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Zimbabwe's constitutional making process stalled
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Independent Constitution Monitoring Project (ZZZICOMP)
May 12, 2011

Zimbabwe's Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) has resolved to refer the issue of the methodology to be used in analysing data to the Management Committee after reaching a deadlock on the matter.

COPAC co-chairperson Douglas Mwonzora is accusing Zanu PF of trying to convert the process into a quantitative one rather than the agreed qualitative.

"We have reached a fundamental disagreement and the matter must be referred back to the management committee. An emergency management committee meeting must be called where they will advise on the way forward," said Mwonzora soon after the select committee's emergency meeting.

He said as the MDC-T they have six reasons why they are against the use of a quantitative process.

"We can not continue perpetuating a fraud. They (Zanu PF) want to insist on the issue of frequencies of an issue being raised at the outreach meetings. That is how many times an issue was raised during the outreach meetings which will distort the whole process," said Mwonzora.

He said the matter was discussed at a management committee meeting that sat on April 11, 2011 where it was resolved that the process "must never be made into a quantitative one".

"Zanu PF can never be allowed to go against that decision of the management committee," he said adding that all the parties in the inclusive government were represented during the management committee meeting.

Mwonzora said there were more meetings in the rural areas compared to the urban areas which will make the issue of counting frequencies heavily skewed in favour of Zanu PF.

"We also know that there were different numbers in attendance at different meetings which will make the quantitative approach very difficult to use," said Mwonzora.

He also said that during the constitutional outreach meetings the approach was never quantitative but qualitative.

Another Co-chairperson Edward Mkhosi concurred with Mwonzora and said they met as a party in the morning and resolved that the process be suspended until there is an agreement.

"No party has got a mandate to go it alone in the GPA and succeed. Whoever thinks he may go it alone is engaging in a futile exercise," said Mkhosi.

However another co-chairperson Paul Mangwana told journalists that the MDC-T had pulled out of the process and accused the party of attempting to derail the constitution making process.

"We had agreed that we were going to use a hybrid approach to the issue. Initially we would do a quantitative process and then move to a qualitative one. This process will help us to know what the people said during the outreach process," said Mangwana.

He said the MDC-T has now realised that their issues were not raised during the outreach process and "they want to derail the whole exercise".

"We have told our members to continue working but the MDC-T has advised its members to stop.

We know their agenda is being driven by their Western funders who want issues to do with homosexuality included in our constitution," said Mangwana.

Political analyst Professor John Makumbe said the outreach process was designed as a qualitative data gathering tool and therefore the result of the process could not be analysed using a quantitative method.

"There whole argument doesn't make sense. There is no way one can quantitatively analyse data which was gathered using a qualitative methodology," said Makumbe who is also a team member of the thematic committee on systems of governance.

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Email: zzzicomp@gmail.com Hotlines: (0)776-404256-9 / (0)776-404292

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