Outreach Programme: Revised Timetable Tuesday 5th January: Training workshop for Parliamentarians. After this Parliamentarians will disperse to their constituencies to prepare their constituents for the consultative process, returning to Harare by 10th January for the next training workshop.
Sunday 10th January: Registration for training workshop for all outreach personnel.
Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th January: Training workshop for all outreach personnel.
Wednesday 13th January: Deployment of outreach teams to provinces. Outreach teams will meet officials and representatives of civic society at provincial level to explain their programme before starting the consultative process. [This is still tentative subject to change.]
Thursday 14th January: Consultation with the people at ward level will start. [This is still tentative subject to change.]
Outreach Teams
The outreach teams are composed of the 425 thematic committee members plus 135 extra members, most of whom will be Parliamentarians. The lists of people on thematic committees and outreach teams are not yet available from the new Independent Secretariat. We will make these available as soon as we have them. Various lists have been prepared and some published in the press, but there were many errors [one list had 644 persons instead of 560]. The new Independent Secretariat was instructed by the new Steering Committee, who met last Thursday, to rectify the lists. It is hoped that they will be released soon, as those involved from civil society obviously have to make arrangements for long absences from their regular work.
Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Advocacy Programme
This week and next, Minister Eric Matinenga will continue his countrywide series of “advocacy meetings” at provincial level. The Minister’s aim is to reassure the public that the inclusive government remains committed to the making of a new constitution, and to prepare the ground for the Parliamentary Select Committee’s outreach programme, under which consultations with the people are due to start shortly. The Minister has already addressed meetings in six of the countrys ten provinces. The schedule for the Minister’s meetings in the four remaining provinces Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, Harare and Mashonaland East is as follows:
Chinhoyi: Wednesday 6th January at Orange Grove Motel Hall
Bindura: Friday 8th January at Tendai Hall, Chipadze
Harare: Saturday 9th January at Girls High School Hall
Marondera: Tuesday 12th January in at Mbuya Nehanda Hall
All meetings will run from 10 am to 12.30 pm. The Minister will use the meetings to explain what is happening about the new Constitution:
the need for a new people-driven constitution in accordance with the GPA
progress made to date
the challenges facing the process
the time-frame laid out in the GPA
the need for all Zimbabweans to participate in the process.
Senior provincial officials, community leaders and area NGOs will receive invitations to the meetings, but the meetings are open to the general public and all interested persons will be welcome.
An hour will be set aside at each meeting for the Minister to answer questions from the floor.
Post published in: Politics