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COPAC should be stopped
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
June 11, 2010

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) expresses its deep resentment with the constitution making process being spearheaded by a group of greedy politicians operating under the name of COPAC. For the past 14 months this, 'gang of fraudsters' has caused a lot of confusion misleading Zimbabweans into believing that they are capable of writing a constitution for the country, when events on the ground has clearly shown us that nothing is materialising to realise a genuine democratic people driven constitution. COPAC insulting our conscience, what they are doing has nothing to do with writing of a constitution for Zimbabwe. They have spent more time in disagreements over allowances and per diems. This is a clear indication that this group of mercenaries is only in this process to fatten their pockets and not to write the constitution. The process is a circus and heading for a catastrophic ending.

As the NCA, we are very much worried about the millions of dollars splashed by donors in this flawed process, at a time when the country is facing surmountable problems ranging from high cost of living, unaffordable health delivery system, and a decaying education system, with thousands of students both in tertiary institutions and high schools failing to write examinations because of exorbitant fees charged by the inclusive government

We are also aware that ZANU PF has been holding several meetings countrywide forcing people to accept the flawed Kariba Draft constitution, a document authored by the three political parties in the inclusive government. With the police declaring that security will not be guaranteed for the outreach teams, there is a high possibility that some areas, especially ZANU PF strongholds, will be difficult to operate considering that ZANU PF is vigorously campaigning for the Kariba Draft. Furthermore, to show lack of seriousness on part of government the dates of the outreach program are ill-timed considering that the soccer World Cup will be in session, and hence very few people will give COPAC any attention.

We re-affirm our commitment for Zimbabwe to have a new people driven democratic constitution. This is our resolution at the National Working Peoples Convention (NWPC) in February 1999, and also reaffirmed at 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. We have remained consistent regarding the ingredients of coming up with a new constitution for the country. The writing of the constitution should be the one which is led by an independent body chaired by a non-partisan person of integrity and composed of all stakeholders including political parties, government, parliamentarians and all sections of civil society.

Therefore, we in the NCA categorically condemn the COPAC process, as it is dominated by three political parties and it is nowhere near a people driven process and hence it should be stopped. We also take this opportunity to urge our members and the people of Zimbabwe not to take COPAC seriously as it is just a bunch of mercenaries using constitution making process as a cash cow project to enrich themselves.

The process of making a constitution is as important as the content of the constitution and a defective constitution-making process leads to a defective constitution. The only process that is valid for the making of the constitution is a people driven process, because a constitution must be by, and for, the people.

Through the 'Take Charge Campaign' we will resort to uot traditional street protests as a way of intensifying the struggle for a new democratic people driven constitution.

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