The Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) has set September 30 as the date to hold a referendum to choose a new constitution for Zimbabwe.

Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us rapporteurs and technicians, to be housed in various hotels spread across the capital will start putting together the data that was gathered during the outreach programs.

All data gathered during the outreach program was stored in laptops, voice recorders and video cameras. It has been held under lock and key at a bank in Harare to ensure maximum safety, after concerns were raised over the possibilities of it being tampered with.

'The correlation of the data will be compiled province by province. It will be edited and reproduced in a sizeable form to make it easy for the thematic committees to work on the information. The committees' specialise in a wide range of issues, such as human rights, elections and the justice system.

A new constitution is part of a power-sharing agreement between Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC and Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party. The two parties, including the MDC-M now led by Welshman Ncube were brought together in a unity government in February 2009. It was meant to end months of confrontation after the violent elections in 2008.

The new constitution is expected to lead to fresh elections perhaps during the first half of 2012. Zimbabwe still uses the Lancaster House Agreement adopted prior to independence nearly 30 years ago. This has been amended 19 times since 1980.

By SW radio