SW Radio Africa is reliably informed that so serious are the divisions that the matter has now been referred to the party’s Politburo meeting to be held in Harare on Wednesday.
The drafting of a new constitution has put the former ruling party on the ropes after all parties agreed in June to use both the qualitative and quantitative to draft a new constitution.
This new system was put to the test using results from the Chivi district, but what emerged from the ‘trial run’ meant that MDC-T views, using the qualitative and quantitative method, dominated.
After this sampling of the results there was panic from one ZANU PF faction led by Emmerson Mnangagwa who feared the MDC-T would determine the content of the new charter.
The Chivi trial run, a stronghold of ZANU PF after it won all three parliamentary seats, saw Mnangagwa ordering Paul Mangwana, the ZANU PF COPAC co-chairman, to pull out of the program in order for the party to re-strategize.
The other faction led by retired General Solomon Mujuru reportedly felt Mnangagwa was pursuing his own agenda to tailor make a constitution that suits his faction. So there is much disagreement within ZANU PF.
What emerged was that people in Chivi had overwhelmingly supported the devolution of power; having a President with limited powers; the need for free and fair elections; basic human rights including social, economic and political rights. These were all in variance with what ZANU PF was advocating.
MDC-T spokesman and COPAC co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora told us his counterpart, Paul Mangwana, was still consulting ZANU PF over the issue.
‘I think after their Politburo meeting tomorrow we may have a meeting of COPAC to look at the way forward but we will not backtrack on the decision that was signed by all parties in June,’ Mwonzora said.
Post published in: Zimbabwe News