Once the new Copac constitution is enacted, will it stop abuse of power such as the arrest of Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa? Sadly, the answer is no! This Copac constitution is too weak and feeble to deliver free and fair elections or end the country's culture of politucal violence contrary to the lies Tsvangirai has said.
A good constitution should have the checks and balance to stop one or a few individuals hijacking one or more institutions of government and thus put themselves above the law. Sadly, that was exactly what had happened in Zimbabwe, Mugabe and the Joint Operations Command (JOC) had hijacked the presidency, parliament, the judiciary, the Police, the CIO, the Army, etc., etc. to put themselves above the law creating this monster called the Zanu PF dictatorship.
The GPA proposed a simple solution to end the dictatorship - implement the democratic reforms designed to cut the umbilical cords tying the state institutions to Mugabe and JOC and thus dismantle the dictatorship brick by brick. The new democratic constitution was going to reaffirm these institutional checks and balance and their independence.
This Copac constitution was written knowing no reforms will be implement because the "presidency (the dictatorship) was sacrosanct" as Mugabe would say. And so we ended up with a dictator's creed with page upon page listing all the human rights and freedoms to hide its dictatorial core. No one will ever enjoy human rights in this Copac rubbish because they are nothing more that the sugar coating of a cyanide tablet.
Tsvangirai and MDC have lied that this Copac rubbish would deliver free and fair elections and a new Zimbabwe, focusing on the sugar coating but saying nothing of the poison, and the people believed them and voted in drove to approve the new constitution. Over 3 million voted in the referendum and 95% said yes; very impressive indeed and MP Mwonzora and Minister Obert Gutu have blowing the trumpet, drumming their chests like silverbacks and took their laps of honour.
The real and ultimate test of this Copac constitution is whether the elections will be free and fair -free of violence, never mind all the other niceties like free media, etc. Or will the nation be dragged into yet another bloody election process because the Police, CIO, etc. are still doing the Zanu PF bidding, the dictatorship is untouched, was all Tsvangirai and MDC have been saying about Copac delivering free and fair elections was all hogwash, nonsense!
The problem is not with the constitution per se but that this is a weak and feeble constitution which allows some people to be above the law. I have said again and again and so has SADC implement the reforms and write a democratic constitution and the nation will end all this lawlessness. Tsvangirai failed to get not even one reform implemented and he accepts a constitution "dictated" by a tyrant, of course it is not a democratic constitution. And 3 million Zimbabweans, 95 %, approve this rubbish.
And two days after the referendum you complain about the new constitution not stopping the Police abusing their powers, etc. You accepted a constitution so weak and feeble it would not stop the abuse so why are you surprise?
Just start regretting at leisure as I said and let me say it here; you ain't seen nothing yet! Next time, you will want to read something before signing it!
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“It is the change in the institutions of government which professionalizes them and makes them independent and free from partisan politics. It is only that which will transform this country,” said Lawyer Tinoziva Bere. He is spot on there and this in why implementing the democratic reforms was pivotal to bring about meaningful change.
PM Tsvangirai and MDC have all lied about Copac delivering free and fair elections without implementing the reforms just to get the people to vote yes in the referendum. And the yes vote has effectively closed the door to implementing the reforms. PM Tsvangirai and MDC because of their breath taking incompetence have laned the nation into this mess.
An armed struggled was never the answer, it is the foundation on which this Mugabe dictatorship is built!
Sit and wait is not the answer either; we have been doing just that these last 33 years and we are no nearer ending this dictatorship than we were 10 or 20 years ago. We have had numerous chances to end the dictatorship the last and best chance being the one we buried on 16 March 2013 by voting yes when we should have voted no.
We missed up because we had put our trust in a flawed, indecisive and political incompetent Tsvangirai and sat back and dozed off! Tsvangirai woke us up to vote yes to the Copac constitu-tion and we, foolishly without even stopping to read it for ourselves, vote yes. By voting yes we closed the door to implementing the reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and by voting yes we agreed to hold the next elections in exactly the same political environment as in 2008, i.e. we will a repeat of the 2008 wanton violence!
If we had been actively seeking change then we would have started piling the pressure on MDC to have the reforms implemented after the first year of the GNU. But because we were fast asleep most people do not even what nature of creature these reforms are.
How the people chose to believe Tsvangirai's lies that there would be free and fair elections when there was all the evidence that the Zanu PF dictatorship had not been dismantled goes to show what a dozy nation we really are!
There will be other opportunities to end the Mugabe dictatorship but if we "sit and wait" and doze off; these chance will come and go and still we will be stuck in this hell-hole! If we are serious about getting out; then we must get off our backsides and start working for change – not next year, not next week – NOW!
Two more MDC staff arrested.
Now Mugabe has the yes vote safely in the bag, he will be turning on the screw on his political opponents. It was naive of MDC to believe there can be free and fair elections without implementing the reforms and Mugabe is just taking full advantage of this. We ain't seen nothing yet!
South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team on Friday refuted Zim state media reports that they were thrown out of a Jomic meeting after ‘gate crashing’ the gathering
With the yes vote safely in the bag, Mugabe can afford to be arrogant and Ms Zulu should know that vote was the last nail in the GPA coffin and Mugabe cannot wait to see the back of anything to do with the GPA. Ms Zulu go back home, there is nothing you can do now, the dye is cast!
EU will lift targeted sanctions against all 91 Mugabe and his cronies except 10 “following the holding of a peaceful referendum” EU official said.
There is no doubt that the EU is aware that no one expected an violence during the referendum given that Mugabe wanted a yes vote and Tsvangirai and MDC were out in full force campaigning for a yes vote. Now that Mugabe has the yes vote safely in the bag, he will now roll out the Zanu PF terror machinery and the violence will begin. The only reason the EU has nonetheless decided to lift the sanctions is the realization that Zimbabwe is not getting out of this political mess for decades to come – voting yes to a constitution designed to restore Mugabe and Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers was a dead give-away and the last straw!
Zanu PF representatives on Jomic led by Professor Jonathan Moyo barred SADC facilitators from taking part in Jomic meeting claiming it was an infringement on Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.
“The refusal to allow the facilitation teams to participate in Jomic meetings is a slap in the face for Zuma and the blocking of troika representatives means a rejection of Sadc resolutions, particularly those from the Livingstone, Sandton, Luanda, Maputo, Windhoek, Dar es Salem and Pretoria summits,” a senior Sadc diplomat said. “In short, this is declaration of war on Sadc by Zanu PF representatives.” Said a report in Zimbabwe Mail 23 March 2013.
The Jomic fracas came a day after Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao told Zimbabwe Independent that the regional bloc was unhappy with the way the monitoring body was operating.
Now that Mugabe has the yes vote on Copac constitution safely in the bag, he will want the GPA terminated and SADC’s role in it ended yesterday. Zanu PF is not going to implement any reforms and is preparing to roll out its machinery of terror and the last thing they want is SADC snooping around! These are some of the consequences of the yes vote on 16 March 2013 and we ain’t seen nothing yet!
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