It has taken this dysfunctional GNU over four and half years
of endless bickering to produce the constitution, a task they had pencilled in
to take one year and a half. And surprise, surprise the people of Zimbabwe will
be given less than five weeks from the publication of the constitution to
voting in the referendum. No doubt most of the people in the rural areas will
be expected to vote yes before they have even seen the document!
How can the result of this referendum be considered democratic
expression of the people’s wishes when they are deliberately kept in the dark and
then herded off like cattle to a dip tank?
The international community have already cast their vote of
this Copac constitution by refusing to fund the whole shoddy affair. The GNU
has already sent out Finance Minister Tendia Biti to beg for the US$ 100
million required to conduct the referendum and so far the international
community has not contributed a penny.
There are four good reasons why the usual donors have not been
forthcoming to fund Zimbabwe’s Copac constitution referendum project:
1)
The Copac constitution writing process as
already costed a staggering US$80 to 100 million and most of it was paid to the
country’s politicians in allowances. The politicians insisted they must take
part and demanded US$ 100 a day in allowance at a time civil servants wages
were US$ 200 a month!
2)
The outreach programmes were disrupted by unruly
Zanu PF supporters
3)
Whatever was gathered during the outreach phase
was completely discarded by the three political parties in the GNU as the
started the horse trading on the Copac constitution.
4)
The final Copac constitution was “dictated” by
Mugabe and it has completely failed to guarantee even the most basic rights life the right to free and fair
elections and the right to life.
The whole Copac constitution writing exercise has been such
a waste of time and money to fund the referendum would be throwing more good
money after bad. The only good outcome from the referendum will have to be a NO
vote so the whole exercise can be repeated from scratch. It is an extravagant
way to spend US$ 100 million to get the Copac rubbish thrown out; it would recklessly
irresponsible if the result was to be the opposite!
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Acting chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe told
journalists her commission was ready to begin work on the voter registration
(the voters roll is still a chaotic mess with many voters’ names missing and
many dead people still on the roll), the referendum and then the general poll as
soon as it gets the necessary funds. With the referendum set for end of March,
8 weeks away, it is impossible to see how the commission will have all this
done properly.
If a job is worth doing it is worth doing right! This dysfunctional GNU
could not be trusted to organize a piss up in a brewery how can it then be entrusted
to write something as important as the national constitution? Everything this
GNU has done has shown just how hopelessly incompetent it is. Zimbabweans must
go on mass and vote NO so that the important and critical tasks of implementing
the agree reforms, writing a democratic constitution and holding a referendum
are done properly and produce the desired end result of guaranteed free and
fair elections and good governance!
5 comments:
@Dr Kuraivanavevhu
It all very well asking people to be "forward looking and conciliatory" but unless this new constitution is the democratic constitution we wanted this will be yet another false start comparable to the Zanu PF - PF Zapu unity accords. Instead of bring the peace and good governance the swallowing of PF Zapu by Mugabe consolidated his de facto one-party dictatorship.
This new Copac constitution was "dictated" by Mugabe and surprise, surprise it is not going to deliver free and fair elections but instead grant Mugabe the licence to use the same dirty tricks including wanto violence to "win" elections. Is that what you want us to look forward to? Another bloody election process followed by five years of this corrupt and repressive dictatorship?
The reality on the ground is that soldiers have already been deployed all over Zimbabwe and they are already involved in the intimidation and harassment of civilians. Does anyone believe the day the Copac constitution is adapted these soldiers will suddenly go back to their barracks, the Police will round up Chipangano and all other Zanu PF thugs, etc. and we will have free and fair elections?
MDC had the last five years to get the reforms agreed in the GPA implemented; they failed to get not even one reform implemented. As for this Copac rubbish the party has allowed Mugabe to “dictate” what was to be in the document. Now the party is lying about these elections being free just to get the people to approve the Copac rubbish.
MDC should know that if people vote yes and there is violence then the party too will have blood on its hands and not just Zanu PF thugs would have committed the crime.
By voting NO this country has a real chance of getting the reforms implemented and a truly democratic constitution written BEFORE the elections are held and thus safe limbs and human lives.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC party were advised against signing the one-sided GPA but they would not they refused to listen. They should not once again gamble with the people’s basic rights, wellbeing and future!
Mr. Bennett, the people of Zimbabwe want to exercise their basic right to free and fair elections denied them all these 33 years; they do not want another "step in the right direction" whatever that is supposed to mean!
@Kwidz
The GPA and GNU were all set up to implement agreed democratic reforms and write a new constitution so that the sham elections of 2008 would not be repeated again. The referendum was to give the people a say in whether they are happy with the new constitution but also with the GNU in implementing the reforms and delivering the objective of free and fair elections.
If the people should reject what is put before them; it would be totally illogical for the parties in the GNU to then seek to punish the people by bringing back a constitution everyone had rejected already, particularly when they are the ones who failed to perform.
Everyone knows the Copac constitution will not deliver free and fair elections and that there will be violence. All Zimbabweans are now trying to do is find excuses why they should still vote yes and go through with another bloody electoral process.In short they are looking for excuses why they should accept being denied the vote and risk life and limb. They are being plain stupid and, of course, there is no excuse for being stupid!
Giving up one's right is plain stupid, period!
@ Dumbu
The right to free and fair election is the very rock on which good government stand without that right the only form of government you can build is a tyranny of one shed or another. To give up that right for some ill-defined "step in the right direction"; what direction, no one knows or care. This is the stuff monumental follies are made of.
In 2008 the then American Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James Mcghie described the GPA MDC was negotiating with Mugabe as "Swiss cheese" with holes so "big one can drive a truck through". The Ambassador, a seasoned diplomat had, no doubt, tried to advise the MDC against signing such a one-sided agreement but warning was not going through. He was airing his opinion in public out of sheer frustration.
Everyone including Ambassador Mcghie said the GPA would never work and long behold after five years of endless and utterly pointless bickering we can confirm that Zimbabwe had one of the most dysfunctional GNU in human history.
Today history is repeating itself. Charovedzera charovedzera, gudo rakakwira mawere kwasviba!
Today Prime Minister Tsvangirai is accepting this Copac constitution, "dictated" by Mugabe, which will deny the people by basic right to free and fair elections. The MDC leader is also accepting that the elections can go ahead although he of all people knows the critical reforms to ensure free and fair elections are not been implemented.
There is simply no rational reason why Tsvangirai accepted the Copac constitution; no rational reason why he would want elections before the reforms are implemented; just as there was no rational reason he signed the one-sided GPA agreement in 2008. None other than he is so disaster prone; he would the street just so he can step on a banana-peel, slip and fall.
Now as happened in 2008 the MDC leadership, membership and much of Zimbabwean public are all falling behind Tsvangirai without ever asking where he is leading them. They all follow him like sheep to the slaughter!
If Zimbabweans follow Tsvangirai and vote yes then they rightly deserve the violence that will follow and the tyrannical regime that would emerge. If the electorate is that stupid to keep following a blundering fool again and again then they clearly lack the mental aptitude to appreciate the value of free and fair and to understand the subtlety of its application in a functional democratic government.
In short, if Zimbabweans do not see the GPA as one big disaster PM Tsvangirai has made then they will follow him again on this even bigger disastrous path he was chosen and sadly they have not learnt the lesson and therefore will pay dearly this disaster too.
Ezra Sibanda explains to Lance Guma on Nehanda Radio why he wants to contest the Vungu parliamentary seat in the coming elections in Zimbabwe.
This is an excellent interview my compliments to both Lance and Ezra.
To me the meat of this interview was what Ezra said in these two paragraphs.
"To rule out rigging in Zimbabwe will be fooling oneself. We just have to be more vigilant, try and prevent any form of rigging. We just hope the new constitution will prevent previous illegal deeds of stealing elections.
"We just need the voters roll to be sorted and remove the dead people in there who have been used to steal elections. I trust and believe if all the reforms are met and fulfilled as per the GPA then there is no chance of rigging these forthcoming elections."
I pleased to note Ezra is aware of these very serious shortcomings. I would have wanted Ezra to forcefully condemn MDC's failures in all these areas.
Surely it is unacceptable that one has to "hope the new constitution will prevent previous illegal deeds". A good constitution must be strongly and precise to deliver such basic rights like the right to free and fair elections and the right to life and not be wishy-washy as the Copac constitution.
A party that so readily compromised on such basic tenets of democracy and good governance can never be considered a party of "excellence"!
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