Zimbabweans Prefer The NCA Led Constitutional Process

“Signaficantly, among those who have heard about the constitution, a plurality (42%) prefer the NCA ‘people-led’ approach to constitution making compared to 28% who prefer the COPAC led one, ” said the report.

COPAC is the Parliamentary led constitution process in line with the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that brought about the country’s unity government.

“Close  to  60% condemned the use  of the Kariba  draft as  a  reference document  in drawing up a new  constitution for Zimbabwe, “reads part of the  report. The Kariba draft is a product of Zanu PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations. The three parties agreed to the draft as part of the GPA.

Zanu PF has been campaigning for the country to adopt the Kariba Draft Constitution as it is.

NCA lchairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku argues that the parliament led constitution should not be supported because it is not people driven. The organization has since launched a “Take Charge campaign. It is being supported by Student Union (ZINASU), and Zimbabwe Union of Trade Union, (ZCTU). The NCA has dismissed the current constitutional process as a waste of time and resources saying people were going to reject the process. In 2000 the NCA successfully campaigned for people to reject a referendum for a draft constitution that the government had spearheaded.

Commenting on the report Zanu PF Director of Information Steven Chidawanyika said: “COPAC should not be compared with NCA because it is driving the process.COPAC was mandated by the law to do the constitution making process and NCA was not and will never be.”

An official of the Mass Public Opinion Institute Anyway Ndapwadza said: “We could not ignore NCA because of the role it has played in conscitising Zimbabwean people on constitution matters over the years.”