BULAWAYO – Chaos marked the beginning of Zimbabwe’s exercise to consult the public on the drafting of a new constitution on Wednesday, while in the volatile province of Mashonaland East there were fears of an outbreak of political violence.

Public meetings to gather the views and ideas of Zimbabweans they want included in the new charter were scheduled to start across the country yesterday and continue until November with a referendum on draft charter produced from public contributions planned for later.  

But administrative glitches, lack of transport and equipment combined to produce chaotic scenes with the consultative meetings said to have begun in only two out of the country’s 10 administrative provinces.

In the two provinces of Mashonaland East and Central, no meetings took place with some of the parliamentarians and officials leading the process telling  reporters that they were still waiting for recording equipment to arrive from Harare.

“We might start tomorrow. We are waiting for recording equipment from Harare. We had been promised that it would have arrived by Monday but that has not materialised,” said Ian Kay, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Marondera Urban constituency. 

Kay, who spoke to ZimOnline in Marondera town, the provincial capital for Mashonaland East province, said political violence had flared up in Mudzi, a volatile district in the north of the province.

“We have at least four homes which have been burnt since weekend. We hope police will not let the situation get out of hand,” said Kay, who is a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was not immediately available for comment on the matter.

In Bindura town, the capital for Mashonaland Central province, residents who had gathered at designated meeting centres to air their views could be seen milling around, confused and frustrated because no one from the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) leading the reforms turned up to record their views or to explain what would happen next.

“We have been waiting since morning but no one has come. This is really boring,” said a 64-year-old man at Chipadze Primary School, one of the centres where COPAC was supposed to have heard people’s views yesterday.

In Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo and in Midlands, Matabeleland North and South provinces  -- all making the south-western half of the country – COPAC teams had not been deployed by late afternoon yesterday.

Several members of the constitutional outreach teams for the south-western regions were by yesterday afternoon yet to be accredited to carry out their duties, hours after they were supposed to have been out in the country meeting the public. 

And in the few cases where some members of the COPAC teams pitched there were no vehicles to take them to where the meetings with the public were supposed to take place because the government’s Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) refused to release vehicles for the exercise unless it was paid cash upfront.

COPAC joint-chairman Douglas Mwonzora confirmed the hitches the commission faced trying to get the outreach process get started yesterday, blaming these mostly on the CMED’s refusal to release vehicles. 

“The problems were beyond our control. CMED, who is our transport manager only released vehicles last night after the intervention of transport minister Nicholas Goche and constitutional affairs minister Eric Matinenga,” Mwonzora said. 

Mwonzora, who is a member of Tsvangirai’s MDC party, said equipment to record public contributions was being ferried to meeting venues only yesterday after vehicles became available. 

“The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) is distributing the equipment right now and it is being driven to all provinces across the country,” he said. 

The UNDP is helping raise resources for the constitutional reform process because the Harare coalition government is broke.

Asked whether he expected the outreach programmme to be in full gear by today, Mwonzora said: “Probably with the exception of Matabeleland South and North, the rest (of the country) can start. But they are yet to receive their allowances from the UNDP. They want the monies to buy their food etc.”

The constitution making process is already running behind schedule by almost 10 months due to a myriad of problems including bickering between Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and the MDC over the form the reforms should take.

The proposed new constitution is part of reforms agreed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway MDC faction, that are meant to democratise Zimbabwe’s politics. 

The coalition government is expected to call fresh elections once a new constitution is in place although there is no legal requirement for it to do so, while Tsvangirai and Mugabe have differed on when a new vote can be held.

Mugabe has insisted new polls should be held most probably next year whether or not there is a new constitution while Tsvangirai has said elections must be preceded by a new and democratic constitution. 

Zimbabweans hope a new constitution will guarantee human rights, strengthen the role of Parliament and curtail the president's powers, as well as guaranteeing civil, political and media freedoms.

By Zimonline