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By Shephard Dube
2011 July 31Â
What do they mean by a ‘people driven constitution’? “From what I know a constitution is meant to constitute rules about what the structure of government should be and what powers it may and may not exercise. A constitution authorizes a government to exist; it dictates that government’s structure, and delegates to it its powers. Am I wrong? Maybe I am but I will pretend as if there is no chance I am wrong.
Having studied the origins of law, I never came across a successful nation governed by the so called ‘people driven constitution’. From the times of the Roman Emperor Justinian whose codified Roman law (Corpus Iuris Civilis) which is the source of law for many nations not excluding Zimbabwe, successful nations constitutions were and are codified by a group of qualified Jurists.
What makes me wonder is why didn’t the government appoint Jurists to do so. Judging from history, Zimbabwe has the best Jurists, Barristers and Solicitors. We have the likes of Brian Professor Welshman Ncube, David Coltart, Justice Ben Hlatshwayo, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, the list is endless, but to massage political egos the GNU decided to form some funny committees out of its joke COPAC to go around the country asking people who don’t have a know-how in the legal field what they want in the constitution.
This is not only funny but also sad and embarrassing, the government has got the guts to request donor funds to carry out a multimillion dollar process that robs starving Zimbabweans off their time. Making the populace of Zimbabwe believe that it is involved in law making, when in actuality it is a well known factor amongst the government officials that it is impossible to have a people driven constitution.
Not forgetting the money splashed in lavish hotels, astronomical allowances paid to COPAC team members, the mass hiring of public and private cars for the process to be carried countrywide not excluding the massive buying of bond paper.
If my memory serves me right, in the pre-civilisation era around 400 AD, Roman Emperor Justinian was codifying the Codex (the imperial law) he chose a 10 man commission led by Justice Tabillion one of the best at the time to do the codification incorporating and sanctifying laws made from 753 BC. It took these 10 jurists 3 years to complete the code. COPAC has more that 500 members but it has taken them 2 years to complete half of the process. So the government of Zimbabwe in the era of high civilization can not do a simple thing that could be done by Governors of the pre-civilization era 1460 years ago ?? The saddest thing is that it isn’t the ZANU-PF government behind mental abuse of citizens and uncivilized act of attempt to do the impossible ‘people driven constitution’ but ZANU-PF, MDC and MDC-T government plus SADC and the United Nation.
This brings us back to the argument brought by Professor Welshman Ncube and the MDC that we should have used the Kariba Draft which has six signatures of all negotiators in each page Constitution as a basis for consultation rather than embarking on a massive time consuming money splashing lavish process which produces a document that will further be negotiated like the kariba draft.
A lot is left unanswered!!!! Is the government deliberately doing this or it is honestly thinking it can do it?
Shephard Dube is a Law Student at the University of South Africa and Secretary General of Zimbabwe Students Allience Email: 49572571@mylife.unisa.ac.za Â