Most of the problems that are encompassing the world today are a result of unprincipled leaders and societies that have no morals to stand their ground. As the saying goes, “In order for evil to triumph, it only takes the silence of good men”. In some cases it also takes “good men” to misinterpret the truth to the people to destroy the truth. It is usually the case where men and women who are revered in furthering certain causes start moving in the wrong direction and even demanding that all followers should trail behind without asking questions.
To drive the point closer home, when Zanu PF took the reins of power in 1980, thereby becoming the first democratically elected government of the land, the hopes and aspirations of the majority of the people were soon shattered. The illusion of independence soon turned to one of the scariest of all nightmares.
As society tried to come up with solutions, it was necessary first to come to terms with the root of the problem. The problem was found to lie in human nature; goodwill is too weak to be trusted. The culture that was instilled in people was that the government was the master of the people not the servant of the people. The norm of the day was that only faithful supporters would get something from the government hence all those with different points of views were sidelined and pushed to the periphery of development.
Zanu PF, which is known for its anti-imperialist rhetoric was soon found to be enjoying the imperialist (Lancaster) constitution and in some cases even making it more repressive. The constitution allowed the government to flagrantly violate human rights  and destroy justice willy-nilly in the name of maintaining peace.
Civic society traced the problems of misgovernance to the adopted constitution. The majority soon realised that fighting the monarchical government of Robert Mugabe was doomed to fail as long as there was no people-driven constitution. The people-driven constitution was therefore seen as the panacea to the problems of the country.
It was against such a background that the National Constitutional Assembly  (NCA) was formed to fight for a people-driven constitution in the late 1990s. Morgan Tsvangirai becoming its first chairman.
The milestone success of NCA was to force Zanu PF to heed the demands of a new constitution. Zanu PF soon found out that without a repressive constitution it would be vulnerable. It therefore came up with a new constitution which was rejected in the referendum in 2000. 
With the people also pinning their hopes on MDC in parliament, in 2005 Zanu PF connived with MDC to bring about the Kariba draft.
The issue of the new constitution was so hot that every civic society organisation spoke with one voice for a people-driven constitution. Even as late as just the before the 2008 harmonised elections the MDC seemed to believe in a civic society-led constitution. With the formation of the inclusive government, goal posts started shifting. It became one of the greatest blows to civic society when parliament-led Copac was formed. The division in civic society came in the form of “take part” or “take charge” factions. The first faction believed that contributions could only be made from within whilst the second believed that any process led by Zanu PF was likely to be flawed. At that time it was proven that those who do not know where to stand and what to stand for would fall for anything. It was surprising to see how the majority of civic society organisations fell for the bait. It was The NCA, ZCTU, MISA and Zinasu and a few other organisations that remained demanding a people-driven constitution not a government-imposed one. It was so surprising to hear some civic society organisations are not even tolerating pluralism and castigating NCA and Dr Madhuku as misguided. It may be true that Dr Madhuku is not always correct but on the issue of Copac being flawed he has been vindicated. Copac divided the civic society which had long been united.

BY MLUNGISI DUBE

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