By Madock Chivasa
As we approach the referendum its now clear
that as Zimbabweans we need to put all our efforts together to block the
politicians constitution. The COPAC constitution must be rejected by
Zimbabweans for 3 critical reasons.
The first reason is that the proposed
constitution is not well circulated to all interested citizens. COPAC produced
90 000 copies for a population of close to 13 million. This is cognizant of the
fact that COPAC has spend more than 50million on this exercise yet the draft is
not even adequate both in content and availability, hence the question what does this grouping of parliamentarians
and their Western donor friends desire for Zimbabwe ? It’s therefore not
logical for someone to vote yes to a draft that they have not crafted nor seen.
Why will any progressive Zimbabwean give a nod to a document as important as a
constitution when they have never had a glimpse of its draft copy? It is
therefore clear that failure to come across a copy of this constitution is
enough reason to reject it.
In the same vain President Mugabe has given the
people of Zimbabwe just a month to access such a rare and difficulty to find
document and give a verdict vote in the referendum. A question which begs for
an immediate and convincing answer is why are we so much in a hurry to have the
referendum to the so alarming extend that even 9 days before referendum the
majority of Zimbabweans are still looking in vain for the proposed draft
constitution? COPAC took 4 years to write a constitution lavishing in hotels
squandering western tax payer’s funds and when it comes to giving people enough
space and time to look at the contents of this important document the president
has given just a month. It is clear therefore that the time span accorded is
not and can never be enough for the ordinary Zimbabweans to read in most cases
sharing a document 172 pages long. This is obviously a political gimmick
designed to ensure that the majority of the population does not get hold of it
and at most does not understand. In a sense this is to ensure that few people
get to know how bad this document is and a month is a very short period to
ensure that people are in the dark. So the short notice given for the
referendum and the shortage of copies is enough reason to vote no to this
constitution that is being imposed on us by the ruling elite.
Secondly, the process that nurtured the
proposed constitution is totally unacceptable to say the least. We can not have
3 political parties in government writing the constitution on behalf of all
Zimbabweans. It is not true that parliamentarians are the only and best
representatives of the people. My limited understanding of the present
parliamentarians is that majority of them were last seen in their
constituencies when they wanted to be voted into power. Majority of them have
not contributed anything in parliament yet we are already talking of another
elections. How can someone who has not contributed anything in parliament claim
to represent their constituencies? This is a clear case of utter hypocrisy. It
is therefore an act of deception when members of parliament suddenly claim to
represent people’s views on writing of the constitution yet for the last four
years the same people were wondering whether they have any representative in
parliament or not.
It’s also true that we have more than 3
political parties either than the two MDCs and Zanu pf. So if there is any
Zimbabwean who is not a member of these three political parties why bothering endorsing a document
with a tag of three political parties. If you are not a member of any political
party its also clear that your views are not captured in the COPAC draft as it
is clear that the outreach meetings contacted were more of political rallies
than sober platforms to engage any meaningful discussion. No wonder why a
meeting of 400 people will have only less than 10 people contributing and that
rally mentality is clearly revealed.
This process has failed to recognize the
importance of other communities such as the disabled, students, church,
business, women, war veterans, youth, and farmers’ e.tc. There is no way that
politicians can claim that they are the only representative who have a
following or influence on people. Although I don’t go to church I know that
someone like Bishop Tudor Bismark of New Life ministries, Prophet Makandiwa of
the UFI, Hubert Engel of Spirit Embassy, Ezekiel Guti of Zaoga and others can
contact church services with unimaginable crowds in terms of numbers. So even
all MPS in Harare combined will not have any following or respect from
Zimbabweans more than the examples of church leaders that I have mentioned.
When we go to business we also have leaders like Strive Masiyiwa who have shown
a strong commitment to develop this country. So it was very wrong for
parliamentarians to sideline other players in writing the constitution. It’s
imperative therefore that this process is an elite deal of the current
politicians and its surprising that a few Zimbabweans will want that legacy of
accepting a draft coming from such a flawed process. We should reject this
process on the referendum day by voting no to the COPAC constitution.
The last and third reason why Zimbabweans must
unite to reject the COPAC draft is the contents of the draft itself. The
constitution leaves all the power to the president who is allowed to do what
he/she wants. The powers of the president includes that of being head of state,
head of government and commander in chief of the defence forces (Section
89).The powers of the president as the head of state are unlimited.(Section
110(1)).The president appoints all ministers and deputy ministers on his/her
own without the approval of parliament.(Section 104).The president has
unlimited immunity while in office and is allowed to plead “good faith” after
leaving office.(Section 98).There is no limit on the number of Ministers and
deputy ministers, its up to the president to appoint as many as he/she want
without the approval from anyone. (Section 104).The president appoints all
ambassadors without consulting anybody.(Section 204).A person who has left
office as President will continue to receive a monthly salary(called a pension
equal to the salary of the sitting President. This is for the rest of that
president’s life. (Section 102(3)).
Its also still startling that on the issue of
the powers of the president he/she can still alone appoint the attorney general
(Section 114) and may fire him/her at any time (Section 115).The president has
the final say over the appointment of all judges (Section 180) and although
there is a provision for interviews, the president has power to refuse to
appoint any of those recommended and order the judicial service commission to
start afresh. The COPAC president has the final say over the appointment of all
Commisions including the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The president has a
final say over appointment of all permanent secretaries (Section 205).The
proposed constitution also allows the president to have a final say over the
appointment of the prosecutor general (Section 259).In this era COPAC is also
giving the powers to the president to approve salaries, allowances and benefits
of all civil servants from the lowest to the highest worker (Section
203(4)),this is irregardless of the fact that the president will already have
appointed minister for the public service and the civil service commission. In
the proposed constitution the president has power to dissolve parliament if it
passes a vote of no confidence in his/her government (Section 109 (4)). All
these powers in one person honestly how can we develop as Zimbabwe?
Besides the sections that create a powerful
president there are also a number of unacceptable provisions in the new
constitution. There are 2 vice presidents (Section 92).We no longer need two
vice presidents in a new constitution. The size of parliament has been
increased to a total of 350 MPs (270 national assembly and 80 senate).So
COPAC’s outreach gathered suggestions that Zimbabweans want a bigger parliament
than the present; honestly this is a misrepresentation of the plight of the
ordinary person. Zimbabwe does not have any resources for a huge parliament
like that. In any case we have already realized that majority of them hardly
say anything in parliament. There is no term limits for members of parliament
in the COPAC sham of a constitution.
For the next 10 years, if the President resigns
or dies, there are no by elections for the President. The country is given a
President by the political party of the former president, yet people elect a
person not a political party as President (Paragraph 14, schedule 6).This means
that if there are internal fights in the political party concerned, the country
will have to go without a president until the political party sorts itself out.
This is making political parties more important than the country. The death
penalty does not apply to all female murderers and male murderers above 70
years. This is undesirable. If the death penalty is retained, it must not be
applied in this discriminatory way. (Section 48).Most rights in the bill of
rights are listed for decoration as there is no mechanism for their
realization.
There is no devolution of power in the proposed
new constitution. There are very weak provincial councils composed of the same
people who are in parliament. The provincial councils do not govern anything in
the province (Chapter 14).There is still no right to vote for the people in the
diaspora and we ask why denying other citizen the same right you enjoy. There
are a lot of provisions that are not acceptable in the COPAC draft and I can
keep on writing.
My belief is that as the people of Zimbabwe we
have a good opportunity during the referendum time to reject this constitution
by voting no to it. Let’s reject this constitution and we can sit down as
Zimbabweans to write a good constitution after the elections. All political
players (including other political parties who are not in government and civic
society) must agree on the required electoral reforms to conduct a peaceful and
acceptable poll. On this issue of constitution the politicians have failed. As
the politicians claim that they will urge their supporters to vote yes to this
flawed constitution they seem not to be worried by the existence of other
Zimbabweans besides their few supporters. This is the time when Zimbabweans
must unite to reject a bad constitution coming from the politicians who have
been running Zimbabwe like a tuck-shop in a compound.
Zimbabwe is not for the two MDCs and Zanu –pf. Zimbabwe is
for all of us, even those who are not concerned about who rule them but who
just want to be ruled properly. Let’s reject this COPAC constitution. We should
write a constitution even for the generations to come not for us only. Come
referendum I urge you to go and vote no to this bad constitution. The minority
as represented by the two MDC s, Zanu pf and their supporters can not impose a
bad constitution to the majority of Zimbabweans who are not members of their
political parties. Let’s vote no. Voting no is a rejection of a bad
constitution being proposed and a clear demand that as Zimbabweans we want a
genuine people driven constitution.
Madock Chivasa is the national spokesperson for National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and is writing in his personal capacity as a
Zimbabwean. He can be contacted through email -mchivasa@gmail.com.
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