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Two days not enough; Harare/Bulawayo constitution outreach meetings
Zimbabwe
Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
July 22, 2010
Bulawayo
residents have protested against the move by the Constitution parliamentary
Committee (COPAC) to hold outreach meetings for a single day in
Bulawayo.
They cited this move
as a deliberate action to deny residents of the province their right
to participate in the constitution making process. COPAC Co-Chairperson,
Mr. Edward Mkhosi recently announced that the postponed outreach
meetings dated for Bulawayo and Harare will soon begin. Bulawayo
meetings are to be carried out in a day, while Harare was scheduled
for two days.
Reports reveal that Bulawayo
residents have denounced the move, citing that this limits their
time to effectively discuss issues that they want included in the
constitution. Every constituency is scheduled to hold three meetings.
However not everyone will be able to attend on the still to be gazetted
date.
Bulawayo United
Residents Association (BURA) Chairman, Mr. Winos Dube echoed the
same sentiments, highlighting that the two provinces should be treated
like all the other provinces. He added that it would be impossible
for COPAC to a mechanism to capture all views in the limited days.
Meanwhile COPAC Co-Chair
person Mr. Douglas Mwonzora said that they are working on a proposal
to host the COAPAC meetings on a weekend in the two provinces to
cater for the working class and students. He added that suggestions
are still welcome.
Constitution outreaches
in the two provinces had been postponed indefinitely because of
the football World Cup that was running in South Africa. ZimRights
calls for COPAC to formulate mechanisms that ensure the document
produced in the end is not compromised by the need to meet deadlines.
Both the content and process must be people driven.
Visit the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Association (ZimRights) fact
sheet
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