COPAC

COPAC concludes data uploading

COPAC will soon be concluding the data uploading exercise that commenced on Tuesday, the 11th of January at the Crowne Plaza Monomotapa Hotel.  The exercise is expected to be completed by the 25th of January.
A total of 210 rapporteurs and 70 technicians have been uploading data from their written reports as well as audio and video recordings into a giant server in preparation for the sitting of the Thematic Committees scheduled to take place shortly.  They have been working under the supervision of the Select Committee to ensure that contributions have been accurately recorded.  A strong team of technical experts is also on hand to troubleshoot and provide technical support as and when needed.
COPAC has been able to upload data on the giant server through the support of the UNDP.  We would like to express our gratitude to the UNDP and other donors who contributed to the basket being managed by the UNDP, for their financial and technical support to the process.  We would like to emphasize that contrary to reports carried in some sections of the media, the UNDP and the other donors have not pulled out of the constitution-making process.  They continue to be key supporters of the process.
The uploading process, which initially suffered technical setbacks, is now on course and should be completed on time.  The process was also briefly interrupted when the MDC replaced its delegates with new ones after the party’s recent congress.  The matter was quickly resolved and work went ahead as expected. 
A total of 4942 meetings were held during the outreach phase which ended in December, 2010.  Uploading teams have been given a target of uploading at least 16 meetings a day and have been working up to 2000 hours everyday.
By end of day on Sunday, 23rd January, a total of 3031 meetings had been uploadedInformation that is being fed into the giant server captures the identity of the meeting by identifying the venue, team details,  exactly what the people said on each thematic area,  number of participants at the meeting, and the rapporteurs’ report of the meeting.  These details will be verified by the team leaders before the information can be used during the thematic meetings.
When the data uploading process has been concluded, the Thematic Committees will sit to analyze the data that will have been compiled, theme by theme.  There are 17 thematic areas all in all, and the Committees will look at these in great detail.  After the sitting of the Thematic Committees, the drafters, who are experts in constitutional law, will then use the information to draft the new constitution. 
The new draft will be presented before a Second All Stakeholders’ Conference for discussion and debate, after which it will be presented to Parliament for further debate.  After this there will be the referendum, run by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission where Zimbabweans will be given an opportunity to decide whether or not to pass the new draft.  Should the people be agreeable to the contents of the new draft, it will then be gazetted and will be the new constitution for Zimbabwe.
We sincerely hope that resources will be timeously availed so that the constitution-making process proceeds as scheduled.  Engagement with our funders, including the Government, is on-going.  COPAC is committed to successfully producing a people owned new constitution for Zimbabwe through an inclusive and democratic process.