Following the decision of the MDC-T to disengage from the inclusive government, it is necessary to look at the implications on the constitution making process. The work of Parliament continues as normal as does the work of individual Ministers carrying out their Ministerial functions outside Cabinet and the Council of Ministers. This means the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs is continuing his work on the Constitution.
What is the timeframe now?
The Prime Minister stated on October 20 that the constitutional timetable would remain the same. In fact, there is no chance of sticking to the GPA timetable [under the Article 6 timeframe the outreach should finish by 13 November]. Nor is there any possibility that the new Management Committees revised timetable can be kept it had resolved that the outreach exercise should start not later than 1st November. It is now hoped that training of the outreach teams will start on Monday 9th November, but that depends upon funds becoming available in time.
The co-chairs of the Parliamentary Select Committee have said recently that 11 weeks will be needed to complete the outreach exercise so, making allowance for the teams to break briefly at Christmas and New Year, it seems unlikely that the exercise can be completed before late January at the earliest.
The next GPA deadline is February 13 this is when the drafters should have finished a draft constitution ready to be tabled at the Second All Stakeholders Conference to be held by that date. But after the public consultation the data that is brought in will have to be sorted into thematic committee reports to be passed to the drafters. The GPA allowed three months for this stage. Minister Matinenga has said previously that this stage could be compressed, but it is highly unlikely that it could be satisfactorily finished in two to three weeks.
Outreach programme timetable
This work plan was drawn up by the by the Select Committee, as the Steering Committee has not been formed. It provides for an 11 week programme:
Week 1: Training of thematic committees and outreach teams
Week 2: Deployment of the teams
Weeks 3 to 11: Collection of the publics views by the outreach teams throughout the countrys 1958 wards. The programme allocates 65 working days for this stage.
Post published in: Politics