THE parliamentary constitutional committee (COPAC) has reacted angrily to allegations that the ongoing outreach programme aimed at gathering people’s views has degenerated into chaos and threatened to have civil society officials behind the claims arrested.
COPAC chairperson Paul Mangwana called for the of civil society organisations behind the allegations, accusing them of "spreading falsehoods".
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai recently launched the outreach programme in a bid to give a renewed impetus to the country’s faltering efforts to write a new constitution.
The exercise is already a year behind schedule due to political squabbles and funding problems.
However observers say organisational bungling and political interference have worsened the situation.
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s MDC-M party recently accused COPAC of “gross incompetence” claiming outreach officers were being thrown out of hotels in the Matebeleland region due to lack of payment.
“Among other provinces, in Bulawayo and Matabeleland South this gross incompetence has resulted in the embarrassing treatment given to the outreach team’s where they have been thrown out of hotels and going for a record three days without being given food,” the party’s Bulawayo branch said in a press statement.
Other observers also complained that meetings were being poorly attended because of COPAC’s failure to publicise times and venues while key literature was not available in all the country’s main languages.
In the Midlands province it was claimed that 600 T/Shirts and other material meant for the outreach teams had disappeared.
There have also been claims that politicians were intimidating villagers around the country and coaching them on what to say to the outreach teams.
However COPAC officials have reacted angrily to the allegations and called for the arrest of civil society activists monitoring the process.
Zanu PF’s Paul Mangwana, who jointly chairs the parliamentary committee claimed the NGO’s were trying to discredit the constitutional reform process.
“These people from non governmental organisations must be arrested. They are peddling lies about the process …. Why should we be monitored? We believe they have a hidden agenda to tarnish the process,” Mangwana told ZimOnline.
The MDC-T’s Douglass Mwonzora who also co-chairs the committee said the civil society monitors were “peddling lies” about the outreach exercise.
“These monitors are disseminating falsehoods about the process,” said Mwonzora.
Drafting a new constitution to replace the country’s much-amended Lancaster House charter was one of the major reforms agreed under the political deal which facilitated establishment of the country’s coalition government.
Once completed, the draft is expected to be put to a referendum leading to new elections for a substantive government