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An urgent call for peace during the Second All Stakeholders Constitutional Conference
Heal Zimbabwe Trust
October 18, 2012

Zimbabwe is expecting the much awaited All Stakeholders conference on 22-23 October 2012 but the violence that marred the first All Stakeholders meeting in July 2009 cast doubts of a meaningful conference. The Second All Stakeholders conference was supposed to have taken place from 4-6 October 2012 but was then moved to 22-23 October under unclear reasons. It took more than two years for the COPAC team to come up with the draft constitution. The team spent over 105 days of outreach consultative meetings and on the 18th of July 2012 it finally produced the draft whose content has been endorsed by two parties to the GPA while one party received it but made some amendments. It is alleged that ZANU PF made a record 266 amendments to the said draft before it was even brought before the 2nd All stakeholders conference which is the procedure according to the GPA. This alone is a cause for concern and indicate possible doom to the 2nd all stakeholders conference. Political bickering, accusations and counter accusations over the content of the July 18 COPAC draft is not healthy prelude for a peaceful, transparent and progressive 2nd all Stakeholders Constitutional conference.

The constitution making process right from the start was marked with violence. The violence that marred the 1st All Stakeholders constitutional conference and the subsequent cases of clashes during the outreach cannot be condoned and should be castigated in the strongest of all terms. The outreach process was characterized with a lot of violence, intimidation and harassment on the participants. In June 2010 alone, the Zimbabwe Peace Project recorded 1 174 victims of human rights violations during the constitution outreach programmes and recorded one death of Chrispen Mandizvidza, an MDC branch treasurer in Mbare in September 2010. The current environment is not conducive for the conduct of the national constitutional referendum and efforts should be made particularly by our political leaders to protect the electorate. The resurgence of political violence is worrying evidenced by the death of an MDC official, Mr. Magura in Mudzi in May 2012 during skirmishes with ZANU PF, the harassment of civilians in Mbare by the Chipangano self styled ZANU PF group cannot go unchallenged, the terrorizing of people in Kwekwe by a rowdy group led by one Owen 'Mudha' Ncube who are bankrolling people forcefully evicting shop owners from their business premises under the guise of youth empowerment is unacceptable. Heal Zimbabwe Trust is concerned that the conference can degenerate into violence if the three principals do not genuinely put mechanisms to guarantee a smooth process.

During the COPAC process, there are a number of forums where the GPA principals have called for peace, tolerance and coexistence in political processes but this has not materialized into action and the second All stakeholders' conference is going to be an acid test to the leaders' commitment to end all forms of violence and politically motivated violence in particular. It is worrying that the 2nd All Stakeholders conference comes at a time when there has been nothing beyond the rhetoric for peace and tolerance amongst political party supporters. While the political leadership mainly in ZANU PF has called for peace, there was and continue to be a resurgence of political violence in most parts of the country. Heal Zimbabwe appeals to the three principals to the Global Political Agreement to enerstly call for peace during the conference.

Political leaders should be reminded that it is not their duty and responsibility to reject the draft or accept it on behalf of the people but should give the grassroots an opportunity to choose whether the draft constitution reflects the will of the people or not. By allowing people to vote in peace during the referendum, Zimbabweans would be adhering to the ideals of democracy and good governance. Zimbabweans cannot continue to be enslaved by the Lancaster House Constitution 32 years after independence. The people of Zimbabwe have endured gruesome epochs in the hands of some political leaders. Zimbabwe should emulate what other countries have done during their constitutional making process for example Kenya which has managed to go through her new constitution crafting process with less reported cases of violence and unnecessary delays and all is now set for them to hold elections under a new constitution on 4 March 2013.

It is Heal Zimbabwe's expectation that COPAC fulfill its initiative to invite 70% of delegates from civil society so that the debate is meaningful and reflects the masses' views. Heal Zimbabwe calls for all civil society organizations who have been invited by COPAC to represent the views of the people and remain apolitical. Civil society should guard against being influenced by political parties to either derail or disrupt the process. Heal Zimbabwe also expects the police to exercise their duties without fear or favour in order to ensure that the All stakeholders' conference runs smoothly free of violent clashes in a manner that upholds the rule of law. Civil Society Organizations should be on guard to ensure that the process is not hijacked by politicians and that the will of the people is well represented.

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