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the constitution-making process.

The donors had reportedly threatened to withdraw funding if the brigadier-general remained in Copac.
On Monday, the Copac management committee succumbed to donor pressure and removed Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba, who was an advisor.

Insiders said yesterday that Copac urgently needed US$1,8 million and donors were hesitant to release the money if the Brig-Gen remained in the picture.
Copac co-chairpersons – Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana and Mr Douglas Mwonzora – yesterday confirmed the departure of Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba.

They however, gave conflicting reasons for his removal.
Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba yesterday said he was yet to be informed of the latest development, but said the move was meant to smuggle issues into the new Constitution that threatened national security.

“My understanding is that the constitution should be people-driven. Why are we having donors dictating to us the terms? The reason why they don’t want me there is because they want to smuggle in things that are a security threat and they are afraid that military personnel will see it and block it.

“It will be very sad if we succumb to the terms and whims of these donors. They want to use this constitution for regime change like what they did in Ivory Coast . . . they did it through the constitution,” Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba said.

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He said it was necessary for security people to monitor the machinations of the donors.
“To show that these donors are not up to any good, they want to choose who to pay in Copac. They want to influence the outcome of this pro-cess and as a country we can’t allow them to do that.”
Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba said Mr Jacob Mafume from MDC-T was a civil servant serving in the Prime Minister’s office as a principal director yet donors wanted to victimise him alone.

Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba said it would be unfortunate for the nation to throw away the investment the country had made in him.
“In terms of expertise, someone who can say things without thinking, I am the right man. I have been involved in elections for a very long time and I am able to advise what should be in the constitution and what should be done through an Act of Parliament.

“Some things they may think are necessary in the constitution may be difficult to implement in practical terms.
“There is nothing wrong with being a military person, besides the military can be involved in government departments because of our knowledge,” he said.

Mr Mwonzora said the decision was based on a management committee resolution that excluded serving members of the uniformed forces from taking part in the process.
“The management committee resolved on Monday that (Brig Gen) Nyikayaramba must leave Copac. The committee confirmed its resolution of October 2009 to the effect that a serving member of the armed forces can’t take part in the activities of Copac.

“As MDC and the civil society we were of the opinion that we cannot have someone who is a soldier serving in Copac while Zanu-PF saw nothing wrong with that. There was a fundamental difference on that one, but we are happy that the management committee finally resolved it,” Mr Mwonzora said.
However, Cde Mangwana said Copac had not renewed Brig Gen Nyikayaramba’s contract, but said he was initially appointed because of his vast experience.

“Brigadier General Nyikayaramba was contracted by Copac as an advisor because of his vast knowledge in these issues
“His contract had expired so the management committee resolved that he would not take part anymore.
“Other people want it to appear as if he has been withdrawn when in actual fact his contract had expired. He was going to assist us in many ways because he has been doing it at national elections level.

“However, the problem with other parties is that they become afraid whenever they hear about soldiers,” he said.
The management committee, however, failed to resolve the impasse over the methodology used in the compilation of district reports.

This has stalled the constitution making process since last week and has been further compounded by shortages of funds with Copac saying US$1,8 million was urgently needed to fund the next stage of the process.
Cde Mangwana said the issue would be resolved tomorrow.
“We had a meeting with the management committee last night (Monday) and the issue of methodology to be used was not concluded. We are meeting the management committee on Thursday to try and find a solution to that problem,” Cde Mangwana said.

Cde Mangwana added that US$1.8 million was urgently required to move the process forward.
“We need about US$1.8 million. We can’t work without funding, we need the money first.”

Mr Mwonzora on the other hand said arguments over the methodology should be resolved because there were fundamental differences.
“The issue of methodology is something that we had agreed and was endorsed by the Select Committee but when it came to implementation, our friends in Zanu-PF insisted in regarding the individual multiple meetings.

“However, we fundamentally objected to this, arguing that we had a standing agreement that we would use both qualitative and quantitative methods.
“The management committee on Monday asked us to prepare a document to show whether adoption of either approach will lead to different results. We will report back to the management committee on Thursday,” Mr Mwonzora said.

He added: “The differences that are emerging in Copac must not be unduly politicised because those are simple matters of logic. These are genuine differences and they must be expected in such scenarios.”
The constitution making process has on several occasions stalled over political bickering on methodology to be used in the compilation of data.

Just after the commencement of the meetings of the thematic committees the process was stopped for some days over disagreements on methodology.
The matter was only resolved after the parties agreed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods concurrently.

Zanu PF argued that it was necessary to begin with the quantitative approach that measure the frequency of issues raised during outreach meetings and then use the qualitative method on data analysis.
The MDC formation opposed this saying the method would “drown” views from urban areas.

Insiders then said the objections were raised after realisation that Zanu PF’s views on the constitution were dominating especially on matters related with governance and executive authority.
Zanu PF favours an executive President who is Head of State and Government who also heads the defence forces.
The MDC formations prefer sharing of executive authority between a President and a Prime Minister.