-political-economic bible for the country.

The past three years has seen a serious attempt by the people of this nation to craft a new Constitution under the leadership of Copac equally staffed by Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations.

The process involved gathering ordinary people's views through an outreach programme that was carried out throughout the country.

These views were supposed to be collated into a national report that was to provide a bedrock from which the constitutional principles were set to emerge.

The document coming out of the process would then be taken to the Second All-Stakeholders' Conference, Parliament and eventually to the referendum where citizens would either endorse or reject it.

However, as the Constitution-making process drives towards its conclusion with the publication of the draft document, there is clear evidence that the process was neither people-driven nor is the document a product of ordinary people's views.

Citizens' views were shelved, sidelined and, in fact, thrown out through the window, in favour of foreign, elitist and negotiated positions championed by those in charge of the process.

Throughout this process the visible hand of foreign interests is evident through the work of the UNDP that funded a significant portion of the procedure and provided "experts" to guide the process. The flawed and anti-people nature of the proposed constitution quickly came to the fore when the two, usually warring, factions of the MDC, temporarily put aside their wide differences to close ranks and rushed to endorse the draft.

This should worry any forward-thinking Zimbabwean since the MDC in its various guises has demonstrated time and again that it primarily exists to advance white imperialist interests.

While the MDCs are already happily jiving to the piper's tune and encouraging the people of Zimbabwe to join their crazy dance, the revolutionary party Zanu-PF has put brakes to the motion and is seriously interrogating the draft document with a view to ensure that it reflects views of the people and it captures matters that advance the interests of the country.

The fact that the Zanu-PF Politburo recently met as much as three times in less than a month, burning candles through the nights, debating the constitution, indicates that the document is an essential text whose development and finalisation cannot be left to chance.

While the MDC is trying to avoid scrutiny by trying to rush the document to the Second All-Stakeholders' Conference and referendum, Zanu-PF is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the form and content of the draft reflects the will of the ordinary men and women of Zimbabwe who aired their views in the outreach process.

It must be clear to the ordinary people of Zimbabwe that, in fact, the Zanu-PF Politburo is fighting in their corner because it is their views that have been confined to the dustbins by Copac and the MDC factions.

While the MDCs are trying to bully the Zimbabwean masses and frogmarch them to the referendum without analysing the draft constitution and desperately trying to paint extensive Politburo deliberations as a sign of a house divided, we the youths of Zanu-PF and, indeed, the entire country, understand the urgent need to scrutinise the draft to the last detail.

For, it is our guide to the future, our compass to a future of hope and prosperity.

Thus, our leaders have every right to play a critical role in shaping our future, a future with a clean break from an oppressive past they delivered us from.

If the people's views are not important, why were they solicited in the first place?

If the matter were so simple as the likes of Qhubani Moyo and Douglas Mwonzora want us to believe, it could have taken a Lovemore Madhuku, a Welshman Ncube or a Patrick Chinamasa a month to write the constitution and then take it to a referendum, then people would judge.

But, the question that is ringing in the minds of many before we go to the referendum is: whose ideas are in the document and whose product is it?

If the answer is not the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe then it is imperative that the draft be revised before it is subjected to their judgment.

While the draft has its own positives, it is fundamentally flawed in that it represents a well-calculated and systematic assault on national independence and sovereignty by proposing to weaken the office of the Head of State and Government, key state and security institutions like the Army, Airforce and Police and to drag the freedom we currently enjoy from beneath our feet by disguising that power is being given back to the people through Parliament yet the real reason is to vest it into various dubiously appointed institutions and commissions whose form and financing will be driven by foreign interests.

The people of Zimbabwe should never ever be cowed by foreign forces, through their surrogates in the MDCs, to judge a document that is not a product of their ideas.

Furthermore, the document is cagey in terms of clearly asserting the right of indigenous Zimbabweans to unfettered political and economic freedom.

It dithers on recognising the centrality of youths in national development processes and from spelling out matters that advances their political, social and economic development alongside other previously marginalised groups like women, the disabled, war veterans, collaborators, detainees etc. It also seeks to bar the recognition of Chiefs as the custodians of the country's lands and natural resources.

Thus, once again as the youths we are solidly behind our leaders in interrogating the draft constitution to the last dot before the referendum.

The people of Zimbabwe should never ever be cowed by foreign forces, through their surrogates in the MDCs, to judge a document that is not a product of their ideas.

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Kurai Prosper Masenyama is the Zanu-PF Director of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment