The pressure group, which
in 2000 successfully campaigned against a government-driven
constitution, has demanded a new and democratic constitution written
through a people-driven process – not a parliamentary driven process.
The
NCA threatened to confront Zimbabwe's new transitional government over
its plans to foist on the people a Constitution written by six Zanu
(PF) and MDC politicians in a houseboat on Lake Kariba last year.
The
NCA, a broad coalition of churches, students, political parties and
civic groups said it would roll out street protests if the so-called
Kariba draft is used as a working draft during the Constitution making
process.
But Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric
Matinenga said last Thursday that Article 6.1 of the GPA states that
the committee may set up sub-committees which will include
representatives of civil society as well as members of Parliament.
Each sub-committee will be chaired by a Member of Parliament, something which has also created friction with the NCA.
The
select committee is mandated to hold public hearings and engage in
consultations it considers necessary for the Constitution-making
process.
But the NCA says it is opposed to the dominance of politicians in the process.
"It
(the agreement) argues that the process should be driven by ordinary
Zimbabweans led by civic society organisations. It claims that the
people have the right to author their own Constitution, yet prescribes
for them a process where politicians, through Parliament, have the
final say as to the content of the Constitution, NCA chairman Dr
Lovemore Madhuku, who is also a constitutional law expert, said.
Madhuku
said in the agreement, the parties boast about having already authored
a Constitution which they adopted in Kariba on September 30, 2007.
The
draft Constitution, written by Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche of
Zanu (PF); Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma of the mainstream MDC; and
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Prof Welshman Ncube, is referred to
in the draft as the Kariba Draft'.
It is this Kariba Draft' which
Zanu (PF) and the two formations of the MDC seek to sneak through as a
new' Constitution for Zimbabwe, Madhuku said.
This is
unacceptable. The NCA totally rejects it. The NCA therefore calls upon
the people of Zimbabwe to unite and continue to push for a genuine
democratic, people-driven Constitution led by an All Stakeholders
Constitutional Commission.
As NCA, we do not believe or accept that
Zanu (PF) and MDC, as political parties or as government have the right
to unilaterally determine the process by which or through which a new
constitution for Zimbabwe is to be written.
Madhuku said: "We
believe that a Constitution can only be as good as the process through
which it is created and thus the process for creating the Constitution
is as important as the Constitution to which it gives birth.
Furthermore, the process itself must be legitimate, transparent and
accepted by all the stakeholders. This is not the case with the current
Constitution making process.
Madhuku said Zanu (PF) and the two
MDCs were using "an elitist Constitution-making process" in which the
three political parties, by and large, were keen on imposing a
Constitution on the people of Zimbabwe.
This is unacceptable as the
constitution must be written for the people and by the people, Madhuku
said. By spearheading the Constitution-making process through
Parliament, Zanu (PF) and MDC are attempting to usurp the power of the
people. The Zanu (PF)-MDC process essentially leaves out of the
Constitution-making process important stakeholders that currently do
not have representation in Parliament.
Gift Phiri
Post published in: Politics