The army commander who has recently been a source of political controversy in the media, Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba, has been removed from Copac.
Copac co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora (MDC-T) on Tuesday confirmed that after the sitting of the Copac management committee on Monday, they resolved that Nyikayaramba and other members of the CIO and security forces participating in Copac should be relieved of their duties.
“I brought to the attention of the Copac management committee a resolution that we had made on Brigadier Nyikayaramba on October 4, 2009 where we had agreed that since he was a member of the Zimbabwe National Army, it was improper for him to get into Copac and at that time he was withdrawn from participating by Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa,” said Mwonzora.
“That issue was then brought on Monday before the management committee and they resolved that Nyikayaramba must be removed from Copac and the same also applies to all army, CIO and security people in Copac,” he said.
Nyikayaramba had been a technical advisor in the thematic area on elections although he publicly declared allegiance to Zanu PF.
“We are against the use of security forces in civilian processes because they occupy a unique position in our society. They can never therefore be asked to represent political parties in Copac because that is asking them to be partisan,” Mwonzora said.
Although Zanu PF co-chairman in Copac, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, confirmed that Nyikayaramba had been relieved of his duties at Copac, he gave a totally different reason for his removal.
“He was not dismissed,” Mangwana said. “His contract with Copac had already expired and that is the reason why he left. We had already paid him for his services as the technical advisor in the thematic area on elections and he left.”
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l Meanwhile, the Thematic Committee stage of the constitution-making process has stalled due to squabbles among political parties over data analysis methods to be used.
As a result, the Copac management committee has advised the Copac co-chairpersons to desist from giving comments on when the new Constitution would be completed as this was still unclear.
