STATEMENT BY THE NCA This Draft Constitution is being put forward to the people of Zimbabwe by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). In doing this, the NCA is acting on behalf, and under the instructions, of a wide spectrum of stakeholders who include: thousands of individual Zimbabweans in the NCA; churches and other religious groups; trade unions; women’s organisations; youth groups and student movements; human rights organisations; media groups, political parties and Members of Parliament. These stakeholders met as an ALL STAKEHOLDERS CONFERENCE on 31 March 2001 under the auspices of the NCA to agree on, and define, a process of bringing about a new, democratic and genuinely people driven constitution. The conference itself was the culmination of work on constitutional reform by the NCA stretching over a period of four years. At its inception in May 1997, the NCA insisted that constitutional reform in this country must be guided by the golden principle that IT IS AN INALIENABLE RIGHT of the PEOPLE TO MAKE A CONSTITUTION FOR THEMSELVES. This principle remains at the core of the NCA. This draft constitution was put together after taking into account all the inputs which the NCA, working through its own structures and those of its member institutions, received between May, 1997 and 01 December 2001 (a period of 41/2 years). It also accommodates the views, which Zimbabweans have expressed in other fora such as the Constitutional Commission of Zimbabwe. The All Stakeholders Conference of 31 March 2001, mandated the NCA to publish the first Draft Constitution by 30 September 2001. Acting in terms of that mandate, the NCA launched the 1st Draft on 28 September 2001 and thereafter the following events took place. • • • For the whole of October and November 2001, members of the public studied and debated the 1st Draft Constitution. The NCA, during that period of October and November 2001, facilitated an extensive exchange of views on the draft, isolating areas of consensus and dissensus. On 1 December 2001, the NCA convened an ALL STAKEHOLDERS CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE, which was attended by the widest possible cross-section of Zimbabweans to debate the draft and agree on a Final Draft. This is now the Final Draft, which from the evidence available to the NCA, has been endorsed by a broad section of the people of Zimbabwe. It is being presented to the government of Zimbabwe with a DEMAND that it be enacted into law. The Government must among other things, facilitate the holding of a referendum on any future 2