Back to Index

NCA 15 years of unbroken struggle
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
May 10, 2012

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) takes this time to celebrate its 15th Anniversary since its formation in May 1997. Since the formation, the NCA boast of a history of perseverance in the face of prolonged persecution, of mass-based struggles against one of the most tenacious regimes of the 20th century, and of ultimate, if still relative and partial, victory.

In our 15th year of unbroken struggle, we take special pride in the fact that our membership has grown and some of our cadres who served in our movement are now occupying different and influential positions in government and other spheres of influence. All these years we have developed a deeper appreciation of the centrality of the national question within our struggle, and of the power vested in a majority's sense of collective national grievance and of mass-based, national capacity.

Our history is a history of continuous self-determination and principle.

We are therefore celebrating a struggle, whose collective experience is embodied in our movement. The consolidation of those efforts into the NCA in 1997 proved to be one of the most important decisions our forbearers made. This helped defeat one of the most potent weapons in the hands of ZANU PF those who used a defective constitution - dividing our people in terms of their languages and cultures.

Today we are also celebrating one of the biggest achievements of the NCA - the triumph over dictatorship during the referendum in February 2000.

Even though divisive demons keep on rearing their ugly heads from time to time in movement, there can be no doubt that the cohesion and unity we are currently enjoying owes a great deal to our existence.

As we mark this 15th Anniversary, we remember, to begin with, the early founders of the NCA. They were a stratum of students, lawyers, teachers, journalists, and preachers together with progressive traditional leaders. They came together from across Zimbabwe, to fight for a new democratic constitution. The launching of the NCA was a major milestone, a necessary and qualitative step forward in the struggle against minority rule by the ZANU PF government.

It was through the NCA that led to the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change. From the outset, the founders understood the imperative of forging a new identity, uniting those divided by narrower, traditional, political and ethnic identities.

The NCA was launched at the height of growing disgruntlement amongst the citizens because of socio-economic hardships and an unfavorable political environment.

It was however not easy to grasp the key motive forces needed to be mobilized in order to wage an active struggle to overcome national oppression and achieve a new democratic charter. Instead, there was a progressive, but limited, moral rights-based critique of the intensifying oppression exerted on the majority.

It was a politics of protest. It was, initially, a politics not to defeat the emerging state of black minority rule, but rather a struggle for inclusion of all those unjustly excluded from national processes within our motherland through an undemocratic constitution.

One of the tasks during our formation was to actively advocate for a new people driven constitution which will advance radical transformation in the finest traditions of our longstanding and principled struggle.

But this means that we must continue to invest the key principles of Constitutionalism with their radically progressive significance. It is in this vein that in the new people driven constitution, the principle of separation of powers must be upheld to ensure that never again is the state machinery used for corrupt ends, and that never again are ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe subjected to arbitrary arrest, or invasion of their homes by an authoritarian state bureaucracy.

Also, the principle of freedom of speech must be upheld to ensure that, above all, community organizations, trade unions, social movements, and the media have the right and the actual resources to voice their collective aspirations and concerns. The right to vote for all adult Zimbabweans must also be the right for the outcome of that vote to have a real impact in the transformation of our country. It is for this reason that we must at all times defend that fundamental principle contained in the People's Charter, a document we actively participated in its writing. We remain proud to have been part of that historical group of progressive Zimbabweans in the phase of our struggle that gave birth to the Zimbabwe Peoples Charter. Thus we will remain guided by our revolutionary and unwavering commitment in fighting for the ideals and objectives contained in the charter as it clearly clarifies what we envisage in a democratic state.

Equally, these are the ideals that made us resist Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement by the parties in government. We said it loudly at the 2nd Peoples Constitutional Convention in July 2009 in Chitungwiza that... ''we reject the government led process for constitutional reform as outline in Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement and strongly recommend that the current process as being led by parliament and the inclusive government be immediately stopped and an independent, democratic constitutional reform process be initiated.'' Today, those who victimized us should be ashamed themselves. COPAC has just failed.

To consolidate a new developmental path, all the democratic channels are required with the utmost determination and strategic discipline. This struggle is not just a moral imperative, but an absolutely critical strategic imperative. The challenges of our times are multiple and complex, but, drawing on the legacy of 15 years of unbroken struggle, learning from our successes and mistakes, and, above all, building on the NCA's central legacy of forging a militant unity out of diversity, we can and we shall prevail.

We will continue to campaign for a genuine democratic people driven constitution. We will defend the current leadership collective from those hell bent on putting it on the back foot, undermine its authority and create divisions in the organisation.

In doing all this we shall place the interests of our people at the forefront of all what we do. This is the true meaning of the NCA's 15th Anniversary.

Visit the NCA 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