Mwonzora arrest did not affect Copac — Mangwana

Newsday

By Tatenda Chitagu

March 22 2011

The recent incarceration of Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC-T co-chairperson of Copac, did not have anything to do with politics, his Zanu PF counterpart Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana has said.

Mwonzora, MDC-T MP for Nyanga North, spent nearly a month in remand prison after he was arrested for allegedly inciting public violence.

In an interview, on the sidelines of the anti-sanctions petition launch in Masvingo on Saturday, Mangwana said no Copac material was tampered with during Mwonzora’s absence as there were other members from other political parties.

“It was progress as usual. Everything was going on as normal. We did not miss Mwonzora,” Mangwana said.

“There was no tampering with the people’s views as you know that there are other members from the three parties in the GPA. The other co-chair, Edward Mkhosi, of the MDC, was also there, as well as other members of the select committee, monitoring what was going on, so there is nothing like that.”

Other members of the committee include MPs Jessie Majome, Flora Bhuka, Amos Chibaya, Walter Chidakwa,Gift Chimanikire, Edward Chindori-Chininga, David Coltart, Gladys Dube, Joram Gumbo, Ian Kay, Martin Khumalo, Believe Gaule, Cephas Makuyana, and Thokozile Mathuthu, among others.

“To say Zanu PF got a chance to alter the people’s views in the absence of the MDC-T co-chair is unfounded. These are unwarranted allegations,” Mangwana said.

Mangwana said Copac was engaged in uploading of data which he said should be over by the end of March.

He said the draft constitution should be out by August or at the latest, September.

He said Copac had acquired $9 million from the government and donors to facilitate the process.

“We managed to get $9 million last week. Treasury released $5 million, and we got the remainder from donors.”

Mangwana said an extra $3 million would be needed for Copac to complete the replacement of the current Constitution, a product of the Lancaster House Conference of 1979.

“We will need another $3 million to complete the process.

“We intend to get half from government and half from donors,” said Mangwana.