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New people driven Constitution irreversible - Minister Matinenga
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
February 15, 2012

The drafting of a new people-driven Constitution has reached an irreversible stage despite desperate attempts by Zanu PF to disrupt it, the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Eric Matinenga has said.

Addressing a press conference at his offices in Harare today, Hon. Matinenga said the principal drafters have produced a preliminary working draft of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe.

The principal drafters are; Justice Moses Chinhengo, Priscilla Madzonga and Brian Crozier.

"A lot of raw data came out of the outreach. This data has been analysed producing constitutional principles and a booklet on proposed constitutional issues," said Hon. Matinenga.

"The constitutional principles set out the broad parameters on what must be addressed in the Constitution whilst the constitutional issues address the constitutional detail."

The minister attacked the public media, especially The Herald for publish a leaked document, which it purported was draft Constitutional proposal. Following the leak of the draft in The Herald, the panic-stricken Zanu PF has called for the dismissal of the drafters.

"Strictly there is no draft available. The Select Committee is still to interrogate and review what has been placed before them. This further breach of confidentially is reckless, irresponsible and unfortunate," said Minister Matinenga.

Meanwhile, the minister has said 95 percent of the MPs have managed to submit their returns on the US$50 000 that they accessed from government under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) with only 10 still to submit their returns.

"Please note that the non-submission of returns does not necessarily mean that CDF was used or not used for the intended purpose, hence the need for an audit exercise by our internal and external auditors," said Minister Matinenga.

He said the audit of CDF is currently underway and 65 out of 210 constituencies have been audited and four out of 10 provinces have been done.

Progress is being hampered by a lack of sufficient resources and adequate manpower. However, efforts are being made to source manpower from government ministries.

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