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Zanu PF's about turn on proposed constitution: Two basic lessons for the MDC
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
January 24, 2008

In its typical style, the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU PF) has left the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) licking its wounds after it remained adamant that the March 2008 elections will not be held under the draft constitution that resulted from the SADC initiated dialogue process. Two critical lessons for MDC emerge from this latest development. ZANU PF can never be trusted. And it is of absolute necessity that a movement be continually guided by its founding principles.

Prior to the ZANU PF's ultimate openness on the fate of the Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche driven draft constitution, the MDC has been spreading the hope that the forthcoming elections will be fought under this draft. It is within the confines of this kind of hope that the MDC was plunged into sponsoring the passage of the Constitution of Zimbabwe amendment (No. 18) Act through parliament. Within the same imprisonment of hope and expectation, the MDC also agreed to veneer changes to the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Being caught up in the same web of talks and talks with ZANU PF, the country's main opposition party has also apparently failed to utilize the prevailing water, energy and cash crisis as a platform through which to further compromise ZANU PF's perilous and precarious hold on power.

"The fact that the MDC is clamoring for this four men constitution speaks to a deviation from principle that has left it exposed to the realities of ZANU PF deception."

Now that ZANU PF has done what it has been prone to doing, the MDC is expected to have learnt its lesson. No Elections under a new constitution! No postponement of elections! This is what ZANU PF has declared leaving MDC in a new quandary. As they try to dust themselves after set another fall, MDC politicians must surely have learnt never to invest trust in ZANU PF. If in doubt of the necessity of this lesson, the MDC might as well appeal to history. What happened to the then PF ZANU on 22 December 1987 is there for all with eyes to see. If the leaders of MDC choose not to learn from ZANU PF's latest act of deception, another national holiday may soon be declared in commemoration of the opposition party' s demise.

More importantly, the MDC must be deriving a critical lesson on the need for it to be continually guided by its founding principles as it seeks political power. Of contextual relevance is the principle relating to the need for a new, democratic and people-driven constitution that can help bring democracy and development in Zimbabwe. As history testifies, the MDC has its roots in the constitutional movement whose foundation was the birth of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in 1997. The fundamental principle behind this movement is that of a democratic constitution that is by the people and for the people. A constitution that is conceived by four individuals is not the People-driven constitution that the MDC was established to fight for. The fact that the MDC is clamoring for this four men constitution speaks to a deviation from principle that has left it exposed to the realities of ZANU PF deception.

Now the MDC finds itself having to be reminded by hypocrites in ZANU PF that the constitution must come from the people. Now the MDC can no longer be trusted by erstwhile allies in civic society. More seriously, the MDC finds itself ideologically compromised. To progressively come out of this make or break scenario, the MDC must self introspect and re-engage the people.

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