Zimbabwe's Constituition Process A Circus

Madhuku, whose constitutional reform body boycotted the current constitution making process over sharp differences with President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s approach to the process said the Parliamentary Select Committee had failed to achieve its set timelines and is dependent on the views of politicians.

“We cannot watch this circus. It (process) is depending on the temperatures of politicians. They have failed to follow their timelines so it is now an open process,” said Madhuku, who addressed a joint press conference together with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President Lovemore Matombo and Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) President Clever Bere.

Madhuku said western donors and governments must stop wasting their resources by funding the current process.

“For the first time Zimbabweans are going to protect western taxpayers. They (politicians) are not writing a constitution. They are siphoning money from the West,” he said.

The NCA chairman said his organisation will oppose the constitution making process and any document that comes out of the process.

“We will oppose the constitution that will come out of it. We don’t want to legitimize bad constitution making process. Constitutions must emanate from the people,” said Madhuku.

Madhuku’s comments comes hardly a day after a grouping of three influential civic society organisations said the current political environment is not conducive to allow the constitution making process to produce a people driven and democratic constitution.

The organisations namely the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) launched the ZPP/ZESN/ZLHR Independent Constitution Monitoring Project (ZZZICOMP), an independent body to monitor the constitution making process said the government has failed to create a conducive operating environment and conditions which will make it possible for people to participate freely in the constitution making process.

The monitoring body cited the coalition government’s failure to repeal obnoxious legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) before the commencement of the constitution making process, ongoing political violence and the continued harassment of human rights defenders.