Photo: Buanews MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora has said ZANU PF cannot set the agenda for COPAC by telling them what documents to bring to the Second All Stakeholders Conference.
Following the party's politburo meeting on Wednesday ZANU PF resolved that the national report, based on the outreach program, be published and accompany the COPAC draft to the Second All Stakeholders' Conference.
This, the party said, was the only way Zimbabweans could compare what they said during the outreach with what is in the draft.
But speaking to SW Radio Africa's Election Watch program on Friday, the Nyanga North MP and COPAC co-chairman said Article VI of the GPA makes it clear that the constitution making process is a parliamentary one.
'For that reason the Speaker of Parliament appointed COPAC, so the only person who can direct us in this case is the speaker and not MDC-T, MDC-N or ZANU PF. Therefore demanding a national report at this stage is clearly to undermine parliament which is legally mandated with receiving the report from COPAC,' Mwonzora said.
Mwonzora also dismissed as ridiculous attempts by the Federation of Non-Governmental Organisations (FONGO) to use the Supreme Court to force them to release the outreach National Statistical Report to the public.
FONGO president Goodson Nguni, a well known ZANU PF fanatic, said the draft constitution that was released by COPAC is a violation of the people's freedom of expression. He added that political parties should not speak on behalf of the people but that the national statistics report should be released so that the views of the people can be made known.
Mwonzora said: 'That is a skimpy application. After dismally failing to convince all right thinking Zimbabweans to back it's amended draft, ZANU PF has turned its machinery into demanding a national report.
By definition a national report is a record of everything that happens in a process. That means in the case of COPAC the national report must record among other things, what happened at the First Stakeholders Conference, the public outreach, the drafting stage and what will happen or be resolved at the Second All Stakeholders Conference,' explained Mwonzora.
He added: 'The demands for the national report at this stage are premature, misplaced and meant to mislead the people. Further, the reliance on figures in the national statistical outreach report, without any accompanying information on the atmosphere of the meetings, is basically meaningless. It is being resorted to by people fetching for reasons to discredit the process.'
Mwonzora was referring the many reports of blatant intimidation at the outreach meetings and the fact that ZANU PF supporters were often bussed in and told what to say.
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