Rights group to fight Zim constitutional reforms

A leading rights group in Zimbabwe vowed on Wednesday to campaign against the way a new Constitution is being drafted for the Southern African country under a recent power-sharing deal.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an umbrella group of rights bodies, churches and other activists, said the new basic law should not be written by parliamentarians but on the basis of public consultations.

Lovemore Madhuku, the group’s chairperson, said he would lead a campaign against the Constitution, which should go to a referendum next year.

“The NCA will campaign for a No vote, because any document that comes from a defective process is defective,” Madhuku told a news conference.

“We are going to start a campaign of opposing this process. We will obviously be holding demonstrations,” he added.

On Sunday, parliamentary speaker Lovemore Moyo announced the creation of a 25-member committee to spearhead the constitutional reforms.

The committee includes parliamentarians loyal to both President Robert Mugabe and the new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai—long-time rivals who formed a unity government in February.

Under Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s power-sharing deal, Zimbabwe must draft a new Constitution to be tabled in Parliament by February 2010.

In 2000, Zimbabweans rejected a Constitution backed by Mugabe after critics, including the NCA, argued that the charter gave the president too much power.—Sapa-AFP