There is no way that realistic democrats can sit together with hard core dictators and successfully forge a democratic constitution.
Desperate to ensure that the next elections will be conducted under the current Lancaster House Constitution, Zanu (PF) bussed hundreds of rural folk into Harare to disrupt Copac outreach meetings last week-end. The situation at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare was so violent that even Paul Mangwana, the Zanu (PF) co-chairman of Copac had to be escorted away from the venue in fear of his life.
Mangwana was obviously aware that his political party was organising the disruption of selected Copac meetings, but he was powerless to protect himself from the actions of the hoodlums. The whole nation is now aware that it is only Zanu (PF) that is resorting to violence in a futile attempt to foist the ridiculous Kariba draft onto the nation as it foundation law. Senior members of that fading political party can deny this allegation all they want, but the facts speak for themselves.
Civil society reports on the outreach meetings held throughout the country indicate that Zanu (PF) is responsible for more than 90% of all the violent acts and disruptions of the Copac meetings.
As usual, the police on duty at Mai Musodzi Hall would not lift a finger to stop the violence or to bring the perpetrators of the violence to book. They obviously had been duly instructed by their Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, not to arrest these culprits since they are supporters of his political party. History will, one day, judge people like Chihuri and his ilk very harshly. Fortunately, numerous outreach meetings were successfully conducted in both Bulawayo and Harare, to the extent that the peoples views were expressed and recorded. Copac has committed itself to re-visit the venues that had their meetings disrupted in order to accord the innocent citizens an opportunity to air their views.
The Zanu (PF) hoodlums need to be told that their disruptive actions will never succeed in thwarting the will of the people of this country. It must be embarrassing to some of the senior people in the outgoing ruling party for their political party to be associated with the kind of actions that the nation witnessed at Mai Musodzi Hall.
Zimbabweans have been aware that the political environment has not yet become conducive for the proper conduct of constitutional outreach meetings. People and organisations that have been opposed to the Copac process are now gloating and rightly saying, We told you so. But the truth of the matter is that Copac successfully held outreach meetings in something like three-quarters of this country, and the peoples views were successfully gathered and recorded. It is from these views that a new, democratic and people-driven constitution will be drafted. This nation needs to cross that bridge in order to proceed to a referendum and new elections in 2011. The few people that are currently arguing for the postponement of elections until 2015 must realise that they will simply be giving Zanu (PF) and the merchants of violence ample time to re-group, organise and unleash worse violence when the elections are held in that year.
It is obvious that the final outcome of the Copac process is going to be a compromise constitution. There is no way that realistic democrats can sit together with hard core dictators and successfully forge a democratic constitution. What we as a nation must hope for is that the forthcoming elections will result in the emergence of a government of the peoples choice. It is that government that will accord the nation an opportunity to re-write the constitution and make it truly democratic. For the time being, and as a means to facilitate effective regime change, we need to stay the course and write that constitution. Long live Zimbabwe.
Post published in: Opinions