ZIMBABWEAN political and civic groups will go ahead with a conference on a new national constitution this weekend despite strong opposition from President Robert Mugabe’s government. National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) representative Douglas Mwonzora said more than 1 000 delegates would attend the one-day meeting in Harare on Saturday, which the government vowed to boycott after it was proposed last November. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party says it will not participate in a conference sponsored by the NCA because the organisation spearheaded a campaign to reject a draft constitution drawn up by a government-sponsored commission a year ago. The NCA is a coalition of human rights campaigners, opposition parties, unions, associations and individuals who got together in 1997 to press Mugabe to rewrite the constitution. After initially rejecting the idea, Mugabe named a 400-member Constitutional Commission in 1999 which produced a controversial draft constitution. The draft, which the NCA and other critics said was designed to entrench Mugabe in power, was rejected in a national referendum in February 2000. – Reuters
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