BULAWAYO – Zimbabweans living outside the country will be excluded from the constitutional reform process due to funding constraints, a top member of the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) leading the reforms said on Friday.

About three million skilled and unskilled Zimbabweans have fled the country to neighbouring nations like South Africa and Botswana and to overseas nations over the past decade in search of better paying jobs and living conditions.

COPAC co-chairperson Edward Mkhosi told ZimOnline that the committee does not have financial resources to visit Zimbabweans in the diaspora to gather their views on the new constitution.

“Diasporans cannot be ignored but in as much as we would want to gather their views, the fact is that there is no money to do that, we do not have funds for example to visit Zimbabweans in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana,” said Mkhosi.

“They (diasporans) are difficult to reach, how do we reach out to people in the diaspora when we are failing to reach out to Zimbabweans here due to lack of funds.”

Under a September 2008 power-sharing deal that led to formation of the country’s unity government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai the country is supposed to craft a new constitution paving the way for new elections.

But funding constraints and reports of alleged intimidation by soldiers and supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party campaigning for the adoption of the controversial Kariba draft constitution as the basis for the proposed new charter have tainted the credibility of the reform exercise.

Mkhosi however said international donors have poured in funds to pave way for the gathering of views of Zimbabweans for the draft constitution, noting that the process will begin in the first week of April despite the low enthusiasm from Zimbabweans who are now fed up with the delays.

“According to our survey, the enthusiasm that people had about the constitution making process has been tempered with by the continued delays due to funding constraints. There is no enthusiasm any more because of that. Otherwise, we are confident that the process will begin in the first week of April since donors have pledged about US$21 million for the process,” he added.

ZANU PF and the two MDC formations of Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara secretly authored the Kariba draft in 2007 but critics say the document should be discarded because it leaves Mugabe’s immense powers untouched.

The coalition government is expected to call fresh elections after enactment of a new constitution although the administration can choose to wait until expiry of its term in 2013 to call elections.

Zimbabweans hope a new constitution will strengthen the role of Parliament and curtail the president's powers, as well as guarantee basic civil, political and media freedoms. – ZimOnline