Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Constitutional update
Bulawayo Agenda
July 27, 2010

Matabeleland South

Attendance - The confusion surrounding the participation of the communities is still continuing in the Matabeleland South province with most of the communities complaining that it has resulted in meetings being scheduled in a number of venues. Sources in the province said that in some areas outreach teams have found communities congregated in two or three different areas and they speculated that this can be an act of sabotage.

Comments - Members of the Insiza community have complained that one of the war veterans in Insiza North district, Jabulani Phutshu repeatedly caused chaos in five meetings which were held in the district on Friday. Sources in the province said his presence in most of the meetings caused fear among the participants. They said that he would disagree with what the communities said on most of the thematic areas stating that it was not what the war veterans fought for during the liberation war. In some cases he said that Joshua Nkomo did not agree with what the communities where calling for. In a meeting held in Nkankezi area for example, sources said that nothing concrete came out of the meeting as the community members were not given a chance to say anything. In Gwatemba however, the members of the community stood up to Mr Phutshu and disagreed with a number of points that he had stated.

Systems of government - There was unanimity in Gwatemba that there should be devolution of power, while in areas such as Nkankezi members of the community called for a unitary system.

Arms of State - Communities in Gwantemba area were against a life presidency arguing that the country should only have a president and a vice president with no prime minister. They went on to outline the duties that a president should have strongly proposing that there should be executive presidency in the country.

Citizenship - The communities proposed the adoption of dual citizenship.

Women, Youth and war veterans - Proposals coming in from other communities in Insiza north district were that the country should reserve special parliamentary seats for women, the youth and war veterans. There were however contradictory statements when it came to the electoral systems with the communities arguing that all members of the parliament have to be voted into parliament.

Matabeleland North

Attendance - People are attending the outreach meetings in large numbers with the majority being women. Men are attending in slightly lower numbers than women yet they seem to dominate the discussions more than women.

Systems of government - The devolved system of governance is gaining popularity although in Sinamatela, the concept is not fully comprehended as participants were not able to explain how provincial governments should function.

Arms of State - Communities have said that presidential terms should be limited to two five year terms only. They also said that the country should only have a president, with one vice president and no prime minister.

Language - Communities in Binga who speak Tonga and Nambya have called for the recognition of minority languages and rights arguing that they felt that their language and culture is being overshadowed by Ndebele. They emphasised on the need to recognise different cultures in the country, especially the Tonga culture.

Gender - There were mixed opinions on the representation of women as some participants felt that there should be a 50/50 representation while others were against reserved preferential sits.

Visit the Bulawayo Agenda fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP