Zimbabwe constitution conference reopens

HARARE, Tuesday

A conference to kick start the process towards drafting a new constitution for Zimbabwe resumed on Tuesday a day after President Robert Mugabe’s supporters disrupted proceedings.

The first attempt to hold the crucial conference organised by a parliamentary select committee broke up in disarray on Monday prompting an angry response from Mr Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.

Delegates started converging at the Harare International conference this morning where the notorious war veterans who are loyal to Mr Mugabe drowned the proceedings with singing and dancing the previous day.

The speaker of parliament, Mr Lovemore Moyo who is also the chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Mr Tsvangirai said the conference was going ahead as planned.

Monday’s disturbances had heightened fears President Mugabe’s Zanu PF would delay the constitution making process to avoid imminent elections, which must be held once the country’s new supreme law is approved by a referendum.

But Mr Mugabe on Monday evening re-affirmed his commitment to the process and lashed out at the rowdy elements from his party.

He said the chaos also posed a direct threat to the unity government set up in February to address Zimbabwe’s worsening economic and political woes.

“We feel disturbed and have a sense of abhorrence at what has happened,” Mr Mugabe told a press conference flanked by Mr Tsvangirai and Prof Mutambara.

“This should not blur the fact of our unity.

“The principal phenomenon is that we are Zimbabweans, Zimbabweans with one flag, one national anthem one destiny.

“This destiny can only come when we are united.”

Mr Tsvangirai said the disturbances undermined the “spirit, undermined the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the legitimacy of the inclusive government.”

“Let this be an incident not a programme to undermine the whole thrust of the inclusive government,” he said. “If we undermined that we undermine our existence. We hope there would be no detractors or resistance to that process.”

The inclusive government set itself an 18 month deadline from the time it was installed to conclude the constitution making process.

Zimbabwe currently uses a constitution drafted at the Lancaster House on the eve of its independence from Britain in 1980, which has been amended 19 times.