NCA insists constitution-making process still flawed
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 24th September, 2009
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ZIMBABWE – HARARE – The NCA has rejected as window-dressing, hypocritical and inadequate claims by Constitutional minister Advocate Eric Matinenga that the constitution-making process has been rationalized to address issues of efficiency, capacity and inclusivity.
The NCA said if anything, the so-called rationalization was an attempt to hoodwink unsuspecting Zimbabweans into believing that the inclusive government has taken into consideration concerns raised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) over the exclusive, undemocratic and unworkable nature of the GPA prescribed constitution making process.
“Notwithstanding the purported addressing of issues by the inclusive government’s principals, the constitution making process remains under the control of politicians,” spokesman Maddovk Chivasa told zim NET radio.
“The “people” are still out of the equation. The so-called Management and steering committees are by and large made up of politicians from three political parties that make up the inclusive government.”
The government announced the inclusion of Professor Phineas Makhurane and Dr Hope Sadza into the Steering committee. But the NCA dismissed it as nothing but a desperate attempt to sanitize what is essentially a defective constitution making process.
There is also talk of the establishment of an “independent secretariat”.
But Chivasa said: “This is, in essence, a high sounding nothing designed to mislead the people of Zimbabwe into believing that the GPA prescribed constitution-making process has been altered for the better. Yet, the GPA prescribed process remains an affair of three political parties.”
Chivasa said as long as it remains under the stewardship of three political parties with vested and often conflicting interests, the GPA inspired constitution-making process will never be efficient and inclusive.
“As the NCA has always maintained, it will always be difficult if not impossible to get a democratic and people-driven constitution from a process that is primarily motivated by the quest to promote selfish political interests. The time has come for the people of Zimbabwe to stand up to the inclusive government in demand for a democratic and people-driven constitution making process.”
