THE Constitution Parliamentary Committee [COPAC] is holding back the draft of Zimbabwe’s new constitution – in order to consult PRISONERS.
About 10,000 prisoners will be consulted at the country’s 46 correctional facilities, COPAC chairman Douglas Mwonzora said on Tuesday.
“Prisoners have to participate in the exercise because one day they are going to be out of prison and they have to exercise their rights,” Mwonzora told a seminar organised by the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations in Harare.
Outreach teams who canvassed the country for people’s views on the new constitution concluded meetings two weeks ago. A referendum is expected next year.
But Mwonzora says they are going back to certain special groups which they had skipped, including prisoners and the disabled.
“An outreach meeting in Bulawayo which was meant to cover the disabled people at Jairos Jiri centre was disturbed by rowdy youths and we felt we had to do an exercise to cater for these disadvantaged groups," Mwonzora noted.
COPAC received US$26 million from the United Nations Development Programme for the exercise, about US$10 million short of its original budget estimates.
Mwonzora said they had exhausted most of the US$26 million and would be trying to raise more money to see through the drafting process as well as the referendum.