‘Political bickering delaying constitution’

issues, Copac co-chairperson Cde Paul Mangwana has said.
Cde Mangwana said they could not tell when the process would be concluded because there was bound to be disagreements along the way.

Addressing journalists and members of the civil society in Harare yesterday, Cde Mangwana said they still hoped that the constitution would be completed soon despite the differences.
“All things being equal means that parties will have to agree on everything but that is impossible because parties will disagree on some issues,” Cde Mangwana said.
“This is a political issue and we will never agree on all things but we will complete it.”

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Copac head of information and publicity, Ms Jessie Majome, said compilation of the national report reflecting the views of the people had been completed.
She said the report would be used as the main document by the constitution drafters.

Ms Majome said preparations for the actual drafting would be commencing soon after a workshop on planning had been conducted. She said the expected outcomes from the planning workshop were, the identification of constitutional issues from the national report, consensus on constitutional issues to be included in the constitution and gap-filling in constitutional framework in areas not covered by field data.
She said the workshop was also to identify constitutional principles that would guide the drafting team and agreeing on a framework for conflict or dispute resolution.

“The drafting phase is expected to commence soon and is expected to take about 35 days from the day of commencement. Once the draft constitution is in place, Copac will ensure that the draft is translated into all vernacular languages as well as Braille to cater for the visually impaired,” she said.
Ms Majome said the draft document would be made available before the Second All Stakeholders’ Conference before it is tabled in Parliament for debate. After Parliament, Ms Majome said the document would then be taken for a referendum run by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

She said Copac was confident that if Zimbabweans continued to participate in driving the constitution-making process, it would be endorsed because “it has been inclusive and democratic.”
Cde Mangwana also said the national report was well secured to avoid people tempering with its contents.

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