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Constitutional update
Bulawayo Agenda
August 04, 2010

Matabeleland South

Attendance - The participation of the community of Mzingwane is not good as compared to what the teams experienced in Insiza which they recently covered. Some team members feel that people could be gradually starting to lose interest in the process though they initially had zeal.

Systems of government - There was unanimity in most of the places were meetings were held that political and administrative authority should be devolved to local levels.

Electoral systems - The community of Mzingwane sought to understand how a hybrid system between the first past the post and proportional representation would operate and said that the facilitators did not explain enough.

Citizenship - There appears to be growing consensus on the need for dual citizenship .

Traditional leaders - There are mixed feelings on whether or not parliamentary seats should be reserved for traditional leaders though there is consensus that they should preside over traditional courts.

Matabeleland North

Attendance - The participation of the community has significantly improved in Binga District where the meetings are currently being held with areas such as Kalungizwi having three hundred people in one meeting.

Systems of government - The devolved system is seemingly gaining momentum in the district with more and more people advocating for it in the constitutional outreach meetings.

Arms of State - Communities in most of the areas 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.

War veterans - The participants in most of the meetings were unanimous that the new constitution should not recognise the importance of war veterans. The participants argued that war veterans in Zimbabwe had been compensated enough the times and there is need for the war veteran's pension fund to come to an end.

Land - The participants in Siyabhuwa area called for the rectification of the land issue.

Language - Binga community members said that there is need for the country to recognise all languages as all official languages.

Midlands

Attendance - The Midlands teams were in Mberengwa today, a multi-cultural society with almost an equal number of Ndebele and Shona-speaking people. 360 people attended a meeting in ward 3.

Welfare of the team - The accommodation issue is being slowly resolved with more and more members of the outreach teams being able to secure accommodation.

Systems of government - Devolution of political and administrative authority is very popular in this community across the political divide. People also said they would like to see a Prime Minister who is appointed on merit and that they are tired of the president making just about major public appointments in the country.

Women and gender issues - Most people agreed that there should be quota systems in many public appointments as a means of empowering women.

Traditional leaders -There were mixed feelings on the issue of traditional leaders with some participants arguing that they should have seats reserved for them in parliament and that they should also be the custodians of land while others did not agree with that arguing that they need to partake only in their traditional role. There are some people who also feel that witchcraft should be duly recognised

Land - Some people in the consultative meetings have also questioned whether the land audit will be conducted within the timespan of the 7th Parliament of Zimbabwe as stipulated by the Global Political Agreement seeing that parliamentarians are seized with the constitution-making process.

Matabeleland North

Attendance - There has been a trend of low turnout of people as people are reported as not aware of meeting points. Yesterday, (Tuesday) meetings were held in Dandanda, Kanyandavu, Kana, and Mzola

Systems of government - In the meetings have expressed their demand for the devolved system of government which will see their local resources such as timbre and minerals benefitting them.

Arms of State - The two five year term pattern is not any different in Lupane as most participants feel that this way will bring in diversity in leadership.

Electoral Systems - Communities in Dandanda, Mzola and Kana have said that election results must be released within 48Hours after an election has been conducted.

Land - Like many other communities in Matabeleland North, Dandanda villagers called for the redistribution of land to benefit indigenous people who depend on the land for farming and cattle ranching activities.

Language - They emphasised on the need to recognise different indigenous languages in the country and make them official.

Manicaland

Reports coming from the province are that the outreach teams are on strike over poor working conditions and remuneration. There has not been any work on the ground for Chimanimani South where the teams were to conduct meetings this week.

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