The draft constitution seeks to explicitly cancel the right of some Zimbabweans to appeal to a supreme legal body to protect their fundamental rights, “no person may apply to a court for the determination of any question relating to compensation.”
It also aims to deny any official compensation for land taken from the rightful owner, stating: “no compensation is payable in respect of its acquisition.”
Section 4.29(3)c says discrimination is now legal: “the acquisition may not be challenged on the grounds it was discriminatory.” By endorsing discrimination like the apartheid regime of South Africa before it, the MDC appears to have cast aside its original principles and joined the Zanu PF revolution of inequality. Indeed the new constitution of Zimbabwe goes further than both of the Apartheid constitutions in South Africa by explicitly endorsing discrimination and taking away the right to appeal against it. Section 4.29 also goes against the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which undertakes to “eliminate… all forms of discrimination,” and against the Constitutive Act of the African Union. Freeth asks: “Is this really what the people said?” and quotes international property rights expert Peter Schaefer who says : “Government’s main role is to protect the citizens’ personal security, personal property and personal choices. They are not simply interrelated, they are inter-connected and form the foundation for everything else. Compromise is great, but the MDC seems intent on ceding fundamental principles, not just tactical matters. They will regret it.”