The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which participatory deliberative
democracy is being practised in the constitution making process in Zimbabwe. The nature of
public participation determines the character, quality and extent of consultations and
democratic deliberation in policy formulation Constitution making has inescapably remained
an ‘unfinished business’ in Zimbabwe as a consequence of the Lancaster House settlement of
1979. Yet, a national constitution is a biography of the nation, whose crafting must embody
legitimacy and credibility. This research sought to examine the processes available for public
participation for constitution making in Zimbabwe. The research focused on the constitution
making process as a case study against the background of a partocratic policy making system
that existed since 1980, and the advent of the Inclusive Government consummated on 13
February 2009 whose policy making architecture is premised on the GPA. The central
question of this study was: “What processes are being used to secure deliberative democratic
participation in the constitution design process in Zimbabwe? The research relied on
documentary evidence, the researcher’s experience and observations as well as targeted semistructured
interviews on public participation in the constitution making process in Zimbabwe
for data collection, as a case study. The researcher relied on secondary data from published
and unpublished literature and tracked newspaper publications to gather data related to the
constitution making process. The researcher also visited and observed some of the
Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) outreach meetings to gather information relating to
the quality of deliberation at the meetings. The main findings were that the COPAC structure
did not adequately provide a framework for delivering deliberative democracy as political
parties retained decision making at stages of the process. The research concluded that
political parties, the Executive and Parliament, dominated the process. Participation was
cosmetic and “Executo-partocratic driven” rather than a “people-driven” process. The
prevalence of citizen harassment and intimidation as well as the occurrence of violence
during the consultative process hampered meaningful participation in deliberative processes
by citizens. Similarly the inauspicious operating environment discouraged the free flow of
information and debate, alienating citizen views and limiting deliberative participatory
democracy. In the main, the policy making approach adopted was ‘Executo-partocratic’ and
as such limited the citizens participation in equal, open and free deliberation resulting in a
process that lacked legitimacy and credibility.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12022 |
| Date | 04 October 2012 |
| Creators | Shonhe, Toendepi |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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