As Zimbabwe prepares to hold a referendum for the new charter next month, Bongani Masuku, who is Cosatu’s International Relations Secretary, said citizens and political parties should have put more effort into clearing ongoing wrangles about who owns what in the country’s economy.
“From where I stand, all the arguments on Zimbabwe’s new constitution have been based on contestations on political power, especially on the executive, than on the economy and that leaves some future danger,” Masuku recently told The Zimbabwean.
“We have had the same problem in South Africa. For nearly two decades the country has been independent politically, yet the economic war has still not been won. The same has happened in Zimbabwe, where very little has been said on the sharing of the country’s resources.”
There is heated debate and criticism of Zanu (PF)’s land reform programme.
Masuku said the term “Zimbabweans” and “indigenous” should have been clearly explained in the new constitution, so that the national charter left people in the clear as to who should get what from the national resources.
While admitting the criticism, Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga, the Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, who is also one of the negotiators in the national unity government, said the three parties had tried to solve that deficiency by pushing for the indigenisation of regional resources.
“We tried to address that by the devolution of power, which would see the country’s provinces utilize resources,” she said.
Post published in: News