The two day conference that brought to the capital over a thousand delegates, passed off without incident though near fist fights were reported at some of the thematic committees that met on Monday.
The three COPAC co-chairmen addressed a media conference Tuesday afternoon where they declared that the conference had ended on a high note.
Paul Mangwana (ZANU PF) Douglas Mwonzora (MDC-T) and Edward Mkhosi (MDC) told journalists COPAC will need a week to review the recommendations from the 18 thematic committees.
Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa said after the review process COPAC will take the draft to Parliament before it is put to a referendum, perhaps before the end of this year.
‘They said it would take a week to review all the recommendations and make changes if issues highlighted are unconstitutional.
‘The COPAC co-chairmen believe some of the delegates dwelt on issues that were not relevant like grammar and spelling mistakes,’ Muchemwa said.
While it took less than three hours for most of the thematic committees to go through their respective chapters, there were heated arguments from those that were dealing with citizenship, security services, judiciary and the executive. SW Radio Africa is reliably informed ZANU PF refused to sign on the section to do with devolution of power. MDC-T and MDC-N signed the document.
‘Where the delegates had issues or disagreements they were noted down but generally the delegates were asked to make recommendations and not alter the draft.
Muchemwa went on to say that the people who will have the final say will be the Principals. This is because during the opening of the conference Mugabe made it absolutely clear that this would be the case.
The Youth Forum in Zimbabwe wrote: “The former Chief Justice of South Africa, Justice Ismail Mohammed, once observed that “the constitution of a nation is not simply a statute which mechanically defines the structures of Government and the relations between the government and the governed, it is a ‘mirror of the national soul’, the identification of the ideals and aspirations of the values binding its people and disciplining its Government”.
The sad fact is that most Zimbabweans have no idea what is in this constitution or what it could mean for them. SW Radio Africa
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