MDC-T co-chair, Douglas Mwonzora, insisted the Committee was going ahead with preparations for the Second All-Stakeholders Conference despite the deadlock amongst the negotiating parties.
“Our donors have already pledged to fund it,” he said. But co-chairs Edward Mkhosi and Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana of MDC-N and Zanu (PF) respectively, said everything had been frozen.
Mangwana said that because of the impasse, COPAC did not know which draft to translate into the vernacular languages understood by all Zimbabweans.
“I am in Bulawayo right now but what I know is that we are stalling because of the deadlock over the final draft. The three of us should be pulling together but how can we do that when one of us is pulling backwards?” said Mkhosi.
Gift Marunda, the COPAC National Coordinator, said: “The matter is now before the principals. We will wait until the issue is finalized,” he said He said they had budgeted $1.5 million to successfully host the conference, which was expected to be attended by more than 2000 delegates.
Zanu (PF) has come up with 266 changes to the draft, almost re-writing the whole document, and now wants their partners to renegotiate.
Post published in: News