The Zimbabwe Constitution is our only opportunity to determine how we want to be governed.
A few legal brains I have consulted advise that it is possible for any citizen to take legal class action against any other individual and or grouping that seeks to monopolise the constitution making process unless such individual and or grouping has Constitutional legitimacy to so monopolise the process.
My appeal is that all well meaning Zimbabweans must realise that if the GPA negotiators have their way we will end up with a politicised version of the constitution that allows the politicians to decide how to rule us rather than rule us as we feel we should be ruled.
The time to decisively act is now and not wait for the referendum which the parties will manipulate to best advantage.
Here is the offensive statement we must all vigorously oppose and ensure never prevails as the axis on which the constitution reform process revolves.
Resistance will require the support of the sharpest Constitutional legal brains who may require to be financially supported to champion the resistance as well as volunteers to be enjoined in the class action.
Let us for once organise ourselves outside political partisanship and unite behind our Parliament to give it stamina to resist political pressures to deliver the Kariba entente between Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-M as our future Constitution.
The GPA Negotiators’ Statement
The Place and Role of the Kariba Draft Constitution in the Global Political Agreement
We the undersigned negotiators of the Global Political Agreement (‘the GPA’) wish to clarify and explain that the three parties to the GPA agreed to be the place and role of the ‘Kariba Draft Constitution’ within the constitution making process agreed to and set out by the parties in the GPA.
We do this so as to restore, reaffirm and defend the co-operative spirit among the parties to the agreement, which co-operative spirit is absolutely essential and indeed is a pre-condition for a successful conclusion to the agreed constitution making process.
We hereby place it on record that the Agreement of the parties was that the Kariba draft which was negotiated, agreed to and initiated by all three parties to the GPA would be used by the parties through the Parliamentary Select Committee (‘the Select Committee’) to consult the people on the content of a new constitution for Zimbabwe.
The agreement being that the Select Committee would take the Kariba Draft to the people and consult them on which provisions of the draft they agreed with and accepted and which ones they did not agree with. In respect of those they did not agree with, the people would be asked what alternative provisions they wanted in their place.
The Select Committee would use the Kariba Draft to gauge which provisions were acceptable or not acceptable to the people of Zimbabwe who would be accorded unrestricted rights to accept and or reject any provision therein and to put forward alternative provisions they would want included in the constitution.
The agreement of the parties did not seek to foist the Kariba draft on the people but merely to provide a structured way of consulting the people so as to determine what exactly was acceptable and not acceptable to them.
It is plain that the use of the Kariba Draft as an instrument of consulting the people does not in anyway detract from their unfettered right to determine the content of the constitution they want.
As negotiators, we thus appeal to all the parties to honour the agreement both in words and in deed so as to preserve the integrity of the GPA.
