War vets leader wants Parliament dissolved

War vet boss Jabulani Sibanda

By Lance Guma
03 January 2012

War veteran’s national chairman, Jabulani Sibanda, has called on President Mugabe to dissolve parliament and announce a date for fresh elections.

Sibanda, notorious for his tour of terror in the Masvingo and Manicaland provinces, is claiming that the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) has failed to deliver a draft constitution which is acceptable to them. He also claimed COPAC was delaying the process so as to avoid the holding of elections.

“Our considered view is that His Excellency, The President in terms of the current constitution must dissolve Parliament and announce a date for elections,” Sibanda said in a statement. He also claimed that 71 percent of what the people said during the outreach exercise had not been captured in the draft constitution.

The remarks by Sibanda echo threats made by Mugabe at the ZANU PF conference held in Bulawayo last month. The 87 year old threatened to undermine the constitution-making process if his party felt the draft did not reflect ZANU PF’s position. He also insisted that elections should be held in 2012 without fail.

MDC-T national spokesman and COPAC co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora meanwhile issued a statement clarifying the process of creating the new constitution: “COPAC engaged technical experts to extract constitutional issues from the whole mass of outreach data. These experts were drawn from across the political divide.”

Mwonzora said: “ZANU PF seconded five experts while the two MDC’s seconded five experts each. With the able help of these experts a document was produced which listed all the constitutional issues that came from the people.” COPAC only engaged drafters after securing the approval of the Management Committee.

Analysts believe Mugabe and ZANU PF want an early election before any meaningful reforms can be implemented. An elaborate strategy to collapse the coalition government is said to be already be in place. The plan is said to involve rejecting the draft constitution and arresting senior MDC-T officials.

Mwonzora told SW Radio Africa: “We do not simply want elections for the sake of having elections in Zimbabwe. We want elections that are free and fair and produce a legitimate result. People like Jabulani Sibanda thrive on maiming and killing people and the MDC will make sure this will not happen again.”

Turning to claims that they had not reflected the views of the people, Mwonzora said: “A constitution is not wrong because it does not include issues which Jabulani Sibanda and his gang want. We are writing what the people of Zimbabwe want.”