Constitution-making under threat

The Herald
28 August 2009
By Hebert Zharare

THE country’s constitution-making process is under threat as it emerged yesterday that major donors are pumping millions of dollars into operations of civic organisations running parallel programmes, while shunning Parliament’s Select Committee — a bona fide body mandated to carry out the task.

Highly placed sources disclosed to The Herald yesterday that Parliament’s Select Committee had managed to raise only US$1,2 million out of the US$4 million needed for the outreach programme following the All-Stakeholders’ Conference on Constitution-Making.

According to a letter from European Union representative to Zimbabwe Mr Xavier Marchal, a copy of which was seen by The Herald, the EU was mobilising money from Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom’s Department For International Development, United States Agency for International Development and the European Commission to be channelled to the civic groups.

In his letter, Mr Marchal, however, laid down stringent conditions for the Government to receive the money.

“Before making a commitment, donors will also need to know the contribution that the Government of Zimbabwe and other Sadc and regional governments are providing. This will be important to underline the commitment of the Government of Zimbabwe and regional guarantors of the GPA to this process,” said Mr Marchal.

However, in the letter addressed to Ministers David Coltart and Eric Matinenga, Speaker of House of Assembly Mr Lovemore Moyo, co-chairpersons of the Parliament Select Committee Mr Douglas Mwonzora and Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, Mr Marchal said the EU was extending massive financial support to the civic organisations in Zimbabwe.

The letter was copied to Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Sten Rylander, Netherlands Ambassador Jos Weterings, UK Ambassador Mark Canning, United Nations representative Mr Agostinho Zacarias, US embassy official Ms Katherine Dhanani, head of DFID Mr Dave Fish and USaid representative Mr Kareen Freeman.

Said Mr Marchal: “A number of donors are supporting the constitution-making process through ongoing support to the civic society to enable Zimbabwe’s citizens to fully engage . . . Several donors recently supported the First All Stakeholders’ Conference.

“Several donors have also expressed an interest in supporting Parliament to implement a transparent, inclusive and participatory process.”

However, sources close to the goings-on said there was a calculated manoeuvre by countries still driving the regime change agenda to have the constitution-making process wrestled from Parliament’s Select Committee in order for it to be civic society and donor-driven.

The source questioned the motive behind pumping millions of dollars into the NGOs yet Government had made it clear that the constitution-making process was a Government of Zimbabwe-driven process.

“From what is happening on the ground, we will end up having a constitution of Zimbabwe by donors for Zimbabweans. This is not the only country that has undergone a constitution-making process in the world and we are shocked by the amount of interest expressed in our case. How can some civic organisations be better funded than the main (constitution-making) process?” said the source.

One of the co-chairpersons of Parliament’s Select Committee on the constitution-making process, Cde Mangwana, declined to comment on the matter, arguing that the issue of resource mobilisation was Parliament’s administrative responsibility.

The other co-chairpersons, Mr Mwonzora and Mr Coltart, were not available for comment yesterday.

“I am not in a position to comment on that issue . . . These issues are handled at Select Committee level. That one is a Parliament expenditure case,” said Cde Mangwana.

However, the source said the Parliament Select Committee was moving towards a stage where it needed a lot of resources between now and November this year.

According to the source, 70 groups with over 800 people were going to be formed and these were going to carry out outreach programmes countrywide.

“These people need vehicles, accommodation, food and fuel, among other things. This is very important because we need to get views from the people . . . We cannot take some shortcuts like what happened during the All-Stakeholders’ Conference where we got to the last day without enough money.

“We need US$4 million for this programme, but we have managed only US$1,2 million. Does the Select Committee want that nonsense again?” said the source.

The All-Stakeholders’ Conference was characterised by chaos and scores of the 4 000 delegates invited for the event went without food and accommodation.

The source, however, said the Government was supposed to be worried by the origins of some of the money offered because some of the financiers wanted to campaign for same-sex marriages to be recognised by the country’s constitution.

There was a lot of interference from the donors and NGOs, the source said, adding that there was need for the principals (President Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara) to take a bold stance on the issue because “these people are slowly moving in to take over the whole process”.

“We have cases where Select Committee members are being hosted by some of these well resourced civic organisations and we feel the subversion of the constitution-making process is too much,” said the source.

One of the sources said that Finance Minister Tendai Biti in his address to the just-ended retreat in Nyanga, said he was disturbed by the way donor money was being channelled into the country by donors as it was affecting the economic turnaround programme and the budget processes.

“(Minister) Biti expressed displeasure over the way donor money was being channelled into the country. Lots of it was coming outside the Treasury system and the country cannot account for it. He suggested that all external commitments were supposed to be channelled through the Exchequer . . . He said all that money should be captured. The donor money was undermining the budget system.

“We have donors that were paying some of the doctors up to US$4 000 per month while other civil servants were getting US$100,” said the source.

The Parliament Select Committee has now fallen behind schedule in its intended outreach programmes.

The committee had said it would have constituted thematic committees and their members, within two weeks after the convening of the All-Stakeholders’ Conference.

It is now more than a month after the event, but chairpersons of the thematic committees and their members are not yet known, a development that has affected the outreach programme which is still to be undertaken.

The outreach programme, which entails gathering people’s views on the content of the constitution, is the second stage of the constitution-making process.

The third and final stage will include writing the draft, convening another All- Stakeholders’ Conference and subjecting the draft to a referendum.

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