Copac management committee is set to meet tomorrow to deliberate on issues raised at the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference, as it emerged there was no clear mechanism to deal with disputes that arose after the constitutional indaba.
Report by Our Staff
An official at Copac revealed that Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement was silent on how the parties would deal with a dispute, as it was anticipated that all parties would be in agreement.
“It was assumed that since the Copac management committee came from the Zanu PF politburo and the national executive committees of the two MDCs, the parties would have thrashed out their differences before the final draft was produced,” the official said.
But the official indicated that since Zanu PF had raised its 266 issues, Copac was faced with a unique situation it had not prepared itself for.
But Copac co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora downplayed this saying the management committee would only edit the draft where there was consensus among the three parties.
“What we will be doing is to see whether the proposals made were unanimous and if they are, we will see if it is necessary to make the changes,” he explained.
Mwonzora said in cases where there were disputes, the draft charter would not be altered as alterations could only be made unanimously.
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He said Zanu PF had not presented its document at the all-stakeholders’ Conference and so it could not be discussed as an area of contestation.
Efforts to get a comment from Zanu PF co-chairman Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana were in vain.
The draft constitution would now be presented to Parliament before it is taken to a referendum.
President Robert Mugabe wants the plebiscite held in November, but the management committee said the earliest date would be end of January 2013.
