From LegalBrief:

Former Constitutional Court Judge Richard Goldstone says that levelling war crimes charges against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe would not be possible.

According to a report on the iAfrica.com site, Goldstone said while there were serious reports about crimes against minority groups in Zimbabwe during Mugabe’s reign in the late 1980s and most of the 1990s, they fell outside the ambit of the International Crimes Court. ‘Firstly, the court has no jurisdiction on anything that happened prior to 1 July 2002. Secondly, Zimbabwe is not a member of the court and therefore the court has no jurisdiction over any war crimes committed in Zimbabwe,’ said Goldstone.

Full report on the iAfrica.com site

Merit Rumema wrote to Kubatana about the constitutional process questioning why so few women are actively involved in shaping the debate and discussion. Here’s her contribution:

Are women just political cheerleaders?

To say I was shocked at the level of women’s participation in the ongoing constitutional reform process is an understatement. I was appalled, devastated and disappointed. After attending three meetings in Mashonaland West Province, I was forced to come back, sit on my desk and ask myself, “What exactly is women’s participation?”

Is it the high turn out of women at these meetings, after all, there are more women in rural areas than men? Surely how can 300 women attend a meeting, just to ululate and clap hands as four, yes, 4 men, dominate a three-hour discussion. Surely how can that happen? Is women’s participation simply cheering and ululating?

As an observer from a women’s rights organisation, I travelled hundreds of kilometres to see for myself if women were being given an opportunity to speak and make their demands known. I sat through the 26 talking points and waited for women to speak. Talking point 11 discusses empowerment of previously disadvantaged groups. At this point I became really expectant, thinking women would consider how they have been disadvantaged and make new demands in the constitution such as free adult education.

Talking point 19 discusses independent commissions. Not one woman though to talk of a gender commission. This really got me very worried. What will the draft constitution comprise of? What is going on?

Back in my office after three similar meetings I started to ask myself what a people driven constitution really is and who the people are. >From my limited experience, the people are the political parties, and it has become impossible to separate the political party influence from individual thinking, aspirations and desires.

And as usual, everything that has political connotations attached to it becomes a playing zone for men, while women are silent spectators or cheerleaders, depending which party reigns in the area. Whether it is fear, intimidation, lack of knowledge and political will, in rural Zimbabwe, the women’s role is to be used as stepping stones in the dirty game called politics.

Why are we as a nation spending time and resources on a process whose outcome will hinge only on politics party needs?

Zimbabwean people speak out . . . here are a few questions from a Kubatana subscriber.

1. When the municipal police raid vendors, where do they put the merchandise coz the bulk of times the raided stuff does not reach the police station?

2. Why do police raid people trying to make a living by selling when the council and the government they are serving can’t create jobs to absorb those people? Do they want to turn them all into thieves?

3. Where is the money being collected at Toll Gates going if roads remain that bad even around cities when the people collecting the money are cruising in modern-mech cars?

4. Besides getting high perks, chasing vendors from the streets, and involving in corrupt land deals what else do the council administrators do on a normal day?

It’s a disgrace, God help us.

From: Timeslive.co.za
Top local band Freshlyground have added a cheeky spin to the music video of their latest single, Chicken to Change, as they challenge Zimbabwean president Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s leadership. The video, done in collaboration with the satirical Internet show ZA News, is the second for the seven-member band’s album Radio Africa. In the song, lead singer Zolani Mahola sings about what a noble “supernova” Mugabe was, but then says that somewhere along the way, he fell.
More here

The Union for Sustainable Democracy recently released this statement:

Prime Minister Tsvangirai must order Chombo’s investigation

The Union for Sustainable Democracy urges Zimbabwean Prime Minister Tsvangirai to act decisively by ordering a swift probe into minister Chombo’s alleged corruption and misconduct.

Yesterday the MDC issued a Press Release calling upon ‘… the inclusive government to urgently investigate Local Government, Rural and Urban Development minister, Ignatius Chombo.’

While USD shares the view that Chombo has become nothing short of a menace to local governance as he continually disrupts the free flow of competent services, we bemoan the fact that, despite being the majority party in the unity government, all the MDC does is call upon the unity government to investigate Chombo.

Of course Chombo should be arrested, tried and, if convicted, sacked. However, if the MDC itself does not move to implement the investigation of Chombo, who the hell will? Why Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai does not simply go ahead and order an investigation is baffling to everyone who has put their trust in the MDC.

It is this kind of timidity and stunning lack of clout that enables ZANU PF – supposedly the junior partner in the inclusive government – to trample on the MDC with arrogance and impunity. Progress has stalled on many fronts because of this seemingly political ineptitude on the part of the MDC.

It is a facile to suggest that the MDC as a party and the MDC as a partner in the inclusive government are two separate entities. Of course they are one and the same.

If instituting a mere investigation is too daunting a task, how much more frightening must it be for the MDC to approach President Mugabe on more fundamental political reforms? And what is the prospect of doing so successfully?

USD calls on the MDC to rethink its approach to dealing with issues in the so-called inclusive government.

Issued by the Information & Publicity Department Union for Sustainable Democracy www.usd.org.zw

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has just issued the following press statement:

ZESN sent a delegation to Kenya to draw lessons on the constitutional review process and the referendum. Kenya has come a long way on its journey in making a new constitution and finally on the 4th of August 2010, the Kenyans voted for a new constitution. Kenya shares a number of similarities with Zimbabwe, namely that both were British colonies in the past, both have had a Lancaster House Constitutions, and more importantly that both currently have power sharing governments that emanated from the contested elections results. They also experienced post-election violence after their polls. Similar to Zimbabwe as part of the power sharing settlement they had to make a new constitution before elections which are scheduled in 2012 after all the laws had been made.

While the two countries share some similarities, they are unique in a number of ways. Notwithstanding these unique attributes, a number of lessons can be drawn from the Kenyan experience and this statement provides reflections on the lessons we can draw from the Kenyan experience.

* In their efforts to draft a new constitution, the Kenyans did not begin from scratch. They built on the progressive aspects of previous drafts such as the Bomas draft, the Guy draft and the Naivasha drafts, all drafts which had failed to sail through but from which they were able to sift through and get the positive aspects.
* There was a commitment from the onset that Kenyans would do participate in the referendum meaningfully. This was ensured through the provision of civic education by the Committee of Experts and the civic society groups.
* A Committee of Experts was set up to be in charge of the drafting of a new constitution and this committee was responsible for taking submissions from the public in written form. After this process, the committee presented the first draft to the citizens to make comments on. It is interesting to note the stage at which the people participated in the process. Drafts of the constitutions were disseminated in a number of languages and millions of copies were circulated for people to make their submissions.
*  Kenya had a clear road map for the review process and there were timeframes for each activity that were adhered to, hence they were able to keep the timeframe for the drafting of the new constitution and putting it to referendum within the agreed timeframes.
* More importantly, the constitution review process for Kenya was rooted in an act of parliament entitled the Constitution of Kenya Review Act of 2008 which provided benchmarks for the constitution making process and the manner in which it would be done. In addition, Kenya had comprehensive referendum regulations which had been made by the newly sworn in Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), an Electoral Code of Conduct and an Election Offences Act for political parties enshrined in an Act of Parliament. All these legal provisions provided for a transparent and open process that increased the credibility, openness, transparency and inclusiveness of the review process and the IIEC.
* There was a strong political will to follow the provisions of the legal framework that had been put in place for the review process. ZESN noted that all stakeholders were consulted in all processes; there was constant dialogue and collaboration between the IIEC, civic society, media, and the Committee of Experts. This solid relationship made processes such as accreditation of observers less cumbersome.
* The success of the referendum was a function of number of factors. There was the political will to follow the spirit of the laws that had been enacted specifically for the constitutional review process.
* Violence early warning systems were put in place by civic society organisations to provide early warnings for possible violent hotspots and deter the ensuing of violence. These were published in state and private media.
* The IIEC ensured that over 10000 observers were accredited for the referendum in order to protect the integrity of the vote.
* Agents for the green (groups in support of the constitution) and reds (groups opposed to the draft constitution) were accredited to monitor the processes.
* Campaigns for the constitution and against the constitution were closely monitored for the presence of hate speech and any aspects that violated the Electoral Offences Act.
* Results were announced timeously and in some polling stations counting was done live on television. The process of tabulating results was open and results were announced with 48 hours.
* While there was opposition to the draft constitution especially on issues of abortion and Islamic courts these issues did not take away the fact that the Kenyan constitution was a progressive document   crafted in an inclusive and participatory manner by all stakeholders.

In conclusion, ZESN observed that the constitution review process in Kenya was grounded in a solid legal framework with benchmarks that provided timelines and specifications for the conduct of the process. Processes were not left to chance. In additions, institutions responsible for the review and the conduct of the referendum that is the committee of experts and the IIEC respectively were independent in the carrying out of their mandate and were open to the scrutiny of civil society and all stakeholders.