MY PETITION TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF ZIMBABWE

This day I regret that I am a poor man. If I had money like Mutumwa Mawere, I would have made the following submission to the constitutional court of Zimbabwe.


MY PETITION TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF ZIMBABWE IN OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE'S APPLICATION TO HAVE THE ELECTION DEADLINE POSTPONED.

 1.
 a) My name is Jupiter Charles Punungwe
 b) I am Zimbabwean citizen identification number 63-0000000-X-18
 c) I am currently working outside the country but I reside at 1278 Tynwald South, Harare. I also alternatively reside at Farm no 1025, Hampshire, Chikomba District
 d) I am not a member of any political party. I make this submission as a private citizen interested in making sure that the tenets of democracy are upheld in Zimbabwe.
 e) I am proud to be Zimbabwean, I am proud to have been Zimbabwean every second of my life. I will proudly remain a Zimbabwean to the day I die.

 2.
 a) You worships, you are the supreme legal authority in Zimbabwe.
 b) You have in your hands the sovereign authority of the people of Zimbabwe which you exercise without fear, favour or interference from any parties.
 c) On Zimbabwean soil, state parties have to obey and respect your judgments, even though such states may deem themselves more powerful than Zimbabwe.
 d) I have absolute faith that your decisions are always in the best interests of Zimbabwe.
 e) I have absolute faith in your impartiality in upholding the laws of Zimbabwe.
 f) Furthermore I submit it to you that the constitution that gives you your authority, is the very same that defines the democratic nature of Zimbabwe.

 3.
 a) I submit it to you that the cornerstone of democracy is that elections must be held on time without fail.
 b) I implore you not stop the democratic clock, simply because a group of individuals are not confident of winning.
 c) I implore you not to stop the democratic clock until some individuals are convinced that the deck is stacked sufficiently in their favour.
 d) I implore you not to stop the democratic clock for reason of appeasing external parties some of who have vested interests and interfering in Zimbabwe's governance.

 4.
 a) Your worships, I also beg you be cognisant of the fact that, the current coalition government was supposed to have concluded its business by the 14th of September 2010.
 b) If you wish to consider that the GNU was sworn in on 13 February 2009, then at the very latest the GNU should have concluded it's reform business by 12 February 2011.
 c) Your worships, it is therefore my considered submission to you that if there were any urgent and critical reforms that warrant the halting of our democratic clock, the respective parties in the GNU have had more than enough time to push for those that they deemed critical.
 d) It is also my considered submission to you that reforms have indeed taken place.
 e)  I recognise that fact that yourselves as the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe, are constituted by a constitution that was adopted after a referendum. The referendum extensively reformed Zimbabwe's electoral systems.
 f) I submit to you the conduct of that referendum as evidence that indeed reforms have taken place.

 5.
 a) Your worships, any system, including a system of laws is subject to constant improvement.
 b) Our democratic right as the people of Zimbabwe to periodically choose our representatives, should not be subordinate to these incremental reforms.
 c) Your worships I submit to you Zimbabwe has clearly defined ways in which various servants of the state including security officials and judges are appointed. People with the relevant authority to make the appointments do so when they are in office not before.
 d) Your worships may I bring it to your attention that many other democratic systems including the United States work the very same way Zimbabwe is doing it. When a democratic president is in office, they tend to appoint liberal judges. When a republican is in office, they tend to appoint conservative officials including judges.
 e) Your worships, it is therefore only fair to expect that anyone who is not happy with past appointments in whatever sector of Zimbabwe's government and judiciary, should win office first and make their own changes going forward.

 6.
 a) Your worships, may I also establish the fact that not all Zimbabweans are represented by the political parties wishing to delay the elections.
 b) However elections are the vehicle which afford Zimbabweans to determine their political representation for the next democratic cycle.
 c) That the current cycle is about to expire means that none of the political parties can claim to have a solid mandate, but that they must all go back to the electorate to renew, extend or maybe loose the mandate as the electorate may desire.
 d) Your worships I beg you to be cognisant of the fact elections give every Zimbabwean the right to express themselves if they so wish, irrespective of political affiliation or lack thereof.
 e) By insisting that elections take place on time, you will be upholding the right of every Zimbabwean as defined by the constitution of Zimbabwe, not just some of particular political affiliations.
 f) By upholding the democratic rights of all Zimbabweans, you will not be in any way interfering with the rights of some who express the wish to delay elections.
 g) Your worships, submit it to you that political disagreement among some Zimbabweans, is not a sufficiently strong reason to delay the democratic process.

 7.
 a) Your worships as you may be aware one of the demanded reforms is media reforms.
 b) Morgan Tsvangirai leading this media 'reform' drive was recently quoted as threatening media that is not sympathetic to him and his party that 'muchadya izvozvo' a clear threat made in the Shona language.
 c) Making such threats against the media clearly suggests that calls for media reform are not sincere.
 d) Your worship there is a distinct possibility that these calls are merely meant to delay processes or simply be a spanner in the works.

 8.
 a) Your worships, I submit that there is no need to delay the democratic process
 b) I submit that there are no special circumstances to warrant a delay of the elections.
 c) External state parties including the African Union and SADC have made it clear that the decision amend your previous ruling is yours alone.
 d) Even if these external parties had attempted to instruct otherwise, they do not hold any authority over yourselves. You are the constitutional court of the sovereign nation of Zimbabwe.
 e) Your worships I submit that the paramount consideration is Zimbabwe's democratic needs. I submit that right now, the most important need is that of upholding the democratic precedent that has been religiously maintained for the past three decades.
 f) I submit that it will be extremely harmful to Zimbabwe's future if we allow the precedent that elections can be delayed for the sake of a few unhappy individuals. In future such minded people may seek to delay elections by several years negating the entire practice of democracy.
g) Your worships the purpose of elections is to determine Zimbabwe's political representation from this point forward. It would be unfair to allow those who may have enjoyed political representation in the past to tinker with future political representation outside the democratic electoral framework.
h) Your worships I submit it to you that elections must take place first, to determine the valid political mandates from this point forward, before we tinker with any other reforms.