Constitution outreach (with soldiers)

SWRadioAfrica

The Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) was on Monday overseeing the deployment of seventy outreach teams of 10 members each to the country’s 10 provinces....

But while COPAC was busy deploying teams countrywide, the army has already set up bases for its soldiers at some of the rural district offices.

SW Radio Africa is reliably informed that soldiers camped at Masasa business centre in Buhera central and Mutiusinazita in Buhera south have been force-marching villagers to ZANU PF meetings for indoctrination.

A top official in the MDC told us the armed soldiers were deployed to the areas a week ago, with specific orders to instruct villagers what to do and say during the outreach programme.

$300 a day to visit folks

SWRadioAfrica:

Over 300 MP’s and Senators will rake in between US$65 and US$300 per day in allowances for participating in a 65 day outreach programme that is meant to collect people’s views on a new constitution...

It now turns out donors were ready to pull the plug on funding the process after the political parties insisted on increasing the number of MP’s from about 50 to include almost all 300 legislators in the lower and upper houses of Parliament. This meant the bill for the process ballooned overnight, much to the annoyance of the donors. The donors had pledged around US$16 million while the government last year said had set aside US$43 million.

Constitutional resources at Sokwanele

at Sokwanele website, they announce:

Sokwanele is pleased to announce that we have launched a constitution resource on our website. We hope that this online information system will provide users in Zimbabwe and in the diaspora with an simple way to familiarise themselves with the details of the current constitution, and with forthcoming drafts towards a proposed future constitution.

Zimbabwe's new constitution, when it is finally enacted into law, will shape all of our futures, define our fundamental human rights, provide limits on political powers, outline rules shaping the police, defence forces, prisons and public services ... and more. The constitution-making process encompasses all Zimbabweans. We encourage all Zimbabweans, no matter where they are in the world, to take part in the critical task of interrogating and thinking about the laws that will define all of our futures and establish the rights of Zimbabweans everywhere.

Zimbabweans will be asked to vote on a new draft constitution when it is finally ready. The public outreach programme, intended to gather the views of the people, is scheduled to start early in the new year. The outreach timeframe below comes via a recent Veritas mailing:

• 4-5 January 2010: MPs and Senators will be trained on their own on Tuesday 5th January [arrival and registration on Monday 4th]
• 6-10 January 2010: The remainder of the outreach personnel will be trained in a four-day workshop running from 7th to 10th January [arrival and registration on Wednesday 6th].
• 11 January 2010: Outreach teams will then be deployed to the provinces where they will meet officials and representatives of civic society at provincial level to explain their programme before starting work the next day.
• 12 January 2010: Consultation with the people will start on Tuesday 12th January.
• 18 March 2010: End of outreach. [The consultations are expected to last 65 days but this time will be extended if necessary].

We all have a right to add our voices to this process, and we have a right to reject any document that fails to live up to our expectations. So it is important that Zimbabweans are informed about what the documents and drafts say, and that we all think carefully about the rights and standards we want enshrined in our future constitutional law....

COSATU to join on push for Zim constitution

from Afrikasources

South Africa’s biggest worker federation has vowed to join hands with the Zimbabwean civil society in pushing for a people driven constitution. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a key member of the African National Congress (ANC) –the tripartite formation ruling South Africa said as part of its International Solidarity Conference Declaration that it would work with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and other civic bodies in pushing government.....

“We also support the civil society initiatives led by COSATU, OSISA and the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum for a Conference in Botswana to assess the situation under the GNU in Zimbabwe, conditions under Terrorism Law in Swaziland, the transformation of SADC and the task of building a regional solidarity movement, through the effective harnessing of all the solidarity efforts towards maximum cohesion,” Masuku added.
The union bemoaned the continued harassment and persecution of political and civil society activists in Zimbabwe “even under a cloud of a supposedly new and changed environment”.