The move to co-chair the committee was arrived at by parliament's
Standing Rules and Orders Committee on Wednesday after Zanu (PF) and
the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations had on Monday
disagreed on who would head the committee.
Standing Rules and Orders Committee chairperson and also House of
Assembly Speaker Lovemore Moyo confirmed the co-charing of the
constitutional committee.
We have resolved the differences on the chairmanship of the select
committee, he said last Friday. The committee would be co-chaired by
the parties.
Moyo refused to give finer details of the arrangement, but
parliamentary sources said the decision to co-chair the constitutional
committee was a compromise between the Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC and Zanu (PF).
The sources said the MDC-T on Monday had insisted that the
constitutional committee be chaired by someone from the civic society
in order to properly manage the politics around the constitutional
issue and ensure a people driven process.
Zanu (PF), the sources said, was opposed to such an arrangement. Zanu
(PF) argued that allowing civic society to preside over the select
committee and its sub-committees will require amendments to the GPA,
one of the sources said.
A meeting of the Standing Rules and Orders Committee was then held on
Wednesday and agreed to co-chair the committee as a compromise, the
source said.
The MDC-T, the sources said has already picked Nyanga North legislator
Douglas Mwonzora to represent it as chairman alongside of the
constitutional committee alongside lawmakers from Zanu (PF) and the
other MDC lead by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
Zanu (PF) and MDC-M were by yesterday yet to appoint their representatives.
The drafting of new constitution is expected to lead to free and fair
elections once the supreme law is signed into law by the president.
According to Article 6 of the GPA, a parliamentary select committee
will be composed of legislators and representatives of civil society,
but the committee will have a final say in the drafting of the proposed
constitution.
The agreement states that the select committee should be in place two
months after the formation of the inclusive government and should
convene an all-stakeholders conference within three months after its
appointment. The inclusive government was formed on February 13.
The public consultation process, the pact reads, should be completed no
later than four months after the stakeholders' conference and
referendum shall be held to allow Zimbabweans to have final say on the
draft constitution.
In the event that the draft is approved in a referendum, it shall be
gazetted within a month of the date of the plebiscite and would be
introduced in parliament not later than a month after the expiration of
a period of 30 days from the date of gazetting.
Zimbabwe is currently governed under the 1979 constitution agreed at
the Lancaster House talks in London . The constitution has been amended
19 times since the country's Independence in 1980.
An attempt to introduce a new constitution between 1999 and 2000 failed
after the NCA and other civil society organisations, backed by a
nascent MDC, successfully campaigned against a government-sponsored
draft.
NCA chair Lovemore Madhuku has promised to oppose an new draft penned
by political parties without direct input from the public.
People must write their own constitution directly, not through
politicians, parliamentarians or government. The surest way to make
sure that a constitution is respected is if it is written by the people
themselves and carries their word, Madhuku said after the signing of
the GPA on September 15 2008.