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Constitution bulletin day 27
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
July 26, 2010

A significant increase in youth participation has been noted in Mashonaland West today at Gwebi Teachers' College.

From a total of 250 participants, 120 were youth, making up nearly half of the crowd.

Youths at the consultation meeting welcomed the idea of the National Youth Training Service but castigated partisan practice in the running of the institution. They said political domination of the programs is not welcome because the previous management of the youth service was political and it forced youths gong through training to engage in violence and other dehumanizing activities. Most of the people agreed that recruitment into the programme should not be compulsory.

Another topical issue was that war veterans should desist from partisan practices. It was argued that when the liberation fighters went to war, they did not go to fight for a particular party but for the freedom of the Zimbabwean natives. So as a group they should not be affiliate to a particular party.

Systems of governance also stirred up debate with some of the people vying for the devolved system while some wanted the unitary system.

However, COPAC members were faced with a challenge of three soldiers who attended the meeting in their army regalia. Although the constitution consultation manual states that no one is allowed to attend the meeting a party regalia, nothing is said about other uniforms, like security uniforms. Yet this is also crucial during this period because participants may feel intimidated by uniformed personnel, especially from the security department. The soldiers supported the need to remove the office of the Prime Minister.

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