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capture some critical issues, MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube has said.

He argues that the current constitutional outreach programme has only managed to capture 20 percent of issues to be factored into the new document.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the Southern African Political and Economy Series Trust last Thursday, Prof Ncube said the concept of a people-crafted constitution was just a myth.

However, Zanu-PF and MDC-T negotiators, Cde Patrick Chinamasa and Mr Elton Mangoma respectively, said it was premature for Prof Ncube to suggest negotiations.
The two negotiators, however, acknowledged that there was a vacuum on other matters that needed to be put in the new constitution from somewhere else because the people did not understand the technicalities involved.

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Said Cde Chinamasa: “At the moment we don’t know what he (Prof Ncube) is saying was left. We can’t move ahead of debate (constitution-making).
“After constitution analysis, we will look at what was left out by the people.
“I appreciate there are vacuum areas where people didn’t say anything. Obviously a lot of people wouldn’t know who appoints judges, it’s done somewhere else.

“They also wouldn’t know the role of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, so those are areas where we will then sit down and see what to do about them,” he said.
Mr Mangoma said: “People were asked a lot of things, which helped them to express their views. The constitution-making exercise is still underway.

“There are other issues, which might not be determined in one way or another; people will have to sit down and see what to do. Obviously, when lawyers draft the Bill of Rights, they will do it from a legal view.
“It will not be proper for us to say the constitution will be negotiated when it is still underway; so in a way we will be wasting people’s time by engaging in this constitution exercise.”

However, in his presentation at Sapes Trust, Prof Ncube said: “We have no choice but to negotiate the constitution to fill in the gap of areas that were not questioned during the outreach exercise.
“The National Constitutional Assembly thinks there is a concept called people-written constitution. That is just a mobilisation cliché. It can’t happen anywhere in the world because people have no clue of what should be in the constitution.”

 

Prof Ncube, a constitutional law expert, said in the current process, critical issues had not been captured because the outreach had been hurried, which led to core issues being overlooked.
He said in the GPA, the negotiators had agreed that the Kariba Draft would be taken to the people, but other partners in the inclusive Government changed along the way.
“We were not prepared for the outreach programme. It didn’t follow what we had agreed in the GPA. We had not prepared for a different methodology and people ended up coming with skeletal talking points and those points do not address constitutional issues.

“If one looks at the things that were asked during the outreach programme, only a fifth of the things that are supposed to be in the constitution were asked.
“We will negotiate because the data is inadequate, even if people spoke, some of the views, which have come out will have to be rationalised and that will be done through negotiations,” said Prof Ncube who is the Minister of Industry and Commerce.

He said during negotiations, MDC-T negotiator Mr Tendai Biti and Zanu-PF representative Cde Patrick Chinamasa, had strongly argued over how long it would take to complete the constitution-making exercise.
Cde Chinamasa is the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, while Mr Biti is the Minister of Finance.

“Biti argued seriously that the constitution would be done in 18 months, while Chinamasa said it would not take less than three years.
“One morning they almost came to blows over the issue and Chinamasa conceded to the 18 months but bet on his mother that it would not happen and look we are now over two years.
“Some of us who have spent more time on constitutional issues knew Chinamasa was right. Even if we had taken representatives from the three parties, it wouldn’t have been possible to complete it in 18 months,” Prof Ncube said.

He also said he regretted why, as the NCA, they had rejected the 2000 referendum.
Prof Ncube said the ‘NO’ vote was a mistake adding that the Kariba Draft had probably captured a third of what was in the 2000 draft constitution.

“The Kariba Draft is worse than the one we had in 2000. It recognised devolution yet in the Kariba Draft its not there and maybe will never be.
“We rejected it, not on the merits of the constitution, but the same way as (Prof) Lovemore Madhuku (NCA chairperson) is doing today.
“It was as if, when we rejected it, someone would give us something better. We would have been better of with that 2000 (draft) constitution and I am sure no one can contend that the decision was correct then.

That usually happens when emotions replace intellectual thinking,” Prof Ncube said.
He also said it was not possible to have elections this year because the constitution would not have been completed.
“If one looks at the structure and content of the GPA, the most important pre-condition for elections is the new constitution. This means we cannot get to an election until at the very least we have a new constitution.

“I don’t believe we will have completed analysing data for districts by the end of October. I don’t see us completing analysing the provincial reports by end of November.
“I don’t see anything resembling first draft of the constitution earlier than March next year and everybody knows about that.
“Even under the current constitution we would need a minimum of four months for delimitation and other requirements,” Prof Ncube said.

Copac is currently analysing district reports before analysing provincial reports and compressing the findings into one document.
Copac has already released names of experts who will do the drafting of the new constitution and these are: Justice Moses Chinhengo and lawyers, Prisca Madzonga and Brian Grozier.
According to the Copac work plan for producing a constitution after compiling and analysing data, the draft will be taken to the second all-stakeholders conference.

There will be debate of the draft and the Select Committee report by Parliament.
After that the draft will be gazetted before a referendum is held. If voted ‘YES’, the Bill will have to pass through Parliament.

If it sails through, President Mugabe will then assent to it, to make it a law.
The elections roadmap, says Copac, will determine how long the constitution exercise would take.
Debate is raging on whether the country should have elections this year on not. Zanu-PF insists elections should be held this year, while other stakeholders want them at a later date.