I n s t i t u t e fo r j us t i ce a n d r eco n ci l iat i o n a fr i c a pr o g r a m m e new democratic constitution for the country based on an agreed procedure. However, some civil-society activists argue that ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations have captured the constitutional project and narrowed it to a struggle over party-political interests at the expense of the will of the people. The NCA therefore boycotted the COPAC process, and even mooted an alternative people-driven process under the banner ‘Take charge!’. The members of COPAC on the other hand attended courses on constitution-making, held workshops and consulted with civil society about the process (although not many of the assurances given to civil society were adhered to). A work plan was drawn up, together with a list of 16 constitutional themes. This was double the number of themes that the Constitutional Commission had worked with, and there was some was concern that the large number of themes would make both public consultation and drafting more difficult. Nevertheless, COPAC managed to meet its first GPA deadline by holding its first All-Stakeholders Conference in July 2009. The conference was attended by 4000 delegates, including all parliamentarians as well as nominees from political parties and civil society, and delegates chosen to represent special-interest groups such as war veterans. This broad participation helped to debunk perceptions of the constitutional-reform process being driven from above. And despite organisational failures, violent politically inspired disruptions of proceedings and logistical problems on the second day of the conference that limited discussion time to just a few hours, COPAC declared the conference a success, and added one more theme to the list, making 17 themes in all. Notwithstanding the clear timeframe laid out in the GPA, enormous logistical, administrative and funding challenges as well as disagreements over the status of the Kariba Draft subsequently delayed the constitution-drafting process by over a year. The Ministry of Finance allocated a measly US$1 million for the constitutional reform process in the 2011 national budget, which the unimpressed COPAC dismissed as a ‘joke’ (CISOMM 2011: 12).4 The lack of state funding has meant that COPAC’s constitutional reform process has largely been donor funded. The acceptance of foreign funds for the process of establishing the supreme law of the land is striking given ZANU-PF’s stance that certain donor funds interfere with the autonomy and sovereignty of domestic politics. Nevertheless, by November 2011, development partners such as the United Nations Development Programme had pledged over US$20 million to support the process (UNDP 2011).5 Unfortunately delays in the disbursement of some of these funds have since affected the pace of the process. The public consultation process that the GPA emphasised in order to ensure that the new constitution would be ‘owned’ by the people took place from June to October 2010 and was acrimonious. ZANU-PF and the MDC had been at each other’s throats for years prior to their uneasy co-existence in the inclusive government. Predictably, the legitimacy and credibility of the constitutional outreach programme was undermined by this polarisation, with political-party influence and ‘coaching’ of participants occurring in some areas alongside violence and intimidation mainly by ZANU-PF supporters and its allies among war veterans (CISOMM 2011: 5, 13; Human Rights Watch 2011). Frequent violent outbreaks between ZANUPF and MDC loyalists interrupted the public consultations, and presented an obstacle to the active and effective participation of citizens in the outreach programme. ZANU-PF used the consultation process to ensure that the draft constitution reflected its preference for a powerful executive president, the removal of the office of the prime minister and the preservation of the current security structures (CISOMM 2011: 13). The party also reportedly co-ordinated Operation Vhara Muromo (‘Shut Your Mouth’) to suppress dissenting voices during the outreach phase (CISOMM 2011: 13). The police allegedly disrupted several MDC-organised preparatory meetings, beat up participants and arbitrarily arrested others. For example, in February 2010 the police disrupted MDC-organised constitutional-reform meetings, beat participants and arbitrarily arrested 43 people in Binga, 48 in Masvingo and 52 in Mount Darwin (Human Rights Watch 2011). The violence worsened in Harare, and 6