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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
Zimbabwe Briefing - Issue 87
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
(SA Regional Office)
August 16, 2012
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On new
constitution, Zanu PF should not take people for granted
Finally, after
enduring a total of 35 hours of debate spread over three weeks,
the people of Zimbabwe finally got ZANU PF politburo's verdict
on the draft
constitution. The party rejected the 150 page draft constitution
on the basis that it did not reflect the views of the people as
expressed in the constitutional outreach. According to Rugare Gumbo,
the party Spokesperson, ZANU PF could not accept the draft constitution
without amendments to several clauses which include the diluted
authority of traditional leaders, the role of parliament in the
deployment of troops both inside and outside, the appointment of
governors previously the prerogative of the president and the issue
of dual citizenship among other. As a way forward, ZANU PF proposed
to work on the amendments through the heroes' holiday and
make submissions to the principals thereafter. This very much sounds
like the old ZANU PF that always evokes and perpetuates a deep sense
of victimhood and siege mentality to maintain to continue blocking
any democratic progress.
For a political
party that has consistently and consistently subverted the will
of the people through successive electoral frauds since independence,
this is a rhetoric we can't afford to buy. In fact, it does
not sell at all. It is true that the constitutional draft does not
reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe. In fact, a number of
provisions belong to the three political parties including ZANU
PF. Moreover, the constitution
making process which was meant to take only 18 months has dragged
on for three years! The cost in terms of millions of US dollars
and waning public confidence has been a benefit to ZANU PF.
In all this,
ZANU PF has intimidated, misinformed, coached, abused, disrupted
and even beat up people as a way of ensuring that its wishes are
reproduced in the current reform process, including the constitutional
draft. Certainly the people of Zimbabwe know and appreciate the
fact that this second draft has had to be produced against the spirited
resistance from ZANU PF hard liners who fought with the process
right from the first All Stakeholder's Conference.
Supporting the
second draft should be seen in the context of defending what the
people of Zimbabwe have gained since March 2008. Paying attention
to the content of the draft in terms of what was expected and what
we got is very important. But it is more important that our achievements,
little as they may be, be appreciated within the heavily contested
and toxic political terrain. It is fair expectation to demand that
the constitution of Zimbabwe should entirely reflect the will, expression
and aspiration of the people of Zimbabwe.
After all, these
are the people that will also pass or fail this document in the
constitutional referendum that should be held later this year. This
is the hall mark of creating a culture of constitutionalism based
on the simple democratic principle that people are likely to defend
and support what they know and where involved in building. But to
entirely focus on what is not in the draft constitution rather than
what is there may fall well into ZANU PF strategy and tactics of
taking us back to a per 2008 scenario of fighting the battle on
ZANU PF's terms (Lancaster House Constitution).
Already, ZANU PF's Jonathan Moyo is trying to create legitimacy
for the further watering down of the provisions that the draft constitution
or even setting aside the constitution making process by alleging
that it is political pamphlet, and an MDC election winning strategy.
To all those
within ZANU PF that have perfected the habit of taking the people
for granted, I will share from the sentiments similar to what Malcom
X said when addressing racism in America, "we are not going
to delude ourselves by sitting at the tale, watch you eat and then
consider ourselves as part of the dinner".
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