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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
Election Watch Issue 2-2012
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
January 27, 2012
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War
veterans disrupt constitutional reform
News of fresh
problems in Zimbabwe's controversial constitution-making
process attracted most attention in all the media during the
first two weeks of the New Year.
But this was
quickly overshadowed by revelations into the circumstances surrounding
the death of the country's first black army commander, Retired
General Solomon Mujuru, which seized the media's headlines
when the inquest into the general's death opened in the middle
of the month.
The media reported
the Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac) as having
run into trouble after the first four chapters of the draft constitution
were leaked
to the state media. The ZANU PF-controlled daily, The Herald, was
the first to expose this confidential data. It serialized what it
claimed were the first four provisional chapters of the new supreme
law between December 29th and January 5th this year.
The contents
of these chapters reportedly infuriated the Zimbabwe National Liberation
War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), who not only threatened to sue
Copac for allegedly ignoring the views of "most" Zimbabweans,
but also disrupted its Press briefing in Harare on January 13th
(The Herald, The Manica Post, Daily News and NewsDay, 3, 13, 14
& 17/1 and ZBC, 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, 12, 13 and 21/1, 1pm & 8pm).
They accused Copac and the drafters of the constitution of promoting
gay rights, dual citizenship, property rights, devolution of power
and opposing land reform.
The government
media did not test the veracity of ZNLWVA's allegations with
a response from Copac, nor consider whether its decision to publish
such provisional work would prejudice the process of drafting the
new law.
On the other
hand, the private media viewed ZNLWVA's behaviour as part
of ZANU PF's efforts to influence the outcome of the draft
constitution or derail the whole process. They also viewed this
as having the potential to further undermine the credibility of
the constitution-making process and chances of its conclusion within
new timeframes (The Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe Independent, The
Standard, NewsDay and New Zimbabwe.com, 6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20
& 23/1).
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