HomeOld_PostsRevisiting the Zimbabwean Constitution

Revisiting the Zimbabwean Constitution

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THE masses of Zimbabwe have not read the Constitution.
Some have not even seen the Constitution.
It cannot be found in bookshops, even the English version.
The purpose of this article is to make people aware that the Constitution says the Government must avail the Constitution throughout the country in all the 16 officially recognised languages of Zimbabwe and it must be taught in schools and disseminated throughout society in the preferred languages of the people.
The officially recognised languages of Zimbabwe are specified in Chapter I, Section 6 (1).
They are in alphabetical order, not in the order of their importance.
These officially recognised languages include Koisan and sign language.
None of them is more important than the others according to the Constitution.
This implies that there are no minority languages and majority languages according to the Zimbabwean constitution.
Chapter I, Section 6 (3) clearly says the State and all institutions and agencies of government at every level must (a) ensure that all officially recognised languages in Zimbabwe are treated equitably and (b) take into account the language preferences of people affected by government measures or communications.
The implication of this is that the government or State must ensure that the decisions that it makes such as court judgments and economic programmes are explained to the people and communicated to the people and understood by the people in the languages that the people who are affected by them prefer.
It is important to note that since the adoption of the new Zimbabwean constitution, government programmes, measures and practices are deliberated, decided upon, passed, implemented and communicated to the people in English at the expense of the other 15 officially recognised language preferences of the people mentioned in our constitution.
Even the English versions are riddled with concepts and terms whose specific meanings and implications are above the heads and comprehension of those who have crafted them in English. For example, the term socio-economic transformation in the Zim-ASET is a beautiful sounding term whose meaning seems self-evident.
Socio-economic transformation is a double-pronged highly specialised term used in the field of Political Economy whose exact meanings and implications only a few of those who have adopted it for the Zim-ASSET may be schooled in.
It is double-pronged because its intention is first to transform our society and then to transform our economy.
Now, the misleading assumption is that there is one thing called society and another thing called the economy.
But let us just look at the need to transform our society as an example.
What does transforming the Zimbabwean society really mean to the down-to-earth-life of the majority of our people of Zimbabwe?
You are transforming them from being what to being what?
To transform them means to change the existing form of their society or culture to a new form of society and culture.
What is this new form?
What does it look like?
Has this so-called new form been explained to the people and have they understood it and agreed to it?
In what ways is this new form of society or culture better than the existing form?
What exactly is wrong with the existing form of society or culture?
How different is this new form of society from the New World Order proposed by the West as a way of dominating all the societies and cultures of the world and their economies?
Are the wrongs of the existing social order explained to the people in a language that they understand so that they can also agree that surely the existing social order or regime has problems and indeed must be changed into a new form of society which is not bedevilled with such problems?
Such an explanation needs to be done without sounding to advocate for regime change that the West and its opposition parties have been mulling to effect in Zimbabwe.
It is the absence of such explanations of government programmes and communicating them in the preferred languages of the people who are affected by them that raises suspicion among the masses of the people especially when these programmes are hailed and supported by the same Western countries that seek regime change in Zimbabwe as very good for Zimbabwe.
Another example is the need by government to explain to the masses of the people in the languages that the people understand the wisdom of continuing to use the currencies of the same Western nations that wish to bring regime change in Zimbabwe and control our economy.
The habit at present is to attack anyone who tries to raise the need for government to come up with a clearly thought out process of reintroducing our own currency whatever new name, new status and new strength it may be given.
The fact is that the same Western countries that have imposed illegal economic sanctions on Zimbabwe and the opposition parties they have created to effect regime change in Zimbabwe are the most vociferous people who vehemently attack any suggestion for coming up with a local currency for Zimbabwe.
Because these debates are never in the languages that the masses of the people of Zimbabwe understand, the masses are therefore left out of them, and have no say in them, yet they are the ones who are affected by them and are expected to abide by them when they are enforced as governmental measures by government.
As our Constitution says, it is imperative that government abide by its provisions especially the hitherto neglected officially recognised languages of the masses of our people.
Only then can our Constitution and our Government be of the people, by the people and for the people.

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