“For some
of us who remained optimistic that the constitution-making process would come
to fruition, we were not really surprised that finally all the parties in the
GPA are singing from the same hymn book,” wrote Professor Jonathan Moyo.
Yes, I
could not believe my own eyes too! When the draft Copac constitution was first realized
in July 2012 Professor was the captain of the guard of the Zuna PF hardliners
who castigated the Zanu PF representatives on Copac as sell-out for giving in
to MDC demands. No doubt it was the Professor himself who penned off most of
the 266 amendments Zanu PF hardliners wanted included in the new constitution.
So now none other than the captain of the Zanu PF hardliners is himself leading
the charge to proclaim they had all approved the process all along.
So what was
all the hu-ha about the sell-out and the 266 amendments was all for theatrical
effect. It was just another good-cop bad-cop trick Mugabe and Zanu PF were
playing on the people. They wanted the people to accept the draft without any
close scrutiny for fear the Zanu PF hardliners would impose a worse
constitution. Well, if the truth be told, it worked.
If the
people had read the July 2012 Copac draft they would have immediately realized that
it was not going to safe guard most of their basic rights including the right
to own property, the right to free and fair electoral vote and not even the
right to life itself. The people’s fear of worse from the Zanu PF hardliners
stopped them rejecting the draft.
There can
be no doubt that the Copac constitution was “dictated” by Mugabe, a tyrant, as
Zanu PF’s Copac representative MP Mangwana has already admitted. MDC’s twiddle-dee
and twiddle-dumb just rubber stamped it. All the talk of “all the parties in
the GPA are singing from the same hymn book” is Zanu PF propaganda!
Professor
Moyo is arguing Zimbabweans to vote yes to the Copac rubbish and not reject is
as they did to his 2000 draft. “That was a moment of madness which the majority
voted “No” as it meant that as a nation we rejected our own starting point and
we chose to be stuck with a colonialist-inspired document,” wrote the “mad”
professor.
What the
Professor clearly fails to appreciate is that Zanu PF had deliberately
undermined and amended the “colonialist-inspired” Lancaster House Constitution (LHC)
making it worse not better that it was in 1980. Even then the 2000 Zanu PF
inspired constitution would have left the people worse off than they were under
the amended LHC.
This time
Zimbabweans have a chance to get a democratic constitution, which is what was
agreed in the GPA; the people will short change themselves if they are to
settle for this the Copac rubbish and let this historic chance go by.
“As
Zimbabweans, we should be a proud nation and acknowledge that we should make
decisions and we should not be afraid or ashamed of it even if we make the
wrong decisions, we should be bold enough to make them,” argues Professor Moyo in
his usual rhetorical way.
Professor
Moyo knows he cannot convince even a child that to accept a constitution that will
not deliver even the most basic and fundamental rights will not be making a
mistake, a mistake the nation should rightly be ashamed of. So he is arguing
the nation based on some totally misplaced sense of national pride to “be bold
enough to make” the mistake and vote yes to something we all know we will live
to regret. That is not being bold but plain stupid.
Zimbabweans
have been denied their basic rights amongst them the right to a free and fair
vote without fear, intimidation or violent abuse for 33 years; it is time we
claimed our birth right. Vote NO in the referendum and force the full
implementation of the agreed democratic reforms without which there will never
be free and fair election ever!
8 comments:
MDC are calling for discussions on the outstanding reforms and meanwhile Zanu PF maintains there will be no more negotiations.
“Now that the constitution is in place we are turning to the outstanding issues. They are still on the table and subject to more discussions,” MDC-T’s Douglas Mwonzora told the Daily News.
“How can we be worried about issues we have not agreed on? Yes, they were on the table, but we are not going to keep on negotiating or allowing the MDCs to renege on agreements they have made,” was Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa’s reply.
MDC failed to have these reforms implemented in the last four and half years what chance is there that they will get Mugabe and Zanu PF to agree in two months? MDC realizes these must be agreed BEFORE the referendum – which is of course an achievement in itself. If Mugabe does not agree and the Copac constitution is passed in the referendum MDC will have nothing they can use to force Mugabe to negotiate. Before the referendum Mugabe will need MDC to get the yes vote out.
If Mugabe does not get a yes vote then his whole political game will unravel because he would be forced to accept a reinstituted body to implement all the agreed reforms. And he knows he will not be able to stop that body carrying out its set task!
Having come this far without implementing the reforms Mugabe will resist all pressure to implement any reforms now although he would have to stay at the negotiation table just to string MDC along until the yes vote in referendum is assured!
@ Mukadota 5.33
It you not me who is being naive. The GPA forces all the three Zimbabwean political parties plus SADC tohonour the word and spirit of that agreement. A number of reforms and a new democratic constitution were agreed as the only way to avoid a repeat of the violence of 2008. MDC should have used the GPA to force Mugabe to accept the reforms, etc. Ever since Tsvangirai and co were admitted on the gravy train they have loathed getting Mugabe to do anything.
The ordinary people had risked life and limb in 2008 because they believed MDC would bring democratic change, the reforms we are talking about here plus derail the gravy train! MDC has betrayed the people just as much as Mugabe betrayed them after 1980. By voting no the people will reasset their demands for meaningful democratic change.
A NO vote will force the full implementation of the reforms and writing of a democratic constitution in place of this Copac rubbish!
@ Mukadota 7.45
The ordinary Zimbabweans will once again face an election process in which they will beaten, raped and many killed and forced to vote for someone who will destroy the nation's economy and make them suffer for another generation. And you really think that ia something these people would not want to "derail" if they can?
This is not a democratic process, the people have been deliberately kept in the dark as to nature of this whole process. There is no free media or freedom of expression in Zimbabwe. Your hope of getting a yes vote in the referendum is based on ignorance just as Mugabe's bases of winning the elections that will follow is based on ignorance and her twin sister, fear!
@ Farai12.53
Mugabe and Zanu PF as co-signatory to the GPA had to be seen to be carrying out the tasks in the agreement. Mugabe's challenge was how to carry out the reforms in such a way that the Zanu PF dictatorship remained strong and thus his hold on power undimished.
He managed to resist all the reforms and "dictated" the Copac constitution. He got everything he wanted including a licence to use all his dirty tricks including using violence to deny the people a free vote and thus secure another electoral "win".
The GPA calls for the people to approve the new constitution in a referendum. A yes vote will allow Mugabe to go into elections with all the options of a repeat of 2008 open to him.
A NO vote will force the constitution of another body that would be tasked to implement the reforms to ensure 2008 is NOT repeated. That is the one thing Mugabe will not want to see happen because his influence in the new body would be zero!
“Reforms will come after elections. If they (MDCs) win then, they will implement the reforms they want,” said Rugare Gumbo according to the Zimbabwe Mail. Holding elections without reforms will be accepting the repeat of 2008 election violence which is exactly what the GPA was supposed to ensure does not happen!
The bonds between Zanu PF and all high ranking officers in the Police, CIO, Army and Prison Services are very strong. Most of these officers have played an active part in Zanu PF's lawless and even murderous activities to establish the de facto one party dictatorship and they have benefited from the corruption and looting that has followed.
Those people who talk of reforms to severe these strong bonds between Zanu PF and these serving security sector chiefs do not know what they are talking about. These officers see their own continued survival as totally dependent on the continued survival of the Zanu PF just as the party sees its own continued survival as totally dependent on the partisan support of the security sector.
On Tuesday Police Commissioner Chihuri addressed wives of senior police officers in Selous and urged them to vote for Zanu PF. He told the wives, gathered for a Kuyedza Women’s Club leadership workshop, that they should be patriotic and demonstrate their love for their country by returning Zanu PF to power.
So it is not just Zanu PF that is resisting meaningful reform but the very Officers in the security sector have themselves been resisting reform.
@ Chimbwido
Yepec is as blind as a bat in his support of incompetent MDC just as Chimbwido, now masquerading as a libertarian, is as blind as a bat in his support of corrupt and murderous Zanu PF.
In the referendum that is coming up what Zimbabweans have to realize is that it is not a Tsvangirai vs Mugabe, or MDC vs Zanu PF issue; this a lot more than that. This is a national issue whose consequences will be reverberating long after Tsvangirai and Mugabe are dead and buried and the political parties have broken up and transformed so that all that would remain is the names, if that at all. And that is why we must rise above petty personality or party politics and think what is good for Zimbabwe and posterity.
We deserve for ourselves and our children and our children's children a constitution that grant us and future generations in their turn all the basic rights including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life! This Copac rubbish does not grant us these rights and that is why we must vote NO in the referendum in the interest of Zimbabwe and posterity!
@ Chimbwido
The 2008 elections showed beyond doubt that the Lancaster House Constitution (LHC) could not prevent violence period. The GPA was to prevent a repeat of the violence of 2008 and so the reforms and a new constitution was agreed would be the way forward.
The GPA also agreed that the people should be given a say in a referendum whether or not they like the new constitution, whether or not they believe the new constitution will prevent a repeat of the 2008. The referendum is not going to ask whether the people want Copac or LHC but instead do you want the Copac Constitution YES or NO.
A yes will mean the Copac Constitution is the democratic constitution the GPA had promised and a NO vote will say it is not. A no vote will mean the tasks of implementing the reforms and writing a democratic constitution were not carried out properly and so they must be revisited.
The essence of the GPA was to ensure the next elections are free and fair and not a repeat of 2008. The people of Zimbabwe are asking those who signed the GPA and those who are the guarantors of the GPA to deliver on that promise.
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