http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 20:29
Dumisani
Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party want to
fast-track the
on-and-off constitution-making process to ensure fresh
elections are held by
spring this year, in a move which could set off a
renewed wave of political
instability and fierce clashes around the
country.
Zanu PF’s intentions became clearer yesterday after the
party’s crucial
politburo meeting on Wednesday.
The
politburo meeting, which outlined the party’s 2011 agenda, discussed the
constitution-making process targeting elections. Party restructuring and
mobilisation of voters featured prominently as part of the strategy.
Indigenisation and sanctions, the campaign centerpiece of the party, was
also discussed, suggesting an intensifying drive for
elections.
Zanu PF is planning to come up with an Anti-Sanctions Bill
and two-million-
signature petition, signed by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai as well, to
facilitate grabbing foreign companies. The MDC
factions would be pressed to
support the Bill and foreign companies to
denounce sanctions. If they refuse
to support Zanu PF’s agenda, they would
be labelled “confirmed and
incorrigible puppets”, according to one official.
Companies which refuse to
back anti-sanctions measures would be targeted for
seizures.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, a senior Zanu PF politburo member,
recently alluded to
this.
Zanu PF confirmed yesterday it wants
the constitution-making process to be
done by June and a referendum to
follow soon afterwards before elections
later in the year. It would take a
fast-track process to meet Zanu PF’s
tight timelines.
Zanu PF
spokesman Rugare Gumbo said yesterday it was “absolutely possible”
to finish
the constitution-making process by June and for a referendum after
that
before holding elections in a quick succession of political
events.
“From the brief that we got in the politburo we will finish
the
constitution-making around June. After that we go for the referendum and
then elections,” he said.
While Zanu PF is targeting September
for elections, MDC-T says that is when
the referendum is possible, while
MDC-N argues the constitution- making
process and referendum could spill
into next year if properly done.
The clash of agendas and positions
between the three parties in the Global
Political Agreement triggered
militant rhetoric yesterday, with party
officials accusing each other of
engaging in dangerous manoeuvres and
harbouring sinister
plots.
Gumbo accused the MDC factions of trying to sabotage the
constitution-making
process to delay elections.
“They are trying
to delay the process and the question is: Why are they
afraid of elections?”
he said.
Mugabe has threatened to unilaterally dissolve parliament
and call for
elections if the constitution-making process is held
up.
MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa hit back, saying: “Why is Zanu PF
afraid of
free and fair elections? That is the real question.” Chamisa also
accused
Zanu PF of hatching a “sinister plot” to steal elections. He said
its
hysteria about elections showed it was “seized by political demons and
Satanist tendencies” to fraudulently claim victory after a flawed
process.
MDC-N leader Welshman Ncube said Zanu PF was “caught in a
one-party-state
time warp” and was trying to impose an “impracticable”
political agenda on
the country.
“Zanu PF must understand it
can’t fast-track a negotiated political process,
which is not even under its
absolute control. They still have a one-party-
state mentality and want to
impose an impracticable political agenda on the
country,” he
said.
Ncube said the constitution-making process would take long
because
inevitably some disputes would erupt, issues have to be negotiated
and
processes followed properly. “It’s an act of bad faith on Zanu PF’s
part,”
he said.
The push by Mugabe and Zanu PF for elections
could plunge Zimbabwe, still
struggling to emerge from the rubble of the
decade-long political crisis and
economic meltdown, into a new cycle of
instability and violence.
The two MDC formations have accused Zanu PF
of deploying security forces
around the country to engage in a para-military
campaign to win the next
elections after its defeat in 2008. MDC-T narrowly
beat Zanu PF which for
the first time since 1980 lost its majority in
parliament.
Air Force of Zimbabwe Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena,
supported by state
security machinery, is leading the
campaign.
“If Zanu PF is not afraid of elections why are they
deploying soldiers
around the country to campaign for them,” Chamisa asked?
“Why are they
setting up bases and arming their supporters? Why are they
planning, as
usual, to resort to violence and intimidation? Why are they
afraid of the
people?”
MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti last
week warned of a “bloodbath” if the
country rushes to
elections.
Chamisa said MDC-T wants free and fair elections, “not
war, killings and
bloodletting. Fast-tracking political processes towards
elections would not
work. We want free and fair elections. We need a roadmap
with benchmarks,
timelines and dates before elections,” he said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
20:24
Faith Zaba in Addis Ababa
THE AFRICAN Union Commission is
opposed to elections in Zimbabwe this year
and is now trying to persuade
President Robert Mugabe to postpone them to
2013 to allow for necessary
reforms that can ensure violence-free, credible,
free and fair polls, top
officials in the commission revealed this week.
In separate
interviews with the Zimbabwe Independent, senior officials in
the Political
Affairs’ Department of Human Rights, Elections and Peace and
Security of the
AU Commission, who preferred anonymity because they are not
authorised to
speak to the media, said the commission was planning to send
an AU
assessment team to Zimbabwe to find out if conditions were right for
elections.
They were, however, quick to point out that
due to financial constraints,
the AU could not send observer and monitoring
teams six months before an
election as the MDC-T wanted.
While
the head of the Department of Human Rights and Elections of the AU
Commission, Mamadou Dia, could neither confirm nor deny that the commission
wanted polls in Zimbabwe held in 2013, he said elections should only take
place in a conducive environment.
“What needs to be done in
Zimbabwe before elections is to ensure that the
environment is conducive for
free and fair elections and this has to be done
by Zimbabweans themselves,”
Dia said.
Top commission officials said members of the commission
would be meeting
with Zimbabwe’s Foreign minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
before the heads of
state and government summit starting on Sunday to
express their reservations
on an early election.
The officials
said the commission is in agreement that the current
environment prevailing
in Zimbabwe was not conducive to hold credible
elections free of violence
and intimidation.
They believe the country has not carried out
sufficient institutional and
legislative reforms to enable it to hold free
and fair elections.
“The AU commission is against elections this year
— we are in agreement on
this,” said an official in the Department of Human
Rights and Elections.
“We believe conditions in Zimbabwe are not
ideal for free and fair
elections. We are planning to meet with minister
Mumbengegwi to advise and
persuade him as the commission that elections
should ideally be held in
2013.”
The official said if efforts to meet
with Mumbengegwi fail, they would find
a way of making sure Mugabe gets the
message during the summit and is well
advised of the implications of having
an election this year under the
current conditions.
“If we feel
that he (Mumbengegwi) is too scared to meet and convey this
message to
Mugabe, we will make sure that the message gets to the president,
even if it
means forcing a meeting with him during the summit. Everyone is
worried
about what is happening in Ivory Coast and what we want is to avoid
a
possible conflict (in Zimbabwe),” he said.
“The country needs years
to prepare for a proper and clean election.
Zimbabwe’s rush into prematurely
prepared elections in 2011 can only provide
further (ammunition) to the West
to find an opening to mess up Zimbabwe. The
people are being rushed by their
leaders and that is a recipe for disaster.”
This follows Mugabe’s
statement last Sunday on his return from Singapore
that elections would be
held with or without a new constitution.
Mugabe said he had the right
to dissolve parliament and call for elections
this year, despite strong
opposition for an early election being held
without necessary electoral,
security and media reforms and a guarantee that
it will be violence and
intimidation-free.
“Just imagine elections in Zimbabwe in 2011,”
queried an AU official. “What
solution will they bring to the socio-economic
woes facing the majority of
poor Zimbabweans? Is it not that such rushed
elections would only aggravate
a situation that already has had enough? Why
should Zimbabwe follow wrong
priorities at this critical time of its
history? Surely, holding an election
in 2011, even in 2012, is not a real
priority for Zimbabwe in the present
situation. The priority is immediate
socio-economic recovery.”
Dia said the AU could not afford to send a
mission for a long period of
observation.
He said: “We don’t have
funds to send an observer mission six months before
or stay on six months
after. It is very, very difficult because the means of
the union does not
allow for such a long period of observation, but the AU
will send an
observer mission like what they did the last time and observe
together with
Sadc. Normally, we just go two months before.”
Asked what the
commission would do to ensure that the AU observer mission’s
report, which
in past elections always okayed the results despite reports of
violence,
intimidation and rigging, reflected the situation on the ground,
Dia said
they are hoping that the summit of heads of state would discuss
this issue
and agree on how observer missions could be more decisive when
dealing with
these issues.
“You know it is difficult because observer missions are
composed of people
from various countries with different views and
experiences,” he said.
But when pressed to respond to the general
view that the AU is not doing
enough for Zimbabwe as guarantors of the
global political agreement (GPA),
Dia said the diverse views, positions and
alliances of the 53-member
continental grouping made it difficult to take a
common position.
“The AU is also a group of member states with
diverse positions, views and
alliances and it has not been easy to take up a
position. The member states
have to consider so many things and yes, this
brotherly thing also comes
into play,” he said.
“It is not as
easy but what we want and our main strategy as the commission
is to make
sure that Africa is peaceful, be it in Zimbabwe or in Ivory
Coast. We want
to see people make elections peaceful - that is the major
goal because we
also don’t need processes that lead to chaos like civil war
because this has
an impact on the population.”
Dia said there was willingness in the
continent to ensure that there is
peace and stability in Africa so that it
can progress economically.
Meanwhile, an MDC-T delegation headed by
its deputy secretary for
international affairs Willis Madzimure is in Addis
Ababa to lobby the AU
commission to keep Zimbabwe on its radar as the
country prepares for
possible elections in 2011.
Madzimure told
the Independent that: “Mugabe’s statement (at Harare airport)
should have
frightened the AU that Zimbabwe is going back to its old crisis.
We are here
just to sensitise the leadership and also some important
institutions of the
AU so that they keep Zimbabwe in check. We actually want
a situation where
someone is appointed to come and visit Zimbabwe
periodically and start
engaging the principals and monitor how we are
meeting certain requirements
that will allow for free and fair elections.
“The AU knows that our
electoral laws are flawed and that we have security
forces being involved in
the processes. The AU should also deal with issue
of power transfer. It has
to guarantee power transfer.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 20:16
Dumisani
Muleya
DEPOSED MDC-M leader Arthur Mutambara was reportedly offered a
smooth exit
package six months before the party’s controversial congress
earlier this
month but rejected it, insisting that the party must not
“subvert democracy”,
it emerged this week.
A briefing of the
Zimbabwe Independent by senior MDC-M (now MDC-N) officials
this week shows
that Mutambara was offered a “soft landing” by the party’s
new secretary
general Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga mid last year. But he
eventually
refused to take the offer after initially accepting it.
The
offer made to Mutambara by Misihairabwi-Mushonga in June last year was
that
the MDC-M leader would, after congress, become deputy president of the
party
and remain as deputy prime minister in the inclusive
government.
“Sometime last year, after realising that Mutambara was
not going to win
because party structures were geared against him and in an
attempt to ensure
his dignified exit, we offered him a deal to become deputy
president after
congress and to remain as deputy prime minister,” a senior
party official
said.
“Misihairabwi-Mushonga went to meet him and
discuss the issue. Mutambara
initially agreed and said he wanted to talk to
Welshman Ncube about it.
Ncube and Misihairabwi-Mushonga then went to
him. When they got there
Mutambara said he wanted to discuss the issue
one-on-one with Ncube and in
that meeting he changed his position. Mutambara
said he was a democrat and
would not want to subvert the democratic process
in the party. He rejected
the deal and said he would contest for the party
leadership in the next
congress. They agreed whoever loses would accept the
result and allow the
party to move forward.”
Mutambara, Ncube and
Misihairabwi-Mushonga were not available for comment
this week. Mutambara
and Misihairabwi-Mushonga were apparently out of the
country, while Ncube
could not be located.
Ncube squared up with Mutambara before their
recent congress and defeated
his former boss to assume the party leadership.
A group of disgruntled party
officials are however challenging Ncube’s
election and subsequent actions in
the courts. Ncube and his party have now
redeployed Mutambara in government
to become minister of Regional
Integration and International Cooperation.
Ncube, former Bulawayo
East MP and party secretary-general, was redeployed
by his party to become
deputy prime minister, while Misihairabwi-Mushonga,
an ex-Glen Norah MP and
party deputy secretary-general, was proposed to
become Industry and Trade
minister.
Another MDC-N leader said after Mutambara’s meeting with
Ncube to discuss
the leadership issue in the run-up to congress, the
robotics professor
formed his campaign team in a bid to retain his position
and fight off a
challenge from his rival. In response Ncube, a professor of
law, stepped up
his campaign against Mutambara.
“The power
struggle then became real and serious after the deal fell
through.
Mutambara’s campaign team worked hard around the country and party
structures and was convinced he would win. Ncube’s team also intensified its
campaign and believed he would win,” the official said.
“Both
candidates, Mutambara and Ncube, thought they had a good chance,
although
Ncube’s team thought they would easily win because their candidate
had been
working with structures for much longer than Mutambara.”
Party
officials said the battle between Ncube and Mutambara had been going
for a
long time. They said Ncube was sceptical about Mutambara from the
beginning
but had no choice at the time after the split of the original
MDC.
“For the record Mutambara was not brought in by Ncube,” an
official said.
“It was Job Sikhala and Gabriel Chaibva who brought
him to the party just
before the 2006 congress. What happened was that the
late Gibson Sibanda and
Ncube were offered the opportunity to lead the party
and refused on grounds
that a Ndebele could not lead the party because of
the ethnic demographics
of the country.
“Chaibva and Sikhala said
that was a false assumption because Joshua Nkomo
once became the undisputed
leader of the nationalist movement but after
Sibanda and Ncube flatly
refused, they came up with Mutambara’s name.”
It was said that Ncube
was reluctant but Chaibva and Sikhala — later
supported by
Misihairabwi-Mushonga — pushed for Mutambara. Ncube gave in and
he was
assigned later to contact Mutambara who was in the United States at
the
time.
“Sikhala and Chaibva were the ones who had contact with
Mutambara”, another
party official said. “So they gave Ncube Mutambara’s
contact details in the
United States and the two later arranged a meeting in
South Africa to deal
with the issue. Mutambara was clear from the beginning
that he wanted to
situate the MDC-M within a pan-Africanist context because
he thought the
original MDC was too closely associated with imperialist
powers,” the
official said.
“That is why right from the beginning
Mutambara came saying he was standing
on the shoulders of Sekuru Kaguvi and
Mbuya Nehanda and Josiah Tongogara and
Nikita Mangena. Mutambara was his own
man and Ncube accepted that because he
had no choice.”
There were
many other names, including some top business executives and
senior
officials in MDC-T, who were initially considered for that post
before
Mutambara was roped in. The reason why Mutambara became a compelling
choice
was because of his history as a student leader, an academic and the
desire
to block Gift Chimanikire who was manoeuvring to take over.
However,
after taking over, Mutambara found himself at loggerheads with
senior party
officials because of his rhetoric which they considered
“immature and
smacking of student politics. It was also felt that his
anti-imperialist
rhetoric was out of sync with the political mood of the
time and made the
party sound too much like Zanu PF,” an official said.
“However,
Mutambara sincerely believed that was what was needed to shift the
MDC
politics and agenda. This created an explosive situation and started
making
Ncube and others uncomfortable because they thought their party was
going to
lose ground to MDC-T if it appears like an extension of Zanu
PF.”
Serious tensions and divisions developed as a result of
Mutambara’s
ideological drift and pronouncements, leading to threats of
resignation by
senior party officials such as David Coltart, Trudy Stevenson
and Miriam
Mushayi, among others.
After that, a committee of
senior officials led by the late Renson Gasela
was formed to engage him to
“tone down” his “unhelpful grandstanding and
rhetoric” but he effectively
refused to change course. That angered many
party official and they started
plots to remove him.
“There was actually a serious attempt to
overthrow him just after the
signing of the GPA around November and December
2008 but Ncube blocked it,
saying it would appear as if it was an attempt to
stop him from becoming
deputy prime minister,” an MDC-N official said. “It
was then agreed that he
should be allowed to lead the party until congress
by which time he would
have no chance of political survival.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
20:10
Paidamoyo Muzulu
CABINET has not been meeting to deliberate
on urgent government business
since December because President Robert Mugabe
and most ministers have been
on annual leave that ends next week.
The
absence of cabinet meetings means government has not been able to
address
pressing issues like the threat of industrial action by civil
servants, fuel
shortages and the stalled Essar/Ziscosteel deal and the
country’s position
on Ivory Coast at the ongoing African Union Summit in
Ethopia, among other
things.
Civil servantsare threatening to go on strike if they do not
receive a
substantial salary raise that matches the poverty datum line,
currently at
US$504 a month.
Cabinet is expected to resume
sitting on February 8 after Mugabe returns
from the AU
summit.
University of Zimbabwe constitutional Law lecturer Greg
Linnington said the
failure to meet by cabinet for more than a month was
both disturbing and
wrong particularly in light of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) which
gave birth to the inclusive
government.
“This is a disturbing development. What’s happening is
wrong,” Linnington
said, “This is a clear case of poor governance. The
acting president should
preside over cabinet when the president is
absent.”
The genesis of the power vacuum when Mugabe is away can be
traced to well
before the inclusive government but became more pronounced
when Morgan
Tsvangirai was appointed to the premiership in February
2009.
MDC-T ministers boycotted cabinet in June 2009 after Mugabe
brought forward
the government’s sitting day to a Monday instead of the
usual Tuesday to
accommodate his schedule that included travelling to Libya
for an AU Summit.
The MDC-T interpreted the move as calculated to prevent
Tsvangirai from
chairing cabinet in Mugabe’s absence.
“Innocent
and innocuous as this decision may be, the fact of the matter is
that it
underpins everything wrong about the present agreement,” Deputy
Prime-minister and MDC-T deputy president Thokozani Khupe said at the time.
“The decision seeks to deny the recognition of the Prime Minister as chair
of cabinet when the president is away.”
The GPA position was,
however, altered after further political negotiations
among the three
parties in the inclusive government and agreed that
Tsvangirai would only
chair cabinet in the absence of any member of the
presidium.
Tsvangirai chairs the council of
ministers.
It was categorically stated that while Tsvangirai was
nominally the deputy
chair of the cabinet, he is number four in the
hierarchy of the inclusive
government, and is subordinate to Mugabe and his
deputies, who should chair
the cabinet in the absence of the octogenarian
leader — a position
Tsvangirai reportedly
accepted.
Constitutional Law expert Lovemore Madhuku said that the
GPA legimatised
Mugabe and did not give any power to the MDC
formations.
“Zanu PF behaves as if it’s still the big partner in the
government,”
Madhuku said: “Tsvangirai is just a glorified minister with
little power to
do anything.
Mugabe is still powerful and determines
the government agenda in the
inclusive government. The GPA was not properly
executed on how power was to
be shared.”
Linnington said Mugabe’s
consultations with Zanu PF’s politburo ahead of the
AU summit was not a good
step as his presentation at the summit will be a
party position instead of
representing government views.
“Zanu PF politburo is a political body
that is not part of the state. That
position is bad,” Linnington said, “The
president should get advice from
cabinet on so many decisions he will have
to make.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 20:06
Paidamoyo
Muzulu/Wongai Zhangazha
HARARE has witnessed a resurgence of politically
motivated violence and
intimidation after Zanu PF launched its not-so-subtle
2011 election campaign
across the country code-named “Operation
Ngatizivanei”, the Zimbabwe
Independent can reveal.
“Operation
Ngatizivanei” requires all eligible voters in a ward to be
recorded in a
Zanu PF membership ward register so that the party can
supposedly follow up
on its members. The operation comes hard on the heels
of the party’s
December conference that resolved that elections should be
held this
year.
The operation triggered clashes between Zanu PF and MDC youths
at the
weekend in many high density suburbs across
Harare.
Violence was recorded in Budiriro, Chitungwiza and Mbare at
the weekend when
youths from Zanu PF and the MDC-T clashed.
A
number of people were injured while houses and property has been destroyed
with the MDC-T accusing the police and soldiers of taking part. In Epworth,
suspected war veterans and youths have threatened to evict residents
regarded as MDC-T supporters.
According to doctors who treated
the injured but preferred anonymity for
fear of victimisation, three victims
of the clashes that took place between
Friday and Saturday suffered soft
tissue injuries while one had a gunshot
wound.
“We attended to
five males between the ages of 27-30 and a female aged 33,
all from Harare.
They were injured on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of January at
different high
density suburbs in Harare,” one of the doctors said. “The six
so far are the
ones we considered to have suffered serious injuries, though
now and again
we attend to minor injuries incurred from the isolated
violence. One had a
surgery to set the broken bone and debridement left
tibia for gunshot
injury. We had a patient from Mbare who suffered a
fracture on right ulna,
an open reduction and internal fixation was done and
he had lacerations on
scalp and face while the female victim suffered
arthroscopy doe to left knee
post trauma.”
The Independent on Wednesday visited some of the
victims at a local private
hospital and interviewed Barnabas Mwanaka, an
MDC-T youth from Mbare who was
beaten on Friday night by suspected Zanu PF
youths.
Mwanaka said although there has been widespread intimidation
in Mbare, the
attack on their offices caught them unawares.
He
said: “It was Saturday night when we were at the MDC offices in Mbare
near
the Engen garage when a mob of hundreds of Zanu PF youths whom we
suspected
to be Chipangano (a notorious pro-Zanu PF group based in Mbare)
came to our
offices chanting slogans. There were 20 of us and we were
guarding our
offices.
“They pulled down the wall and we locked ourselves indoors.
I understand
there was a policeman close by who then alerted other police
and in no time
about 16 police officers were at the scene. We were relieved
that we were
going to get some help and protection and they even told us to
open the door
so that they could take us to a safe place.”
He
said the police instead locked up his colleagues while he was attacked
and
beaten heavily with sharp objects when he stayed behind to collect
valuables
and documents from the office.
In Epworth, MDC–T youth Samson Ketulo
said suspected war veterans were
forcing residents to attend Zanu PF
meetings at a Zanu PF base at Dhonoro.
“There is a popular base at
Dhonoro where the (Zanu PF) party members meet
occasionally and those
perceived to be MDC-T supporters are taken and
threatened,” he said. “In
Ward 2, especially the Domboramwari area, they are
going around telling
landlords that notices should be given to tenants who
support MDC-T to
vacate the area. They tell people that the GPA is expiring
on 15 February
and there won’t be anything called an inclusive government
and Zanu PF will
be the only party ruling.”
MDC-T claimed that violence against its
members was well orchestrated and
intended to cow its supporters in the face
of potential elections later in
the year.
In a statement, the
party said: “Zanu PF has begun resorting to the language
they understand
most, the language of violence. In Budiriro, Mbare and
Chitungwiza violence
has resurfaced with soldiers, police details and the
youth militia
descending on the people with brutality; assaulting,
destroying homes and
arresting perceived MDC supporters.
“Zanu PF mobilised and bused
youth from as far as Gutu, Tsholotsho, Shamva
and Bindura into Harare to
demonstrate against the so-called maize slashing
by Harare City
council.”
However, police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said the
attack in Budiriro
was perpetrated by MDC-T youths who demonstrated against
unfair distribution
of stands at a housing co-operative.
“About
200 MDC supporters went to a housing co-operative within that area
challenging the allocation of stands,” he said. “That is when the clashes
started with some of them attacking residents of that area. It is not true
that some of them will just be going on with their businesses. They also
take part in the attacks.”
He said he was not aware that one
MDC-T supporter had been shot.
Bvudzijena said most of the clashes
between Zanu PF and MDC-T in the high
density suburbs were as a result of
both parties provoking each other.
“In some areas one may be attacked for
wearing party colours and this is
regardless of which political party.
People should understand they achieve
nothing in violence,” he said
dismissing claims by MDC-T that police and
soldiers were involved in the
violence.
Zanu PF national commissar Webster Shamu declined to
comment on the matters
over the phone saying he needed the questions in
writing.
“I do not comment to the press over the phone. Get an
appointment with my
office or send questions,” Shamu said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
19:58
Nqobile Bhebhe
THE fight to control the Zimbabwe National
War Veterans Association (ZNWVA)
has taken another twist with a new
“non-partisan” splinter group saying that
existing factions are not led by
true liberation fighters.
But Zanu PF immediately shot down the new group,
arguing that Jabulani
Sibanda, who is allegedly leading violent campaigns in
rural areas, is the
country’s only true leader of the
ex-combatants.
The formation of the new splinter group brings to
three the formations that
claim legitimacy over the war veterans’
body.
Currently, one faction is led by Sibanda and another by Joseph
Chinotimba –
both fierce supporters of President Robert Mugabe who is the
patron of the
country’s ex-combatants association.
In 2008
another group which suffered a still-birth – the Zimbabwe National
Association of Liberation War Veterans Cadres -- was mooted by disgruntled
veterans over the way the association was being administered.
The
proposed “non-partisan” group of war veterans is under the chairmanship
of
Retired Colonel Basten Beta.
Beta told the Zimbabwe Independent last
week that his association will be
“the real” liberation fighters’
representatives since the country has not
had a true war veterans
association since 1980.
“Since 1980, there has not been a true war
veterans association….all two
(sic) current groupings are
subscription-driven,” said Beta. “However, this
new non-partisan association
does not require anyone who participated in the
struggle to pay subscription
and be a card-carrying person to be a member.
The fact that one went to
the bush means they are a war veteran.”
Asked how they would bring
together the existing factions, Beta said: “if
they are true war veterans
they would not have problems joining us.”
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare
Gumbo on Wednesday said the party only
recognised the Sibanda-led
faction.
“This was made clear at our conference in Mutare last year
that Zanu PF
recognises Jabulani Sibanda as chairman of war veterans,” Gumbo
said. “The
president told us that he cannot be patron of several factions,
hence the
party only supports Sibanda.”
Sibanda was given the
platform to address conference delegates.
Mugabe has in the past
repeatedly urged the factions to unite and work
together, pointing out that
divisions will hamper the party’s efforts to
rebuild.
The war veterans’
association split last year following the expiry of
Sibanda’s five year-term
as chairman, but he got the backing of some
veterans for another
term.
Other war veterans led by Joseph Chinotimba opposed Sibanda’s
term extension
and claimed chairmanship of the organisation. The two
factions subsequently
organised separate congresses.
Sibanda was
retained as chairman in Mt Darwin, but Chinotimba’s formation
failed to hold
a congress in Chinhoyi.
In a statement this week Beta said: “In an
effort to unite all war veterans,
the coordinating committee is now
finalising consultations with all
stakeholders in order to form a new
non-partisan organisation which will
represent all war
veterans.
“The current confusion and conflict within war veterans is
caused by
politicians who want to use war veterans for personal political
gain,” he
said. “The new organisation will represent all war veterans
regardless of
their political affiliations by striving to improve their
welfare, and give
them recognition, dignity and respect for liberating and
serving the
country.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 19:55
NEW
York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the MDC-T
lacks
“real power” to institute a political agenda that can put an end to
human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
In a report “World Report 2011” released on
Monday, the human rights
watchdog said almost two years into the joint rule
of President Robert
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC-T has
failed to stop or
reduce politically motivated prosecutions.
“Two
years into Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government, President Robert Mugabe
and
the Zanu PF, have used violence and repression to continue to dominate
government institutions and hamper meaningful human rights progress,” HRW
said. “The former opposition party, the MDC, lacks real power to institute
its political agenda and end human rights abuses.”
At a spirited
rally in Harare shortly after being sworn in by his political
rival in
February 2009, Tsvangirai pledged to end the vicious cycle of
political
violence and human rights abuses.
Said Tsvangirai in 2009: “Political
violence must end today…We can no longer
afford brother against brother,
because one happened to have a different
political opinion.
“I
can assure you that the culture of impunity and of violation of human
rights
must end, and it must end today.”
But the HRW says the MDC has
failed in that regard.
HRW also blamed the inclusive government for
not investigating widespread
abuses, including torture, beatings, and other
ill-treatment allegedly
committed by security forces, Zanu PF supporters,
and officials against real
and perceived supporters of the
MDC-T.
Politically-motivated violence has flared up in the country
especially in
Harare, mainly targeting MDC-T supporters.
This
past weekend, MDC-T claimed Zanu PF youths attacked their supporters in
Budiriro, Mbare, Hatcliffe and Chitungwiza.
The human rights
group said the Marange diamonds provided a “parallel source
of revenue for
Zanu PF and its repressive state apparatus”
“Corruption is rife, and
smuggling of diamonds by soldiers in the fields is
prolific. The diamond
revenues continue to benefit a few senior people in
the government and their
associates rather than the people of Zimbabwe,”
observed HRW.
The
HRW report also said soldiers continue to perpetrate abuses at the
controversial diamond fields in Marange, including forced labour, beatings,
and harassment, which Zimbabwe’s government has failed to investigate or
prosecute.
But government has repeatedly denied the alleged
plunder of the diamonds by
the army and other security forces. It has also
denied human rights abuses
in Marange.
On the Kimberley Process,
the report said MDC-T had “struggled to address
state abuses in the diamond
fields. Its mandate narrowly defines “blood
diamonds” as those mined by
abusive rebel groups, not abusive governments”
The rights group
observed that the constitution-making outreach programme
meetings were
marked by violence and intimidation, mainly by Zanu PF
supporters and war
veterans allied to the former ruling party. –– Staff
writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 19:53
Wongai
Zhangazha
WOMEN constitute the majority of the population in Zimbabwe and
often make
up the bulk of participants at any rally or big political event,
but a new
report shows very few are registering as
voters.
According to a recent report on the audit of the voters’ roll
by the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn), few women are registered to
vote
while the youths who feature so prominently in violent campaigns are
almost
absent from the voters’ roll.
The Zesn report,
launched last week, was based on a sample of 102 wards out
of the 1 958 used
in the March 2008 harmonised elections. The sampled
sections of the voters’
roll indicate that few women and youths were
registered as
voters.
More males (52%) than females (48%) were registered as voters
in 2010 while
distribution by gender reveals more registered males (25%)
than females
(19%) in Harare province (25%), Bulawayo (17% vs 16%), and
Matabeleland
North (4% vs 3%).
“Such a finding is a culmination
of voter registration stringent measures
(like providing proof of
residence), that mostly affect women due to the
dominant patriarchal
society, hence impinging on their active participation
in such democratic
processes,” reads the report
“This is an indication that more males are
registered in urban areas than
rural since the two provinces, Harare and
Bulawayo, are mainly urban.
Bulawayo is purely urban, Harare has 99% of its
population residing in urban
Harare and 1% in rural
Harare.”
Former MDC-T Women’s Assembly chairperson Lucia Matibenga
blamed the low
registration of women to the lack of documentation and the
patriarchal
system of the society.
Matibenga said: “Women
struggle to get basic things like national
identification and birth
certificates. This hinders most of the women to go
and register as one is
required to bring a valid passport and national
identification.
“Apart from that, the voter registration process
is not user-friendly. Women
are more family conscious. They cannot take the
dollar they have saved to
buy bread for the family or exercise books for
their children to go to
Chachacha (in Chipinge) to register to vote. This
boils down to family
level. Do we allow women to use their resources to
further their interests
as citizens?”
She said there was a need
to motivate women to register to vote and that the
process should be
decentralised.
“Voter registration should be taken to the people and
as closest as possible
to communities so that those who can’t afford to
travel, especially in rural
communities, can take part in the process. There
should be community
programmes that target women specifically, educating
them on the importance
of voter registration,” Matibenga
said.
Zanu PF women’s league has already embarked on a voter
registration
campaign, encouraging their members and supporters to register
in
preparation for the elections which are likely to be held later this
year.
Last week, Zanu PF women’s league secretary for information and
publicity
Monica Mutsvangwa told online media that the party had started a
campaign
for voter registration in line with the resolutions agreed at the
Zanu PF
annual conference in Mutare last December.
Mutsvangwa
said party teams were conducting voter education and encouraging
women to
register ahead of the elections.
According to a report entitled
Women, Politics and the Zimbabwe Crisis
jointly released recently by the
African Democracy Institute, International
Centre for Transitional Justice,
the Research Advocacy Unit and the Women’s
Coalition of Zimbabwe, women have
felt the most unsafe during elections
since the year
2000.
Another concern raised by Zesn is the absence of youths between
18-30 years
of age on the voters roll, with only 18% of youths registered.
The report
suggested that the youth had lost “active interest in
participating in
national elections”.
The report highlights the
difficulties faced by youths in acquiring proof of
residence, as one major
stumbling block to voter registration.
“In some instances, youths
have been denied access to registration by
partisan (mostly Zanu PF) agents,
on allegations of allegiance to opposition
parties, especially MDC-T,” said
the report.
Darlington Muyambwa, director of a youth organisation calling
itself
SAYWHAT, noted that youths in Zimbabwe have been “very inactive” in
most
national processes.
“Youths in this country have not only be
inactive in voter registration, but
even the constitutional process that
was held last year where their
participation was around 6% while they
constitute about 40% of the
population in Zimbabwe,” Muyambwa
said.
“The problem is that there are no specific strategies that
encourage
engagement with young people. Young people have so many demands
that include
education, good jobs, food, technology and so on as they grow.
If they don’t
see a direction in their demands they become a bit
sceptical.”
Muyambwa said online voter registration and use of social
networks was one
way that could attract youths to vote considering their
affinity to
technology.
Zimbabweans living abroad have also been
deprived of the vote.
Sudanese expatriates abroad were allowed to
vote in the recent Southern
Sudanese referendum, observers point out.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
18:41
Paidamoyo Muzulu
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe does not have
powers to dissolve parliament and call
for fresh elections during the
existence of the Global Political Agreement
(GPA), constitutional and
political analysts said this week.
Mugabe claimed on his return from
Singapore on Sunday that he could invoke
his constitutional powers and
dissolve parliament should the inclusive
government deteriorate into a
dysfunctional entity due to disagreements
among the parties making up the
coalition.
Constitutional expert Lovemore Madhuku said Mugabe cannot go
it alone under
the present constitution as he is circumscribed by GPA and
constitutional
Amendment No 19.
The relevant GPA section 20.1.3 (q)
says: “The President … may, acting in
consultation with the Prime-Minister,
dissolve Parliament.” The provision is
also captured in constitutional
Amendment 19.
“Under the GPA, the president requires the consent of the
prime minister,
but my reading is that Mugabe can cause the collapse of the
inclusive
government by pulling out consequently reverting the situation to
the
pre-inclusive government period,” said Madhuku.
The collapse of
the inclusive government, he said, will automatically
trigger the holding of
harmonised elections as spelt out “clearly” by
constitutional Amendment 18
of January 2008.
“If the GPA collapses, Mugabe will remain the president
through the
controversial June 2008 mandate,” Madhuku said, “Mugabe will
thus call for
fresh harmonised elections and that is a correct position
legally.”
Analysts explained that the harmonisation of elections was done
through
constitutional Amendment 18 long before the coalition government was
in
place, voiding the interpretation by MDC-T that only presidential
elections
will be held if the inclusive government collapses.
Greg
Linnington, a constitutional law lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe,
said that while Mugabe had no mandate under the GPA to dissolve
parliament,
it was still feasible for him to call for fresh elections if his
party
pulled out of the government.
“Mugabe can only exercise the discretion to
dissolve parliament in
consultation with the prime minister according to
Amendment19,” Linnington
said. “MDC-T’s position that only the presidential
election is due is null.
All elections in Zimbabwe have been harmonised
through Amendment 18.”
Mass Public Opinion Institute director and
political science lecturer at the
University of Zimbabwe, Eldred
Masunungure, opined that Mugabe was
constitutionally mandated to dissolve
parliament but questioned the
political correctness of such a
move.
“Mugabe is constitutionally empowered to do what he said,”
Masunungure said,
“However, the question that has not been analysed is ––
‘Is it politically
correct to dissolve parliament now and call for
elections?’”
But MDC-T Chief Whip in the House of Assembly, who is also
the Mutare
Central MP, Innocent Gonese, had a contrary view.
“It is
not correct that Mugabe can call for elections because Constitution
Amendment Number 19 stipulates it is no longer the sole prerogative of
President Mugabe to call for elections,” Gonese told NewsDay. “In terms of
Constitutional Amendment 19 he has to consult Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, which means they must
agree if parliament has to be dissolved.”
Gonese, a lawyer, said
everything to do with elections had to be agreed upon
by the three political
parties in the GPA. Mugabe has openly expressed his
unhappiness with the GPA
in December after separately meeting South African
President and Sadc
mediator Jacob Zuma and his facilitation team that had
come to assess the
implementation of the agreement.
Mugabe said: “I told President Zuma I am
a lawyer and I am unhappy to be in
a thing which is semi-legal,” he said.
“We have to be in a thing which is
proper; which is constitutional. I feel
awkward in a thing like that (the
GPA), absolutely awkward.
“Our
authority as a government does not derive from a properly constituted
constitutional position but from a makeshift arrangement and should never be
governed on such a makeshift arrangement for too long.”
Since then and
possibly preparing groundwork for the eventual break-up of
the unity
government, Zanu PF senior figures have taken up the mantra.
Writing in
the Sunday Mail last weekend, the recently recalled Zanu PF
politburo member
Jonathan Moyo called for the dissolution of the inclusive
government, which
he called “a mix of water and oil”.
“The coalition government was, right
from the signing of the GPA on
September 15 2008, a doomed creature whose
semi-legal nature was made worse
by the bringing together of ideologically
irreconcilable political forces
with the inevitable result of producing an
awkward and dysfunctional
structure called an ‘inclusive government’ which
existed only in name,” Moyo
opined.
Analysts say it is likely that
Mugabe and Zanu PF are trying to engineer the
demise of the inclusive
government, which would give the ageing leader
exclusive executive powers
legally and then force through elections on their
terms.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 17:56
Bernard
Mpofu
FINANCE minister Tendai Biti’s forecast of a double digit economic
growth
this year is unrealistic for a country struggling to attract foreign
direct
investments and also facing political uncertainty, analysts said this
week.
Economic commentators and analysts said it is highly unmlikely that
the
finance minister’s projections of between eight and 15% growth in the
Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) would be achieved given the political
uncertainty and
the likelihood of a violent election later in the
year.
Violence is already on the increase in both rural areas and cities
as Zanu
PF and its nemesis MDC-T jostle for support.
A controversial
“indigenisation policy” theme adopted by Zanu PF —
criticised for being a
systematic “expropriation” of foreign-owned
companies — sends capital
elsewhere despite Zimbabwe’s dire need for
investment.
Saddled with a
soaring external debt, now nearing US$10 billion, limited
foreign direct
investment averaging 5% of GDP, limited fiscal space and
growing wage
demands from the public service, Zimbabwe faces a herculean
task in turning
around its fragile economy.
But Zimbabwe’s political parties — Zanu PF
and the two MDC formations —
seem to be frantically fighting from different
fronts. An early poll
according to analysts could be inconclusive and
further plunge the country
into economic turmoil.
Recent
pronouncements by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa on
foreign-owned
companies, a thwarted invasion of lakeside properties last
weekend and chaos
at city council offices, according to analysts points to
post election gloom
and doom.
Biti however thinks otherwise.
He was quoted by wire
services in South Africa last week saying a single
digit growth this year is
“conservative”, adding that economic growth could
be as high as
15%.
Encouraged by the resurgence of the tobacco industry, emerging from
a low
base and surging mining industry output, the Finance minister believes
Zimbabwe will shout hooray on December 31 if the economic environment
remains generally peaceful. But the odds are there to defy.
“A
unilateral unplanned election would basically be a bloodbath,” Biti said.
“Capital will flee. I have to discount robust growth figures because of the
fear of a violent election.”
Mnangagwa, Biti’s counterpart in the
fragile coalition, is determined to toe
the Zanu PF line on sanctions before
Zimbabwe fully recovers.
He said government would soon summon business
leaders running foreign-owned
companies and make them announce their
position on economic sanctions
imposed by the United States and the European
Union, which his party blames
for the slow growth rate.
On the
contrary, Vice-President Joice Mujuru, widely perceived as the
Defence
minister’s rival within Zanu PF politics, last December engaged
business
leaders in the capital in a bid to remove the party’s bad-boy tag.
In the
meantime, local companies are struggling to operate profitably owing
to
limited access to lines of credit and a potentially paralysing energy
crisis, worsening by the day.
“This statement is yet another nail in
the investment coffin, for such
threatened actions are a gargantuan
deterrent to any investor,” writes
economic commentator and columnist Eric
Bloch, responding to Mnangagwa’s
remarks.
“Those who apply the
sanctions have no malice against Zimbabwe or its
people, but only against
oppressive, non-democratic policies of those who
have abysmally and
disastrously misruled Zimbabwe. Now to resort to
expropriation of their
companies is tantamount to piracy and theft.”
Zimbabwe National Chamber
of Commerce research economist Kipson Gundani said
although Zimbabwe could
maintain an upward trend, 15% growth could be
“over-optimistic”.
“Assuming that economic stability prevails—with or
without elections,
Zimbabwe could register up to 10% growth,” Gundani
said.
“Mining, driven by an anticipated rise in mineral prices on the
back of
demand from China and India could be a key economic driver this
year.
Information Communication Technology sector could be second or third
contributor to GDP competing with agriculture.”
He said a three-year
moratorium on elections could help Zimbabwe on its
recovery
path.
Apart from the politics, Biti also sees the country’s run down
infrastructure and loss-making parastatal inhibiting growth.
Ranga
Makwata, an investment analyst contends that a double digit growth
could be
possible buoyed by mining and agriculture, should tranquility
prevail. But
he said 15% growth could be overambitious.
“I believe that it is
possible to surpass the projected 9,3% (announced by
Biti during last year’s
budget presentation) because of an anticipated
strong growth in mining and
agriculture although a projection of 15% could
be pushing the envelope much
higher,” Makwata said. “It could be too
optimistic given the high level of
country risk.”
He said economic growth would be driven by “small
investments” in mining
which are attracting significant capital.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
17:36
Taurai Mangudhla
INDUSTRY and Commerce minister Welshman
Ncube says Zimbabwe will only sign
the full Economic Partnership Agreements
(Epas) between the European Union
(EU) and regional bodies in African,
Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACPs)
after contentious issues relating to
taxation are solved.
Zimbabwe, which is currently negotiating Epas under the
Eastern and Southern
African (Esa) grouping, feels that controversial issues
such as taxation had
major consequences in development of
ACPs.
“There are about seven contentious issues…We will not sign the full
Epa
without negotiating to the end,” said Ncube. “We (Zimbabwe) will not
sign
unless we have clauses that are consistent with national interest. We
have
to come up with a solution on clauses that are negative to
us.”
Epas are a scheme to create a free trade area between the European
Commission of the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific
Group of States (ACP) countries.
They are a response to continuing
criticism that the non-reciprocal and
discriminating preferential trade
agreements offered by the EU are
incompatible with WTO rules.
Epas,
being negotiated with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions
engaged
in a regional economic integration process, aims to promote trade
between
the two groupings through trade development, sustainable growth and
poverty
reduction.
This will assist ACP countries integrate into the world
economy to share
opportunities offered by globalisation.
“It is our
preferred position that all issues be negotiated to the end,”
Ncube
said.
“We want ACPs to be taxed for exporting raw material to encourage
processing
our own produce…the EU insists on a stand still clause on the
tariffs, but
we need to be flexible on the tariffs,” he said.
The
stand-still clause stipulates that Epas come into force, the parties may
not
introduce new tariffs, raise existing tariffs and once eliminated,
tariffs
may not be re-imposed.
ACPs are pushing for the removal of this
clause citing impingement on policy
space.
While the EU’s mantains
export taxes restrict supply of raw materials to its
industries, ACP
maintains that export taxes are development tools used for
value addition
and revenue collection and will not be eliminated.
Ncube, however,
emphasised the country’s need to commit to a comprehensive
Epa.
“If
we politic and walk way from Epas, we will have to pay full duty for
exports
to Europe and the consequences will be severe. Zimbabwe is not
regarded to
be amongst the Least Developed Countries that are exempted from
paying
duty,” Ncube said.
“Imagine competing against Swaziland to sell sugar in
Europe. if we pay
heavy trade tariffs, no one will buy it (the sugar)
because it will be
expensive” he added.
Ncube dismissed possible
threats to the Zimbabwean economy should Sadc sign
a comprehensive Epa by
mid 2011 as scheduled.
He said Sadc configuration was essentially about
the member states accessing
European goods and not about local
trade.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries economist, Dephine
Mazambani,
commended Epas as not only lucrative for competition but likely
to provide
consumers with quality products. She also encouraged government
to delay
ratification of Epas to protect local industries.
“It
(delaying ratification of Epas) can be a measure to protect the country
but
what you have to ask is what products we import from EU and export to
EU.
Mainly we import capital goods and we export horticultural products,
sugar
and a bit of processed food items,” she said.
“Do we have the capacity to
produce capital goods at the moment. The answer
is no and what is happening
to our exports to the EU? They are becoming
expensive due to the duties that
prevail for the different commodities” she
said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 18:47
Brian
Chitemba
THE role of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee
(Jomic) in the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) is increasingly coming into
question amid
growing cracks in the coalition government.
Constituted
after the formation of the inclusive government in February
2009, Jomic was
mandated to assess the full implementation of the GPA signed
by President
Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Arthur Mutambara on
September 15
2008.
The multi-party body seems to be relevant in theory but has not
achieved
anything practical, analysts say. There also appears to be a lack
of
political will.
Jomic, analysts say, has failed to deal with sensitive
issues which are
mostly handled by the principals, rendering the 12-member
committee
toothless.
As a result, pundits say, it is losing currency due
to its incapacity to
tackle complaints from the GPA
signatories.
The committee was formed in accordance with Article 22
of the GPA, which
states that Jomic should ensure the implementation of the
letter and spirit
of the agreement, assess the implementation of the
agreement from time to
time and to bear in mind steps that might be taken to
make certain the full
and speedy implementation of this agreement and to
influence the creation
and promotion of an atmosphere of mutual trust and
understanding between the
parties concerned.
But for the past two
years, it has become visible that the will of
principals, especially
Mugabe, always prevails without intervention from
the implementation
monitoring committee.
Mugabe has already declared his displeasure
with the GPA arrangement, which
he said was not working. Signs are that the
GNU could crumble, with Zanu PF
in particular pushing for its
abandonment.
Therefore, the question on many minds still remains: is
Jomic capable of
fulfilling its responsibilities? Other analysts say the
body is weak due to
lack of statutory powers to enforce compliance of the
GPA.
Analysts said whenever there are squabbles in the inclusive
government among
the principals, none of them has asked for Jomic’s
intervention to resolve
the feud. The principals have publicly disparaged
each other over the
non-compliance of the GPA and have on many occasions
turned to the Southern
African Development Community for
arbitration.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai have bickered endlessly over the
appointment of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, the Attorney-General,
provincial
governors, ambassadors and the swearing-in of the MDC-T nominee
for the
agriculture deputy minister’s post, Roy Bennett.
National
University of Science and Technology lecturer Dr Lawson Hikwa, said
the
failure to conclude the GPA outstanding issues for the past two years
was a
glaring sign that Jomic was unable to accomplish its
mandate.
“Jomic’s role so far has just been limited to looking at
what has been
implemented; what about the outstanding issues, which are
causing infighting
in the inclusive government? Jomic has to prove that it
is up to the
mandated task,” he said.
Hikwa said Constitutional
Amendment Number 19 does not articulate issues to
be dealt with under the
GPA, which itself is not law. He noted that the GPA’s
lack of legal basis
made it difficult for Jomic to push for the full
implementation of the
agreement.
Jomic had a two-day retreat last week in Nyanga to
scrutinise its role since
the committee’s formation.
Jomic
co-chairperson Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga admitted this week that
the
body was ineffective because of limited interaction with Sadc to brief
the
mediator on the situation the in country.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC)
replaced Welshman Ncube as Jomic co-chair while
other co-chairpersons are
Elton Mangoma (MDC-T) and Nicholas Goche (Zanu
PF).
In Nyanga,
Jomic only resolved to form an operations committee to handle
administration
issues as well as media, land and sanctions committees to
look at ways to
address the outstanding issues.
Research scholar and political
analyst Macdonald Chibika blamed Zanu PF for
Jomic’s failure because the
party wanted the status quo to remain.
“Mugabe always wants to remain
with absolute power. He doesn’t want to share
with Tsvangirai. This is why
the GPA will never work and unfortunately Jomic
can’t tame Mugabe,” he
said.
Political analyst Takura Zhangazha likened Jomic to the Organ
on National
Healing which he said has not achieved anything since its
inception, also
two years ago.
“Jomic is largely ceremonial. It
has no power to rein in political parties
to resolve disputes. The same with
the Organ on National Healing; they haven’t
done anything,” he
said.
“Jomic is not known to the public or has no public support.
That shows we
have a long way to go.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
18:45
THE Lake Chivero invaders got the publicity they deserved last
weekend.
Mounting an illegal occupation of chalets, restaurants, a caravan
site and
the internationally-renowned Kuimba Shiri bird park, 200 Zanu PF
activists
from Zvimba occupied the lakeshore residences and businesses
claiming to be
fulfilling President Mugabe’s indigenisation
project.
Youth minister Saviour Kasukuwere and ZTA CEO Karikoga Kaseke tried
to
distance themselves from this anarchy. But by then it was too late. The
damage had been done.
Tourism minister Walter Mzembi in Spain had just
launched Zimbabwe’s new
brand, “World of Wonders”. But delegates to the
event, having read the
papers, asked him if this was the same country he had
been talking about?
That is what happens when lawlessness runs rampant. Who
promoted this
illegal occupation in the first place? We know what their
agenda was. We
just want the names.
There was nothing remotely “swift” or
“decisive” about the authorities’
response as they claimed.
The leaders
of the gang were described by Kaseke as “dignified individuals”,
who claimed
to be acting against racism.
Whatever Kasukuwere or Kaseke might claim, this
was the ugly face of
empowerment; helping yourself to other people’s
property. It is called
theft. Fortunately the world was able to share our
view of this assault.
A reader mailed us to say he was pleasantly
surprised to see a picture of Hu
Jintao and a grinning President Obama
together with Michelle Obama under the
caption “Heavyweights”, in last
Friday’s edition of the Herald.
“I thought the official line would have
dictated that the Herald should have
been screaming, what is Cde Hu doing,
hobnobbing with imperialists?”
Our reader makes the obvious point that “if
our friends in the East have the
sense to look West why is it a sin for us
to even consider mentioning the
West in good light?
“Why should we
continue to exclusively look East? What kind of a tantrum is
it that lasts
more than 10 years? And come to think of it why should one man’s
tantrum
form the basis of national policy?”
The president’s whereabouts was the
subject of a disinformation campaign
last weekend. We had heard that he was
due back on Sunday, January 23.
NewsDay carried the story which emanated
from a politburo member. But dozens
of influential people were certain he
was already back on the Thursday and
were trying to convince us that this
was the case. We declined to take the
bait. But what prompted the pressure
to mislead our readers? We can only
assume it was designed to wrong-foot his
detractors.
When Mugabe did at last land in Harare on Sunday, he put an end
to rumours
of ill-health by revealing that he had been holidaying with his
family in
Singapore. The Herald’s Tendai Mugabe thought we should know that
Singapore
is “near Hong Kong where his daughter Bona is pursuing university
studies”.
The president said he had not even been in Malaysia.
Muckraker’s
information is that Mugabe’s plane landed in Kuala Lumpur on
December 31,
then diverted with passengers to Singapore where its VIPs
disembarked (or
deplaned as the Americans say) and then returned to KL where
it resumed its
scheduled flight. Several connections were missed as a
result.
If the
press speculated about Malaysia being the destination, that’s perhaps
because it so often has been in the past. Have we forgotten Langkawi so
soon? And those photo ops with Mahathir? And were reports of the Malaysian
urologist who often accompanies the president all part of the Western
campaign of “lies”?
Anyway, we are delighted to hear that the president
is in robust health. But
rumours about his health are the product of a
rumour mill starved of
accurate information.
When Obama or David Cameron
go on holiday — or even Vladimir Putin — they
provide the press with a photo
opportunity on condition that they make
themselves scarce
thereafter.
Silvio Berlusconi chooses Sardinia — a rocky island — so the
pesky press can’t
film his um, er “visitors”!
It is to be hoped that
Mugabe benefited from his Singapore sojourn to see
how a small country with
no natural resources became a success story almost
overnight as a result of
wise governance. Singapore is today a wealthy
multi-racial society with a
keen respect for its British founder, Sir
Stamford Raffles, whose statue
occupies pride of place in downtown
Singapore.
Former prime minister Lee
Kuan Yew who was educated at Cambridge and
presided over the country’s
dramatic growth may have been a stickler for
discipline (dropping litter is
a major offence). But he marshalled his
people into a modern,
investor-friendly, financial hub.One of his first
success stories was the
transformation in the 1970s of national airline,
Singapore Airlines, into a
flagship business. It is about the same age as
Air Zimbabwe. But try flying
Singapore Airlines and see the difference!
Did Mugabe notice any of this?
Somehow we doubt it.
Did you know when buying the little Zimbabwe flags
on sale at the traffic
lights that you are contributing to Zanu PF’s
election campaign? The Sunday
Mail helpfully revealed this over the
weekend.
“The Zimbabwe flag is being embraced by all and sundry,” an
editorial told
us. “There is a reawakening. Something is happening to our
national
consciousness. Something is happening to our national
identity.”
Something was happening at the Sunday Mail, that’s for sure. It
should have
kept a lid on this disclosure. Sales could plummet when people
find out
where the campaign comes from. And is it a good idea for one party
to wrap
itself in the flag? Shouldn’t the flag belong to all
Zimbabweans?
We wonder what “awakening” is referred to. All we have heard
about is
internecine warfare as ambitious personalities fight it out for
turf.
And the other thing we noticed on Sunday was an assault on the
roadmap to
elections which President Zuma has been working hard with the
Zimbabwe
negotiators to bring to fulfilment.
“This roadmap nonsense,”
Jonathan Moyo scoffed, “which has been conveniently
if not mischievously
associated with Sadc and…President Jacob Zuma is
totally unacceptable… not
only because it is borrowed from a tired American
concept that has failed in
the Middle East but also because it seeks to
subvert our national
sovereignty enshrined in our constitution.”
“The point must be made,” Moyo
asserted, “and made in the strongest possible
way, and those with ears must
hear, that no election in Zimbabwe will be set
and conducted on the basis of
any roadmap.”
So there you have it. A kick in the teeth for
Zuma!
Meanwhile, we wonder what business people like Joseph Kanyekanye
are
thinking when Emmerson Mnangagwa advertises his damaging Stalinist
proposal
to make business leaders of foreign-based companies denounce
sanctions on
TV.
Kanyekanye has said he opposes sanctions. So how can he
and his outfit, the
CZI, allow this dangerous demagoguery to pass
unremarked? What sort of
business organisation is it that remains silent in
the face of threats of
this sort against its members? The CZI doesn’t
deserve to have any members.
Zanu PF’s leaders should get it into their thick
heads that most people in
this country hold them responsible for sanctions.
The CZI didn’t impose
sanctions, nor did the MDC. Zanu PF’s misrule
did.
Muckraker has always regarded the Law Society as a competent and
professional body.
But a full page advert taken out in the press recently
would suggest the
description of “clumsy and careless”.
First of all,
unforgivably, they managed to misspell the first name of the
Chief Justice.
Then they said “retaliates” when they meant “reiterates”.
The LSZ needs to
get itself a proof reader!
It does raise a useful point that hasn’t been
commented upon. Some 82% of
civil appeals noted in 2010 are not yet ready
for set-down. As the LSZ
points out, this scenario is not condonable as
delay in execution of justice
may at times end in denial of a basic right of
access to justice.”
Muckraker would simply ask: what are those responsible
for hearing cases
doing that is occupying most of their time?
Is it
not ironic that “sell-outs” and “totem-less aliens” are the ones now
singing
Zanu PF’s praises. President Mugabe, in a fit of pique during the
2000
parliamentary election made these disparaging comments referring to
Mbare
residents.
However, it seems that Zanu PF has seen the error of its ways and
is now
using the Mbare Chimurenga Choir which has released its second album
accompanied by a video of the track titled Mahwindi with the aim of
“encouraging oneness in the country”.
Mahwindi is the group’s second
album following Nyatsoteerera which according
to ZBC “set a new standard in
the production of Chimurenga music videos”.
They did set a new standard in
bootlicking and mediocrity which many a
musician –– even Last Tambaoga
Chiyangwa –– will find hard to match.
The track Simukai Tiverengane, we were
told by the Herald, urges people to
take stock of one another, urging
everyone to be visible when the time to be
counted by the shepherd, in this
case President Mugabe, comes.
We liked the bit about the shepherd and his
flock. They are all sheep aren’t
they? And we understand what the counting
involves. Baaa!
We could only commiserate with ZTV Sunday Edition anchors
Marion Shaba and
Juliet Muzenda who tried their best to portray their
enthusiasm by bobbing
their heads when the video was played. It is very
likely that it was more
out of duty than pleasure since the powers that be
at Pockets Hill last year
read the riot act to presenters who did not show
acceptable levels of
enthusiasm in spewing out propaganda.
NewsDay
reports that former Zanu PF Masvingo provincial Information and
publicity
secretary Kudzai Mbudzi has rejoined the party after a brief foray
in
opposition politics. Mbudzi was suspended from Zanu PF in 2007 after
sharply
criticising President Mugabe and his old guard over failure to
institute
leadership renewal in the revolutionary party.
“It is important to
realise the reasons why I left in the first
place,” Mbudzi said. “I was
agitating for leadership renewal, organisational
transformation and
regeneration in the party.
“Ultimately, I saw that in spite of my own
thinking as an individual, that
same thinking must be subordinated to
majority thinking.”
No guesses will be required over what might have prompted
Mbudzi to return
to the feeding trough. It reminds us of the Zanu PF
official, identified as
Mudarikwa who according to WikiLeaks likened Zanu PF
to a troop of baboons
incessantly fighting among themselves but coming
together to face external
threats.
Here is the clincher from Mbudzi: “The
party is now making up on the same
reasons which had caused me to leave.
Organisational transformation and
renewal in Zanu PF is now a fact, so I
decided to come back.”
Is he talking about the same party we know? Mugabe and
his old guard are
still there and so are the same failed policies and yet by
some freak of
nature Mbudzi sees “organisational transformation and
renewal.”
Where?
Finally, analysts are commenting on the role of
social media in the Tunisian
revolution. Now that it has spread to Egypt
should we call it Fezbook?
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
18:43
By Eric Bloch
MEDIA reports last week claimed that the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(Noczim) had had their entire cash
resources seized by the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority (Zimra) due to default in
payment of fuel importation duties and
other imposts.
The reports
stated that, with the seizure of its funds, Noczim was unable to
effect
payment for the petroleum which it had purchased, which petroleum was
in
tanks at Beira, in Mozambique, pending forwarding to Zimbabwe through the
Beira Corridor pipeline. As a result, the reports said, a fuel shortage in
Zimbabwe was imminent, with a major scarcity already prevailing in
Harare.
Zimbabwe is not unaccustomed to fuel shortages, and most of the
populace
will readily recall the many hours, and days, expended in very long
queues
at all the country’s filling stations, awaiting arrival of critically
needed
fuel supplies. The economic impact was great; there was loss of
thousands
of working hours with concomitant minimal availability of public
transport
services. Commerce and industry were unable to transport
manufacturing
inputs and operational requirements and to deliver goods from
factories to
wholesalers and retailers, as well as innumerable other
transportation needs
essential to any economy.
With the already
operationally-emaciated Noczim likely to be wholly inert, a
calamitous
recurrence of those disastrous economic circumstances is almost a
certainty,
already (within days of Zimra’s seizure of Noczim’s funds)
beginning to
evidence itself.
Bearing in mind that Noczim is a government parastatal,
and that Zimra is
government’s revenue collection vehicle, it is wholly
attributable to
government that, once again, the greatly embattled economy
is to be further
weakened.
Zimra cannot be condemned for taking
actions incumbent upon it to ensure
receipt of revenues due to — and greatly
needed by — the state. Noczim is
the indisputable culprit for the
consequences of its defaults in effecting
payments of such revenues, but
nevertheless the onus is upon government to
act speedily to minimise, and
thereafter avoid, the decimation of the
economy which is an inevitable
consequence of insufficient, and belated,
supply of the nation’s essential
petroleum requirements.
Failure to do so will not only grievously retard
the working of the wheels
of the economy, but will also have the by-product
effects of diminishing
government’s other revenue flows from the economy, as
well as markedly
further diminishing the already pronouncedly low levels of
business
confidence and national morale.
As an immediate, first
remedial measure, government needs to advance to
Noczim a loan to enable it
forthwith to resume sufficient of fuel imports
(to all intents and purposes,
loaning to Noczim the very funds of which it
was dispossessed). However,
that is only a transitional and very necessary
governmental action for
whilst it will temporarily address the looming
crisis, it will not resolve
the underlying core Noczim deficiencies (common
to most parastatals) of
great undercapitalisation, and extreme mismanagement
of
resources.
Government has an intense, paranoid belief that it must have
absolute
control of anything and everything, and hence its recurrent
resistance to
the privatisation of parastatals, wholly or partially, despite
more than 20
years of declared intentions to do so. Exceptionally, however,
it did
recently divest itself of Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, but that
is only
one of the more than 40 parastatals of which government is
possessed.
Recently, government has vociferously contended that it now
intends to
vigorously pursue privatisations, but that intent has yet to be
demonstrated.
With the impending fuel crisis, one of the first
privatisations that must be
pursued with great haste is that of Noczim, not
only because of the imminent
crisis, but also because for years it has been
incontrovertibly evident that
Noczim fulfills no functions that cannot more
effectively and beneficially
be pursued by the private sector, as is the
case in the majority of the
world’s economies.
Admittedly, Noczim
fulfilled a valuable purpose at a time when Zimbabwe was
confronted by major
international trade sanctions impeding the purchase and
importation of
petroleum, but that ceased when Zimbabwe became independent
in 1980. Now,
the economic role of Noczim can be wholly, and more
effectively, addressed
by international and domestic fuel companies, of
which there are very many
with proven track records of successful and
economically-effective
operations.
As an immediate step, after temporarily funding Noczim’s
importation of the
fuel awaiting inflow to Zimbabwe from Beira, and any fuel
enroute to Beira
from international fuel-supplying countries, government
needs to empower any
private sector enterprises that wish to import and
distribute petroleum
products to do so.
Naturally, such enterprises
must be compliant with all normal importation
formalities and procedures,
including timeous payment of all governmental
imposts.
Thereafter,
government should speedily divest itself of ownership and
control of Noczim,
or in the alternative should initiate the dissolution of
that entity, with
disposal to the private sector of its infrastructure and
all its
operations.
If government does not very rapidly fund Noczim’s immediate
fuel
importations, and then speedily privatise or wind-up Noczim —with
concurrent
enablement of private sector assumption of Noczim’s operations
and
functions — the presently weak economy will be so massively further
weakened
as to be on the verge of extinction.
Concurrently, the only
fuel availability will, once again, be in illegal
black markets, at immense
costs, occasioning yet another massive surge in
economy-debilitating
inflation.
That, in turn, will intensify the already extensive poverty
and suffering
which is the burden of the majority of Zimbabweans. A looming,
almost
immediate, massive fuel crisis is about to confront Zimbabwe, unless
government immediately acts constructively and dynamically.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
18:31
By Dumisani Nkomo
THE recent ascendance of Professor
Welshman Ncube to the presidency of the
smaller MDC formation has been
dismissed by some critics as a non-event and
inconsequential.
I would like to argue that in politics, “a
day is like a thousand years and
a thousand years like a day”, and as such
to dismiss the MDC- N (formerly
MDC-M) — especially in the light of
leadership renewal in that party —
would be foolish and
dangerous.
Whilst at a national level it is clear that Ncube’s MDC is
unlikely to win a
single seat outside Matabeleland or Midlands, the party is
likely to have an
impact on the electoral landscape for better or for
worse.
In the event of an election just 10 seats will be enough for the
party to
have a say once again in the political texture and indeed destiny
of the
next government. Importantly considerations must be made to the
politics of
Matabeleland which have evolved a lot since the last elections
in 2008.
Undoubtedly the Matabeleland vote, small as it is, will be crucial
in
deciding who will make their road to State House or have a majority in
parliament.
Political objectives
Quite clearly the MDC-N has
no intention of winning the elections if they
are held in the next 18 months
as they stand no chance of winning a national
plebiscite in the near future.
To think otherwise would be the worst case of
self-delusion as to all
practical intents the party is unable and incapable
of conquering the
Mashonaland provinces, Manicaland, Masvingo and most of
Midlands.
They have realistically weighed their chances and
positioned themselves to
be the “kingmakers” of Zimbabwean politics,
assuming that neither MDC-T nor
the former ruling party Zanu PF fail to
garner a majority.
They have strategically decided to concentrate on
where they stand the best
chances of winning anything and that happens to be
in Matabeleland.
There are however numerous impediments, constraints and
pitfalls that the
party will have to deal with if it is to have an impact on
the Zimbabwean
political landscape.
An election held in the next 12
months could be genocidal for the MDC-N as
they could be buried in an
electoral landslide.
If the election is held 12 - 36 months later the
MDC-N will definitely have
time to regroup, re-strategise and have a huge
impact on the electoral
landscape especially in Matabeleland. They would be
praying (and fasting)
that during this time MDC-T commits gigantic blunders
and scores one or two
own goals whilst Zanu PF continues to lose
popularity.
Failure to effectively re-strategise within this time frame
will result in
the party being literally obliterated from the political
landscape just like
what happened to the Forum party of Zimbabwe along with
its galaxy of “stars
and political talents”.
The following internal
weaknesses will militate against the MDC-N in its
quest:
Disconnect
with masses/grassroots
Whilst the MDC-N is blessed with abundant
political talent, academic acumen
and experience, this all counts for
nothing in politics. After all Zanu PF
reduced the country’s economy to a
rubble in spite of the fact that they
boasted of “one of the most brilliant
cabinets in Africa in 1980”.The MDC-N’s
fatal flaw would be that it has
disconnected with grassroots issues and
dynamics.
The fact that the
party’s congress had 1 000 or 5 000 people (depending on
whose statistics
you use) counts for nothing as presence of party members at
a congress does
not necessarily reflect or translate into growth or increase
in the party’s
magnitude. The MDC-N has been pre-occupied with elitist
politics which does
not resonate with the grassroots.
They have failed to understand that
whilst the middle class and upper class
play a major role in the destiny of
elections in Europe and America, in
Africa it is the working class, the
peasantry and the informal sector that
determine electoral and indeed
political outcomes. Lately they have seized
on such grassroots issues in
Matabeleland but it may be a case of too
little, too late.
Zanu PF
alignment perception
The MDC-N formation has at times made strategic
blunders by appearing to
align itself with Zanu PF in the context of a
polarised political
environment.
On a number of occasions its former
president Arthur Mutambara seemed to be
Mugabe’s “praise singer”, and at
times the party appeared ambiguous about
their position about Zanu PF. This
was worsened by the fact that on a number
of occasions MDC-N officials used
the state media to lambast their MDC-T
rivals, further adding credence to
those who believed the party was a “Zanu
PF project”. To give an example
Simba Makoni, who was backed by the MDC-M in
the 2008 elections, committed a
fatal error by failing to articulate his
position about Zanu PF and as such
was viewed by many as Zanu PF project.
Failure to read
politics
Whilst blessed with abundant talent the MDC-N seems to fail to
read
political events.
At times they speak when they are supposed to
refrain from speaking and
refrain from speaking when they are supposed to
speak. I would like to argue
that if the MDC-N wanted to attack the MDC-T
they should have done so at the
time when the split occurred. Instead they
kept quiet and were labelled as
appendages of Zanu PF without putting up
much of a fight.
They ultimately lost the propaganda war and tried to win
it years afterwards
by starting on a fresh tirade of attacks against the
MDC-T.
Unfortunately in Zimbabwe’s highly polarised political environment
such
attacks have not translated to more support for the MDC-N, but have
been
perceived by some as an attempt to split the vote and give Zanu PF an
advantage.
Whilst this may not be true the MDC-N does not seem to
understand the
difference between what they believe and what people perceive
to be the
truth.
Their “holier than thou” approach to politics does
not work in the rough
terrains of African politics where there is little or
no room at all for
moderates. Moderates are often hit by traffic coming from
both sides of the
road which explains why their party has lost so many of
its members to
MDC-T, Zapu and yes even Zanu PF (remember Fidelis
Mhashu).
Intellectual/moral arrogance
Arrogance or perceptions of
arrogance in politics can be very suicidal and,
unfortunately for the MDC-N,
whilst priding itself as a party of
intellectuals it projects itself as
being arrogant. Some of the party’s
leaders have poured scorn on Morgan
Tsvangirai accusing him of being an
“intellectual dwarf”, conveniently
forgetting that Zanu PF and their string
of degrees both academic and in
“violence” ran the country down in spite of
their so called intellectual
stamina.
Conversely Jacob Zuma, the South African president who has
little formal
education, not only outfoxed Thabo Mbeki in the battle for the
leadership of
the ANC but has also proved to be a competent
leader
presiding
over one of the biggest economies in Africa. The
tragedy of some academics
and intellectuals is that their strength is their
weakness. Because of the
confidence they have in themselves they end up
sacrificing relationships,
networks and the imperative of
consultation.
The tragedy of intellectuals is that they believe that they
do not need
anybody else and can do it on their own but the reality of
politics is that,
in the words of James Dobson, “people do not care about
what you know but
they want to know whether you care”.
Weak civil
society linkages
The MDC-N has weak linkages with labour, the student
body, informal traders
associations and church related groups. It however
has the increasing
support of a lot of Matabeleland-based cultural and
social groups.
External factors
Tribalisation of politics
The
tribalisation of Zimbabwean politics means that the party is viewed by
people from outside Matabeleland as a regional outfit. However, ironically
and paradoxically many people in the region of Matabeleland view the
persecution of Ncube’s political ascent as an assault on the Ndebele people
which could give currency and popularity to
him.
Polarisation
Politics in Zimbabwe has been dichotomised into
those who support Zanu PF
and those against it. Popularly MDC-T is seen as
an embodiment of resistance
to Zanu PF. This will militate against the
MDC-N, at least at a national
level.
The electoral system
The
“first past the post” system gives bigger parties such as Zanu PF and
MDC-T
an advantage at the expense of the MDC-N and Zapu. The MDC-M could
actually
have won at least four to five seats more if proportional
representation had
been used in the last election.
The Zapu threat
The emergence of
Zapu could swing some votes and support away from MDC-N in
Matabeleland. The
two parties could find themselves “fishing from the same
fish
pond”.
Strengths
The Ncube factor
Whilst many people view
the ascendance of Ncube as an elitist transfer of
power, nothing could be
further from the truth as many people in
Matabeleland region view this as a
positive move. People in the region are
now tired of being used as political
ornaments to provide “ethnic décor to”
national parties.
People are
asking themselves “is it wrong to have a Ndebele leader?” The
critical
emerging issue in Matabeleland is no longer just removing Mugabe
from power
but what is in it for Matabeleland, and these are the dynamics of
the
political season. The flurry of criticism against Ncube from the state
and
independent media has made him something of a hero to many people in
Matabeleland. People love tragic figures or martyrs and the crucifixion of
Ncube has given him fresh credibility and impetus.
Whilst he is
aloof, uncharismatic and appears to be cold and distant, a lot
of people are
beginning to believe in him because of all the hullaballoo
about somebody
from Matabeleland leading a national party.
Talent and
experience
The MDC-N has in its ranks talented politicians, experienced
activists and
academics. They need to translate this into political
advantage through
grassroots based strategies.
Consistency
The
MDC- N has been fairly consistent in its positions about a wide variety
of
issues including the issue of the re-introduction of the senate (which
led
to the split of the party), the negotiated Kariba constitution and the
need
for full implementation of the Global Political Agreement before
elections.
As to whether they will have an effect, they definitely
cause a shift in the
country’s political terrain albeit to minor extent. If
they fail to adapt to
the political terrain and do not strategise on
grassroots mobilisation they
will be relegated to the dustbin of
history.
Dumisani Nkomo is the chief executive officer of Habakkuk Trust
and
spokesperson of the Matabeleland Civil Society Consortium. He can be
contacted on dumisani.nkomo@gmail.com This e-mail
address is being protected
from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to
view it
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011 19:49
THERE
exists a madcap state of affairs in the governance of Zimbabwe: when
president Robert Mugabe is on leave, there is no government business to talk
of as the entire administration is forced into recess leaving the country to
run on autopilot.
This may sound like hyperbole but that is exactly what
is happening. When
the president goes on leave, the man takes all the keys
with him and
ministers are left twiddling their thumbs. In fact many of them
also take
their leave as well because the cabinet will be closed,
literally.
Cabinet last met on December 18 and shortly thereafter
Mugabe took his
annual leave. While at any one time in Zimbabwe there is an
acting president
in Mugabe’ absence, it appears that he has no confidence in
his lieutenants
to chair cabinet while he is away.
MDC-T leader
and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is the nominal deputy
chair of the
cabinet but as it stands he is only a distant number four in
the hierarchy
of the so-called government of national unity (GNU).
Mugabe’s way of
doing business as the chairman of cabinet has shown an
archaic approach to
governance and policy-making which has no place in a
modern
state.
Cabinet is an important organ in modern government administration
and this
explains why in Zimbabwe as well as many other states it sits
weekly to
implement policies.
However, while on paper the
Zimbabwe cabinet sits weekly and mostly on
Tuesdays, this rule only applies
when Mugabe is present.
When he is not present and an acting president
appointed, the weekly meeting
is rescheduled or not held at all. When Mugabe
went on his annual leave,
John Nkomo was appointed acting president only to
be replaced by Joice
Mujuru at the beginning of the New Year.
Neither
of the two was trusted to chair the weekly meetings and the
government went
on autopilot. There has been no cabinet meeting in more than
a
month.
At a time like this, it is incumbent upon the other partners in
the GNU to
show leadership and insist on a meeting so crucial to the
governance of the
country.
Instead, Tsvangirai also took a break,
only returning to his office a few
days before Mugabe. The other MDC faction
was preoccupied with leadership
jostling, with Welshman Ncube eventually
taking over the reins from Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara.
So who then was making the crucial decisions on the sale
of diamonds,
indigenisation legislation, the pending civil servants strike
and the sudden
shortage of fuel which required the attention of
Cabinet?
There were attempts by responsible ministers to address the
issues but any
serious analyst would have seen the half-heartedness and
hesitancy shown
when their decisions need cabinet
ratification.
It is interesting to note that Mugabe, who literally
holds the cabinet
hostage and only convenes it at his whim, chose to chair a
Zanu PF
politiburo meeting on Wednesday, confirming a long-held belief that
his
party takes precedence over government. I
t is presumed that he
wanted to get his party’s position on various issues
to be discussed at the
African Union Summit in Ethiopia, most likely on the
Ivory Coast standoff,
the inevitable breakup of Sudan and the revolts
engulfing the Arab nations
of Tunisia and Egypt.
It is clear that Mugabe, who is accustomed to
substituting government with
the party which he controls, would set out Zanu
PF’s position which would
become the country’s position on such critical
issues.
This is one of the tragedies of the type of government that
has been
adopted. While Mugabe, who has been at the apex of the party since
1976 and
government for 31 years, may be impervious to changes occasioned by
the
unity government, the MDC has shown serious administrative failure at a
time
when Zimbabwe is rudderless.
People are asking, where is the
MDC? That is a legitimate question.
They are virtually invisible. Is it
not time for the MDC leadership to show
decisiveness and aptitude, providing
policy direction at a time when the
country has run out of fuel which saw a
100% hike in fares? The MDC, it
appears, has been afflicted by Zanu PF’s
delinquency and does not take its
role in government seriously.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
19:37
THE African Union (AU) is meeting for its annual summit in Addis
Ababa. Top
on the agenda will obviously be the political unrest in Ivory
Coast and
Tunisia as well as increasing protests in Egypt.
It would be a
folly, however, for the AU to completely ignore Zimbabwe at
this summit as
the country faces the risk of going back to the dark days of
2008 if recent
events are anything to go by.
On Sunday President Robert Mugabe
threatened to dissolve parliament and call
for elections if there was no
consensus on a new constitution as required by
the Global Political
Agreement.
It is clear by his recent pronouncements that Mugabe wants
elections soon
and clearly does not give a hoot whether the environment is
conducive for
the polls.
This is where the AU and Sadc should
flex their muscles as continental and
regional bodies and intervene in
stopping this madness.
We have witnessed an increase in incidents of
violence in both urban and
rural areas with soldiers deployed countrywide to
intimidate the electorate
ahead of the polls. There have been reports of
houses belonging to MDC-T
supporters being burnt by Zanu PF thugs as well as
efforts to sabotage the
constitution process.
Just last week Zanu
PF supporters invaded resort lodges and camps at Lake
Chivero under the
guise of indigenisation. It was only thwarted by JOC which
ordered riot
police to remove them.
There has been increasing stories in the
public media denigrating the MDC-T
as Zanu PF dominates the airwaves with
jingles praising Mugabe. In all
fairness, labelling the supposedly national
broadcaster as Zanu PF TV would
not be far off the mark. Reactionaries
within the former ruling party are
now agitating against the road map South
African president Jacob Zuma is
pushing for using the all too obvious
“sovereignty” posture.
It is hard to justify the existence of an
organ of national healing and
reconciliation given the increasingly
polarised environment in the country.
It has truly proved to be a white
elephant.
The three principals to the GPA have failed to implement
what they agreed
and signed on September 15 2008. There has been very little
done in terms of
security, legislative and media reforms with no new players
in the
electronic media.
This clearly illustrates that the
country is not prepared for an election as
it will only lead to another
political crisis. This is the last thing the
country and the continent needs
especially at a time the country’s economy
has stabilised.
While
we agree that elections are the only solution to unlock the political
logjam
in the country, we contend that holding an election without proper
reforms
will only produce a similar result to that of 2008 with possibly
more
devastating consequences.
The AU need to be more vigilant and ensure
that elections are not held in
the current environment as doing so would
only leave them with a much bigger
problem when the situation spirals out of
control.
The AU must support the GPA facilitator, President Jacob
Zuma, in calling
for a clear roadmap for elections which includes extensive
media and
security reforms, a proper national healing process as well as
ensuring that
a democratic, all-inclusive constitution is in
place.
In addition, the AU should send an assessment team that will
complement
efforts by Sadc to bring about conclusive and satisfactory
elections in
Zimbabwe.
The AU must take heed of the adage that a
stitch in time saves nine. It
needs to demonstrate its concern before the
all-too-predictable chaos takes
place.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 27 January 2011
19:36
GOVERNMENTS or political parties the world over seize every
opportunity to
lie and mislead, not only to their enemies but also to their
own populaces.
This makes politics, throughout the world, more or less the
business of
strategic manoeuvring and manipulation of information to
mobilise support
for the agendas of those in power.
President Robert
Mugabe’s previous regimes and Zanu PF have always thrived
on that.
Propaganda, lies and deception are part of their political DNA.
Of
late Zanu PF leaders and their apologists, some masquerading as analysts,
have been pushing and shoving on the political scene trying to mislead the
nation and voters on the GPA and elections in a bid to justify stampeding
the country into polls where violence, intimidation and fraud would be key
determinants in the outcome.
Despite the clarity of the GPA, its
well-known political context and
circumstances, we are nonetheless now being
told, rather ineptly, that
Mugabe has the constitutional authority to
unilaterally dissolve parliament
and call for elections on his own under the
current dispensation.
The only redeeming thing about this is that
Mugabe himself understands his
powers and obligations under the GPA. Mugabe
acknowledged last Sunday he can’t
dissolve parliament and call for elections
under the GPA dispensation.
We are also being told that there is no
necessary connection between
elections and the constitution-making process
in the context of the GPA.
Furthermore, Mugabe and Zanu PF claim that the
inclusive government
automatically and necessarily comes to end on February
13. Another claim
from Zanu PF, or more accurately its ideologues, is that
the inclusive
government is dysfunctional because no party has a clear and
working
majority in parliament.
These misleading assertions can
only be deliberate misrepresentations.
There is no serious person who
understands the GPA, its context and
circumstances who wouldn’t know that
it’s a transitional arrangement or a
roadmap, with guidelines or signposts
to the next elections.
The other propaganda claim –– this time by
MDC-T, which is incredibly
ridiculous –– is that a new presidential election
can be held alone in the
context of harmonised polls under the current
constitution and laws before
2013 when all polls are due.
MDC-M
(now MDC-N) wants to give us the impression elections can only be held
in
2013. The assumption being that only in 2013 can the country be ready for
fresh elections.
These claims by the three political parties in
the GPA fit into their
propaganda templates, despite attendant lies and
deception.
The GPA, whether on the surface or nuanced levels of
understanding and
analysis, was envisaged to last for two years although
that duration was not
automatically and necessarily its lifespan or natural
life. It was a working
arrangement. That’s why there were supposed to be
annual reviews and a final
assessment after two years to determine the way
forward.
The GPA was predicated on the assumption that after two
years its nucleus
elements –– the constitution-making process and other
critical reforms ––
would have been completed. However, the GPA’s timetable
on the
constitution-making process is behind by almost a year.
So
issues of GPA duration, implementation mechanisms, review,
constitution-making process and referendum, and elections, including their
conditions, timing and quality, have to be done by consensus. There is no
room for unilateral actions or smoke-and-mirrors politics.
What
political parties and their publicists are now saying is a
well-packaged web
of lies. If this sort of politicking is allowed to
succeed, truth will in
the end sound utterly preposterous and its speakers
raving lunatics, while
liars appear entirely plausible.