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Congratulations Zimbabwe on new Constitution
Zimbabwe Unemployed People's Association (ZUPA)
May 23, 2013

ZUPA, the organisation that represents the interests of millions of economically disadvantaged Zimbabweans and primarily the unemployed is delighted beyond measure and now congratulate the Government of Zimbabwe, the Political formations in the Unity Government, the Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) and the citizens of Zimbabwe for achieving the needed milestone as the New Constitution has now become the supreme law in the land.

We would like to extend our gratitude, as Zimbabweans who in the past have been denied economic and other rights, to the donor nations who through the UNDP funded the long process, SADC, for being the impartial guarantors of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), the facilitatiing team lead by South African Presidency in the form of former President Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob G Zuma and all those who offered support and technical assistance.

ZUPA is especially thankful for the inclusion of issues that we advocated for such as the 50-50 gender representation in all aspects of leadership, guaranteeing equal opportunities for women, economic empowerment as a route to alleviate poverty and dual citizenship for our Diaspora communities who through the years of crisis, have been the backbone of our members' survival through remittances.

We would have wanted however, to see a senate and cabinet being independent of political parties or politicians. We had campaigned for all independent commissions to be committees of an independent senate not political appointees. We believe that only a non-political senate, independent of political parties can hold the Government to account. We also believe cabinet can only fully function if it is made up of technocrats who are not distracted by party posts and taken away from their desks to be Members of Parliament.

Nonetheless, we now hope those in political leadership will accept to turn a new leaf and embrace constitutionalism. Zimbabweans have suffered enough. We acknowledge President Mugabe's words that: "... we will ensure that there won't be any violence, that there won't be any rigging. We want now to build a country. Our yesterday was unfortunate."

We hope our tomorrow will not be made unfortunate by reckless political leadership. We pray that a need will not arise for our membership to remind the political leadership in Zimbabwe of their own words and broken promises.

We celebrate the birth of the new constitution and look positively to a future that accommodates all Zimbabweans and respects our rights and our freedoms.

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