Mugabe says
Madhuku has no right to ask for the referendum date to delayed to allow
adequate time for the electorate to study the Copac Constitution.
“It is not
true that the announcement of the date was without prior warning. This process
has been going on for four years and it was public knowledge that in terms of
the Global Political Agreement the draft constitution was to be put to a
referendum,” Mugabe said.
What a nonsensical
argument from a cantankerous tyrant! It was Mugabe himself who has dragged out
the constitution writing process all these four and half years; disrupting the
conferences and outreach programs; throwing out everything the public had said
because he and his Zanu PF party did not want it; spend years horse-trading,
changing this today and that tomorrow; etc. He did all this just to wind
everybody up and show them he is the boss before he finally “dictated” this
Copac Constitution. And now before the people have not even had a chance to see
this piece of rubbish they are being harangued into voting.
“The
deponent does not say what gross injustice would be occasioned,” Mugabe’s
affidavit says.
The gross
injustice is that the people are being asked to vote on this very important
national document without being given the chance to read and digest what it
says!
In his
founding affidavit, President Mugabe said it was up to the people of Zimbabwe
to decide on the day of voting whether or not the time given to analyze the
draft was adequate.
Zimbabweans
will be asked whether or not the approve this Copac constitution, there is no
third box for “not time given to analyze the draft constitution”! Zimbabwe has
already wasted five years and over US$ 100 million writing this Copac
Constitution, let us have a meaningful referendum .
“A
membership of 120 000, which is denied, cannot hold an entire country to ransom,”
continued the affidavit. That is rich, coming from the man who has held this
nation to ransom all these 33 years!
Mugabe has
corrupted everything and everybody in Zimbabwe including the Judges; they are
all paid generously complete with new Mercedes Benz car allowances and they all
had a pick of the farm seized whites. We all know just how desperate Mugabe is
to get a yes vote. He knows more and more Zimbabweans are waking up to the
reality they are once again being conned into accepting this Copac rubbish when
voting no and forcing the implementation of the reforms will save the nation’s
best interests; he cannot allow this to happen. If the Judge rules in Mugabe’s
favor it would not be because that was the right and just thing to do, he or
she will be paying back for the Mercedes Benz, etc.
This is a matter of great national importance and to force
people to vote without allowing them a chance to at least read what it is they
are accepting or rejecting is wrong. To allow this to happen on a technicality
imaginary or otherwise is itself a travesty of natural justice.
The UNPD and all the donors who have promised to fund the
elections must take note and inform this repressive regime that they will not
fund the elections if the people are not allowed reasonable time to read the
Copac Constitution before they vote in the referendum.
5 comments:
Tsvangirai's hopes of stopping the election violence by having outsides to monitor based on the logic that Mugabe and Zanu PF will not dare use violence in the presence of the observers has been dealt a serious blow. No election observers outside SADC!
"Why should we be monitored by other countries outside the Southern African Development Community (SADC) when we are a sovereign state?" said Mujuru.
If Tsvangirai has any common sense at all then he should have realized that the only sure and guaranteed way of ensuring Zimbabwe's culture of political violence was dealt a death blow was by implementing the GPA reforms. For four years he has ditchered, trotted round the globe, chased women of ill repute, everything but implement the reforms! And now he is out there telling the people that there will be no violence and they should therefore vote yes in the referendum! A no vote will force the implementation of the reforms BEFORE elections are held and thus spare the nation another bloody election!
@ Adam
The 1999 constitution was written by Mugabe to preserve his dictatorship just as this Copac was dictated by Mugabe to preserve his dictatorship. You want the people to vote on the basis of the minuscule changes offered in the Copac constitution. The real democratic changes are what implementing the reforms offered. People must vote no and force the implementation of the reforms. You do not want to allow the people the time to read this Copac rubbish for fear they will discover for themselves that it offers them nothing! If that is not so then allow them the time!
@ Grabmore
I am not a MDC man. I want people to vote no in the referendum because that will force the reforms to be implemented BEFORE elections are held. I do not want to see elections held and the wanton violence of 2008 repeated. I do not want to see even one Zimbabwean beaten or raped let alone murdered as happened in 2008.
Instead of implementing the reforms Tsvangirai was busy globe-trotting and chasing women of ill repute and now he was to drag the nation into a bloody election by lying to them that there will be no violence and they should vote yes in the referendum!
@KWV
INTERIM constitution because Mugabe refused to have the reforms implemented, that is why. Has this tyrant done enough already to ruin our lives that he should be allowed to dictate what future we should have as well? MDC should have put their foot down and refuse to accept Mugabe's dictates, that is the point! We have wasted 33 years already in this meaningles dictatorship, we must end it now not in five years, not after Mugabe is dead, no end it now!
@ Adam
We are here to judge on whether or not this Copac constitution is good for the nation and not whether or not the 1999 constitution was better. The people of Zimbabwe are sick and tired of being treated as if they are complete imbeciles by Mugabe's sidekicks like you whilst being bullied about by good-for-nothing murderous tyrant himself. Enough is enough!
I have no intention of seeing that tyrant ruining the country for another ten years so the constitutional provision barring him running for more than two-five year terms can kick in. I have a more sure way of getting rid of Mugabe in the next elections; get all the democratic reforms implemented and thus dismantle the dictatorship brick by brick and thus ensure the next elections are free and fair. Mugabe will never win a free and fair election, we both know that and so too does the tyrant himself!
Implement the reforms and put an end to all this nonsense of amendment the constitution soon after the elections. If the reforms were implemented no one would be talking of all this nonsense of amendments.
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