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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
Zanu PF's utterances on the constitutional outcome reckless
and irresponsible
Movement
for Democratic Change
October 27,
2010
Work on the
Constitution-making process, in line with the Article Vl of the
Global Political
Agreement, has yet to be concluded. The MDC respects the fundamental
right and duty of all Zimbabweans to make a Constitution by themselves
and for themselves in an inclusive and democratic way.
While the violence
and the military intervention in the COPAC hearings are unfortunate
and regrettable, the MDC maintains that without a people-driven
Constitution Zimbabwe shall remain in a dark hole. The absence of
a people-owned and people-driven national Constitution has been
a source of serious political instability and needs to handled with
extreme care and maturity by all political parties.
For that reason,
any hasty positions on what the people should do with a Constitution
that is work in progress and has yet to be drafted, debated and
widely circulated for national consideration smacks of fresh, forlorn
attempts to exert undue influence on the outcome. As such, weekend
remarks by Joice Mujuru that the people must endorse a Constitution
which currently does not exist reflect unbridled carelessness and
interference in a process that is still unfolding.
The MDC is closely
following this process, in particular the current efforts to effect
remedies on challenges faced by the overall COPAC outreach programme
which should culminate in a report from the COPAC management committee
and the resultant due processes as defined by Amendment 19 of the
Constitution. What the MDC has deplored so far were Zanu PF's
deliberate games to subvert the public hearings by mudding the environment
in a way that threatened Zimbabwe's democratic values, cultural
principles and the protection of the equality of all citizens.
The MDC noted
the violence and the deaths that occurred in Harare and other parts
of the country during this critical process. Undoubtedly, The MDC
leadership expressed the party concern at the chaos - regrettable
as it was - that made it impossible for the people who assembled
at 1 000 COPAC meetings to exercise their normal habits of citizenship.
The MDC eagerly awaits the completion of the process, the drafting
of the Constitution and the accompanying report of the Management
Committee before pronouncing its position on the substance and content
of the draft. The party, therefore, views as irresponsible and reckless
any political statements purporting to direct the people on how
they should ultimately behave long before the nation has had a glimpse
of the COPAC outcome, or reviewed and debated the contents of the
draft and the report.
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