Constitution Public Outreach: Venues and Teams
June 22nd, 2010
We have collated information from several Veritas mailings sent on the 20th May, 20th June and 21st June respectively. This is specifically regarding the constitution outreach venues and dates for the public consultation process, plus the names and roles of the members of the teams deployed to each province.
You have the right to attend these meetings and to publically voice your opinion on what you think Zimbabwe’s new constitution should look like. Do not let anyone intimidate or harrass you.
We would like to remind you that you can use our comprehensive constitution resource to explore different sections and topics in the exisiting constitution, plus the two other draft constitution documents (the Kariba Draft and the NCA Draft). You can also download copies of these documents from our website (in PDF format) by clicking on the ‘Constitution Documents’ tab. Your opinions do not need be the same as any of the documents already in circulation or on our resource page and you do not need to decide to support one or another draft document. You are entitled to your own views and opinion, and you have the right to express those views publically. Please consider our resource as a background guide into the discussion that may arise at the meetings and use the information there to formulate your own views and arguments.
Veritas today circulated this comment:
It is unfortunate that so many administrative details have been left to the last minute. At a COPAC meeting in Parliament on Friday 17th there were still substantive disagreements and many of those attending the meeting walked out, so the scheduled press conference was cancelled. It means that keeping the public informed about what is happening has taken a back seat. The Chairpersons of the Select Committee of Parliament are to be congratulated in their determination to press on despite all difficulties. It would however have been more helpful to the public and engendered greater transparency and accountability if the COPAC Secretariat had been willing to supply more information.
Veritas spent many hours trying to get updated information so we could inform the public. We kept being told that even the information published by the press was not necessarily correct or up-to-date. We took the decision to send out the outreach itineraries and lists of team members but with the caveat that there might be changes. The lack and lateness of communications has been very frustrating for those in civil society who offered to made themselves available for several months to assist in the process and have been kept hanging for almost a year. It also means that many professional people knowledgeable on constitutional matters will not be taking part.
Please help roll out this information by circulating the information available on the link below widely, and encourage everyone you know to take part in this critically important public process.
Visit our constitution resource for full details of dates, venues and teams for all provinces.
