The committee that runs Zimbabwe’s constitutional revision process has set a meeting Tuesday in Harare at which it will take up the issues that have delayed the rollout of the public outreach phase of the national exercise.
Sources said the panel will focus on the selection of the rapporteurs who will report public sentiment to the parliamentary select committee responsible for drafting the new constitution. The three political parties in Harare's unity government want to have one of their own rapporteurs in each of the 70 outreach teams; the committee proposed just one per team.
Funding will also be taken up: the state-run Sunday Mail reported that donors including the United Nations Development Program and the European Union pulled out after failing to influence the constitutional process. The newspaper is considered to be partial to the former ruling ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe, like the Herald and Bulawayo Chronicle.
But Web news service ZimOnline quoted international donors as saying they were committed to the process. VOA could not reach spokespersons for the EU or the UNDP to confirm the ZimOnline report.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga told VOA Studio 7 reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that Tuesday’s meeting is necessary to take bearings as the revision process moves into the critical phase of outreach deployment.
Parliamentary Select Committee Co-Chairman Edward Mkhosi of the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara told reporter Brenda Moyo the meeting will set the way forward.
