Johannesburg — THE gloves are off in Zimbabwe's hotly contested constitutional reform process, with major political players engaged in heated exchanges over the way forward. At stake is how to proceed with the process, which is expected to lead to a new constitution and free and fair elections by 2011. The battle for the control of the process escalated this week after the leader of the National Constitutional Assembly , the largest civic group involved in the exercise, Lovemore Madhuku, accused Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of selling out the "struggle" by joining forces with President Robert Mugabe's repressive Zanu (PF) to block "a people-driven constitution-making agenda". Tsvangirai and Mugabe are now working together in the shaky inclusive government, which came to office in February. The new government is struggling to pull Zimbabwe out of the economic doldrums . Madhuku told a National Constitutional Assembly convention in Chitungwiza, outside Harare, which drew about 4000 people, that Tsvangirai had abandoned the struggle and was now enjoying the trappings of power. He said Tsvangirai was collaborating with Mugabe to deny people the right to write their own constitution beyond the reach of political manipulation. "Tsvangirai is now getting carried away. He is now trying to create problems for us. As NCA our problem is now Tsvangirai and the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change)," Madhuku said. "We used to work together, we were also arrested and beaten up together and we fought together, but now he is speaking a different language. "He is now saying Mugabe is a good guy, yet he forgets the MDC was created to remove Mugabe from power," Madhuku said. There was no comment from Tsvangirai's spokesman. The NCA is opposed to the current constitution-making process, which is being driven by Zanu (PF) and the two MDC factions via a select parliamentary committee. The group wants what it describes as "an open, inclusive, participatory and democratic process". Zanu (PF) and the main MDC wing are also fighting among themselves for control of the process. Mugabe and his party want the Kariba draft constitution, produced under the guidance of former South African president Thabo Mbeki , to be the basis for the constitution-making process, while Tsvangirai and the MDC are rejecting the document. Negotiators from the three parties in government have now come out saying the Kariba draft will be the reference point during the constitution-making process. "We want to place it on record that the agreement of the parties was that the Kariba draft which was negotiated, agreed to and initiated by all three parties to the GPA (global political agreement) would be used by the parties through the Parliamentary Select Committee to consult people on the new content of a new constitution of Zimbabwe." The select committee would use the Kariba draft to gauge "which provisions were acceptable or not to the people, who would be accorded unrestricted rights" to accept or reject any provision and to put forward alternative provisions. Source: Business Day