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Zanu-PF's draft Constitution unpacked
Njabulo Ncube, Financial Gazette
August 30, 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201208310074.html

ZANU-PF has re-written the Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) constitution draft, giving President Robert Mugabe unlimited executive powers, in contrast to the document jointly produced with its partners in the Global Political Agreement (GPA), setting the stage for fresh political squabbling ahead of elections.

Although the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have roundly dismissed the ZANU-PF draft as unacceptable and devoid of the views of the people, a scrutiny of the audited COPAC draft sheds some light into the party's thinking.

The ZANU-PF draft shows that the party wants to maintain the status quo in which President Mugabe remains the Head of State, government and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, enjoying imperial executive powers.

The draft categorically states that the executive power of Zimbabwe is vested in the President yet the COPAC draft proposed the sharing of executive powers with Parliament and to a certain extent, the Cabinet.

Under the ZANU-PF draft, the President does not need to consult Parliament, for instance, in the deployment of the army to foreign lands. He or she can dissolve Parliament as and when he or she wants, something opposed by the two MDC formations.

The ZANU-PF draft further indicates that the party has reposed all executive authority in the President by deleting a provision which vested it in the President and Cabinet and reconstituted the imperial Presidency by restoring virtually all the current Presidential powers and even added a new provision that Cabinet can only exercise authority under the direction of the President.

It has also restored the current presidential immunity provisions and the presidential power to declare war without any restraint or constraint. The President has the prerogative to appoint judges.

The ZANU-PF draft throws away the principle of presidential running mates, restoring the obtaining situation where the President has the prerogative of appointing two Vice Presidents from his or her party, seen as a move intended to deal with the Unity Accord President Mugabe forged with the late vice president Joshua Nkomo, leader of former PF-ZAPU.

"In the event that the President dies, or resigns or is incapacitated, one of the Vice Presidents nominated by the party of the former President shall take over immediately in no later than 48 hours, as the President for the remaining tenure of the former President," reads Chapter 5.11 of the ZANU-PF draft, which deals with succession, in the event of death, resignation or incapacity of President.

In the event there is need to remove the President from office, ZANU-PF has proposed that the Senate and the National Assembly, by a joint resolution passed by at least one-half of their total membership, "may resolve that question whether to or not the President should be removed from office" for serious misconduct, failure to obey, uphold or defend the constitution, wilful violation of the constitution or inability to perform the functions of the office because of physical or mental incapacity."

COPAC proposes that Parliament sits as an electoral college to elect a new President in the event that the incumbent is incapacitated.

The principle of devolution of power has been removed from the draft, with the party inserting "decentralisation of services" in its place.

ZANU-PF has removed the establishment of a Peace and Reconciliation Commission, as well as the open, transparent and public interview process for the appointment of judges and replaced it with a presidential appointment system.

The party has introduced mandatory national youth service. It has also done away with the proposal of establishment of a separate Constitutional Court and wants the Supreme Court to double up as a Constitutional Court.

Dual citizenship has been outlawed. The Bill of Rights has been tinkered with in many areas including by deleting all references to democratic society.

Under the ZANU-PF draft, agricultural land has been redefined to include any land used for poultry, raising fears that the party intended forcibly acquiring any building used to rear chickens.

The party has made all State institutions responsible for promoting and defending the values of the liberation struggle and stripped the Speaker of the National Assembly of all administrative powers and vested these in the Clerk of Parliament.

The party has removed provisions limiting the tenure of permanent secretaries to two five-year terms and taken out the provisions requiring a law to regulate operations of the Central Intelligence Organisation and requiring the its offices to be non-partisan, professional and national in character.

ZANU-PF has further inserted provisions which require independent commissions and the judiciary to promote and to be guided by the ideals and values of the liberation struggle.

They have removed the democratic provisions for the appointment of the Anti Corruption Commission and deleted the provisions establishing an independent prosecuting authority while re establishing the present political office of Attorney General.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday told journalists that neither the principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) nor the political parties have any veto power over the Constitution.

The premier noted that Article VI of the GPA was clear that the constitution-making process should be driven by Parliament.

"Some of us have no wish to revise that position and in any case, the principals cannot renegotiate a document agreed by those with our delegated authority. We cannot negotiate in perpetuity," he said.

"This constitution is a product of years of hard work which included sourcing the views of the people and negotiations between the political parties. So we say no to any attempts to dedicate more time in a process where the country has already committed huge resources and time."

The MDC leader said it was time the people made a decision through a referendum, adding that political parties should refrain from pretending to speak on behalf of the people when the people reserved the right to speak for themselves in a referendum.

The PM charged that the ZANU-PF draft was not an amendment to the draft, but a completely new document which was at variance with what the people said.

"For example, the people were clear on the need for a devolved State but our friends have completely removed any mention of devolution in their new document," he said.

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