The Daily Agenda-Constitutional Update

The meeting was very volatile as political parties battled to out-do each other on the contentious issues like whether or not National Youth Service should be compulsory, the status of war veterans, traditional leaders and issues of empowerment.

Sizinda Hall- Ward 21

Attendance was very good, with almost 400 people. Before the meeting started Angeline Masuku, Governor for Matabeleland South was seen in her Mercedes Benz caucusing with a group of Zanu Pf youths, who later on turned to be a nuisance in the hall. However, the Sizinda community did not mince their words in notifying the team members that the youths should be thrown out. The community members unanimously agreed to dual citizen and they said they prefer devolution of power as a system of governance.

Nketa 8 Hall-Ward 24

This meeting took long to kick off as the Copac leadership was nowhere in sight and people waited for a long time and some gave up and left the venue. Members of the outreach team eventually arrived at 10:48 hrs. There was a lot of tension at the venue as there was a heavy presence of ZANU PF aligned war veterans at the venue. A clearly marked vehicle from the ZANU PF Commissariat Department was parked at the venue in blatant violation of Copac regulations.

Queen Elizabeth Primary School-Ward 23

The meeting started at 11:02 hrs and the attendance was mild, around 70 people at the time of the start of the meeting. Participants at the meeting complained about the voice projection of the facilitator and there were hailers at the meeting. The meeting was held generally smoothly with little incident. Participants spoke about the need for the new constitution to guarantee socio-economic rights like education, health, housing and sanitation in the Founding Principles talking point.

Mgoqo Primary School-Ward 20

There were about 130 people in the meeting. It was held without much incidence. People in this meeting spoke passionately about the need for land owners to have title deeds, the importance of a land audit and they also condemned multiple ownership of farms. On empowerment, women said that no collateral security should be demanded from women when they want to access loans from financial institutions.

Magwegwe Hall-Ward 18

There were 320 people at this meeting and it was probably one of the best attended yesterday. The meeting appeared to have generated a lot of interest as there were a lot of prominent politicians milling around the venue. It appeared that both ZANU PF and MDC-T had mobilised their youth structures effectively as there was heavy debate around contentious issues like dual citizenship, national service and war veterans.

Mahlathini Primary School-Ward 28

There were 256 people in this meeting. It started very late at 12:10 hrs and dragged for the better part of the day and ended at 16:56 hrs. There were 174 male, 56 women and 24 youths. There was no sight of any uniformed police officers at the venue. The major issues raised at the meeting were calls for Devolution of Power, Title Deeds and Dual Citizenship. A general observation was that there were a lot of people at this meeting who had attended Ward 9 meeting as well.

Luveve Beit Hall-Ward 15

The meeting started almost promptly at 10:20 am. There were roughly 180 people at this meeting. People in this ward wanted an acknowledgement of the Gukurahundi genocide mentioned in the Preamble. The majority of participants supported Dual Citizenship and the Death Penalty. People also called for the repulsion of repressive media laws like AIPPA and POSA. There were no uniformed police officers at this meeting either.

Ward 14- Lobengula Hall had 150 people on Saturday, although COPAC teams arrived two and a half hours later, residents were patient. Issues raised included 2 five year terms, voted, regional preferred employment, no senate in preference of parliament, chief justice to be ruling during elections, Employment for youths, devolution of power as a system of government.

Ward 4- Venues were in Lockview, Tennyson Primary School, Hillside, with a total of 230 people altogether. Issues raised included devolution of power, war vets to be non-partisan, ban of lobola which oppresses women, independent commissions to look into media, women, heroes, youth and the general public.

Ward 3- Elangeni Training Centre (Queens Park) Residents want natural resources to be owned by the state and benefit people from particular areas instead of individuals. The house was equally divided over unitary and devolution as systems of government.

Ward 29-Meetings were held in Mthimkhulu and Mazwi Primary School in Magwegwe. Issues raised included dual citizenship, independent media commission, officialisation of all indigenous languages, attorney general not to be prosecutor

Ward 2- the meeting, with about 120 people, was held in Hugh Beadle Primary School in Saustown. Issues raised were devolution of power, executive president with all powers, women able to get birth certificates without fathers, some felt that there be a federal states in Zimbabwe.

Ward 26 237 people attended the meeting in Senzangakhona in Mganwini. They raised issues such as Devolution of power, retaining of death penalty, consultative national budget and all languages to be respected.