MISA-Zimbabwe and Quill Club brought Honourable, Advocate Matinenga and Dr. Madhuku to a public discussion

MISA-Zimbabwe and Quill Club brought Honourable, Advocate Matinenga and Dr. Madhuku to a public discussion for the first time since the formation of the inclusive government.
In an electric environment which saw the Harare Quill Club convening the highest attendance to a public debate ever, the Press Club on 2 June 2009 brought together two feuding distinguished guests to map the way forward on the constitutional making process.

It was the first time that Honourable Minister for Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Advocate Eric Matinenga and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairperson Dr. Lovemore Madhuku have engaged in the public forum. The two panelists led the discussion under the topic: Contestations on the constitutional making process mapping the way forward.

In a heated debate, the NCA chairperson Dr. Lovemore Madhuku outlined that his organisations position has remained consistent in that they want a process that is not controlled by the government. The governments role according to Dr. Madhuku is supposed to start and end at initiating the process and it must detach itself afterwards to give the Constitutional Commission some independency to execute its duties in canvassing the people of Zimbabwes opinions.

He insisted that the current process is shrouded in secrecy as evidenced by the fact that the people of Zimbabwe do not have a clue as to when the process will start, when it will end, who will be at the stakeholders conference, let alone when it is convened, among others.

Madhuku made a eulogy, that for the people of Zimbabwe to appreciate the NCAs position they should compare how they aspire the Electoral Commission to be constituted as the reflection of what the independent Constitutional Commission has to be modeled like.

He argued that an average Zimbabwean will definitely have a problem with the present day Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) because it is not independent from the executive which compromises its functions.

In light of such, Madhuku maintained that the current process will result in the Constitutional Commission suffering the same fate as ZEC given the fact that the three principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) will retain the control of how the commission executes its duties.

In response to the presentation by Dr. Madhuku, Advocate Matinenga outlined that there is no single model towards the attainment of a people driven constitution. He insisted that all the dissenting voices on the process should appreciate that Article 6 in the GPA, which outlines how the government will lead the constitutional making process was reached under difficult circumstances but the Ministry will continue with the consultations to reach a common fit with all the stakeholders.

The Minister hinted out that the government is in a process of translating the current constitutional literature in the country, namely the current constitution Amendment 19, the NCA draft constitution and the draft constitution which was rejected at the referendum into the countrys three main languages, as a process of reaching out to the people.

The Advocate called upon the stakeholders to concentrate on the positives and work with the government in reaching out to the people.

However journalists quizzed the minister on whether or not the government was going to use the Kariba Draft constitution in relation to the enunciation by President Robert Mugabe that the document will be the starting point. The Minister argued that the statements by President Mugabe were an expression of personal views.