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Principals have no role yet - COPAC
The Constitutional Select Committee (COPAC)
November 07, 2012

The Constitution Select Committee has insisted the principals to the Global Political Agreement have no role to play yet in the constitution-making process and will only come in after the draft has been taken to the referendum.

Speaking in Harare today at a press conference to announce the completion of the report on the recently held Second All-Stakeholders Conference, Co-Chairperson, Paul Mangwana, said the Principals had no direct interference in the process at the moment, but assisted COPAC through the management committee.

"Principals have always been assisting in speeding up the process as they tasked the management committee to deal with deadlocks. The management committee, with the six negotiators, has been representing the principals and that is how we have been operating. They are not taking over the work of the select committee," he said.

Mangwana said the select committee had three months from the date of the Second All Stakeholders Conference to finalise the draft and present for a referendum.

Innocent Gonese, who was standing in for Douglas Mwonzora, said the executive would only come in after the draft has been taken to the referendum.

"Article 6 (of the GPA) is clear that COPAC continues until the draft goes to parliament. The executive will only come in after the referendum. There is no need for government to take over the process because we are not yet through with our mandate," he said.

Meanwhile, MDC-N COPAC Co-chair, Edward Mkhosi, told the press conference that the report on the Second All-Stakeholders Conference was complete and would be handed over the to the management committee on Thursday.

Mkhosi said the select committee would soon meet to resolve contentious issues.

"A consolidated report on the constitution making process, together with the agreed new draft constitution, will then be produced for submission to parliament," he said.

Mkhosi said the report would be in four sections.

The first section of the report is an analysis of the conference and gives information on the delegates who attended the summit, in addition to the terms of reference that guided them.

The second section, Mkhosi said, contained areas where there were no contestations by the delegates and would not be changed in the final draft, while the third section contained areas where there were recommendations for changes but not agreed upon.

Mkhosi said the final section contained areas where changes were recommended but not agreed upon by the delegates while highlighting the different recommendations made during the conference.

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