Zimbabwe Constitution Committee Fails to Meet Again
Jonga Kandemiiri
The seven-member committee tasked to break the deadlock on the Second All Stakeholders’ Conference report, failed to meet Wednesday, the third time this meeting was expected but did not take place.
Constitution and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga said after the committee failed to make a quorum Tuesday, they rescheduled for Wednesday, but had not realized that all the members could not make it.
Matinenga told VOA Studio 7 that he hoped the committee will meet before Christmas.
He declined to discuss the outstanding issues of contention, but other sources have said that six issues were still to be ironed out.
They include devolution of power, the creation of a National Youth Service, and the trimming of the Attorney-General’s powers.
The issues were compiled into a report that was expected to be presented to the three coalition government principals and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sometime this week.
President Robert Mugabe has threatened to dissolve parliament and call for elections under the current Lancaster House Constitution if a new constitution cannot be agreed upon.
Independent political analyst Charles Mutasa said the committee should just present the parliamentary constitution committee draft constitution to the people of Zimbabwe and let the people decide to approve or reject it.
