http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Cuthbert Nzou
Thursday 09 July 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe's constitutional
conference has been delayed to Monday
after President Robert Mugabe's ZANU
PF party objected to the meeting taking
place tomorrow as had been
scheduled.
Douglas Mwonzora, a co-chairperson of a special parliamentary
committee
leading the constitutional reform process, said the committee met
yesterday
and resolved to change the date of the conference and to also cut
its
duration to two days instead of the originally planned four days due to
budgetary concerns.
"Having taken into considerations the concerns of
ZANU PF and the timeline
given in the global political agreement (GPA), the
committee decided to move
the conference to Monday," Mwonzora told ZimOnline
in an interview.
"We had no mandate to vary the timeline in the GPA. We
were confined by the
GPA to have the conference on or before July 13. The
conference will run for
one-and-half days," said Mwonzora, who is a member
of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC party.
Mwonzora chairs the
parliamentary committee along with ZANU PF's Paul
Mangwana and David
Coltart, a legislator from the smaller MDC formation led
by Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara.
The move by the parliamentary committee to
shift the conference dates was a
major climb down after it initially met on
Tuesday and refused to bow down
to ZANU PF's request.
The committee
apparently backed down fearing further delay after ZANU PF
legislators wrote
to the party's leadership requesting that Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Mutambara
meet to resolve the dispute over dates of the
conference, a development that
would have caused even more delays and
probably throw the constitutional
reform exercise of course.
In demanding postponement of the conference,
ZANU PF said there was need to
determine who were the stakeholders to send
representatives to the key
convention and also said logistical matters had
to be ironed out before
delegates could start travelling from around the
country to Harare.
Meanwhile, the government controlled daily newspaper -
The Herald -
yesterday quoted unnamed ZANU PF lawmakers complaining that the
Tsvangirai-led MDC had hijacked the constitution-making process.
Some
of the lawmakers accused ZANU PF members in the select committee of
allowing
"MDC-T legislators in the Select Committee to run the show by
themselves".
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the country's
largest labour body and
the National Constitutional Assembly pressure group
are boycotting the
Parliament-led constitutional reform process saying
politicians control the
process and will manipulate the outcome.
Once
a new constitution is in place, the power-sharing government is
expected to
call fresh parliamentary, presidential and local government
elections.
Zimbabwe is currently governed under the 1979 Constitution
agreed at the
Lancaster House talks in London.
The constitution has
been amended 19 times since the country's independence
in 1980 and critics
say the changes have only helped to entrench Mugabe and
ZANU PF's
stranglehold on power. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Nokuthula Sibanda
Thursday 09 July 2009
HARARE - A delegation from the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)
has called for a temporary ban
on trade in diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange
fields after unearthing gross
human rights violations and other illegal
activities at the notorious
diamond fields.
In a damning report, the delegation called for: "A
suspension on production
and exports from Marange . . . until effective
security, internal control
measures and resources are in place in a manner
that indicates that Zimbabwe
has control and authority of the Marange
fields."
The KPCS team that was headed by Liberian deputy mines minister
Kpandel Fiya
visited Zimbabwe last week to probe reports by human rights
groups that the
country's military used brutal force to control access to
Marange and to
take over unlicenced diamond mining and trading following
discovery of the
gemstones there in June 2006.
In a report ahead of
the KPCS visit, New York-based Human Rights Watch
accused Zimbabwe's
military of conscripting villagers - both adults and
children - to mine
diamonds at Marange.
Harare denies allegations of human rights abuses at
Marange and says calls
to ban diamonds from the fields were unjustified
because Zimbabwe was not
involved in a war or armed conflict.
But
Fiya's team said it had discovered abuses of civilians in Marange which
it
said must be stopped. In a damning report the team also said it had
discovered and observed a variety of illegal diamond mining and processing
activities in Marange.
"Our team was able to interview and document
the stories of tens of victims,
observe their wounds, scars from dog bites
and batons, tears and on going
psychological trauma," Fiya said in a
statement to Zimbabwe Mines Minister
Obert Mpofu.
He added: "I am
from Liberia, Sir I was in Liberia throughout the 15 years
of civil war, and
I have experienced too much senseless violence in my
lifetime, especially
connected to diamonds. In speaking with some of these
people, Minister, I
had to leave the room. This has to be acknowledged and
it has to
stop."
Fiya's team said Zimbabwe must acknowledge that diamond mining at
Marange
had not complied with KPCS minimum standards and urged Harare to act
urgently to ensure compliance with prescribed standards.
During its
tour of Zimbabwe, the KPCS team met with senior government,
police and
defence officials. It also met officials from diamond mining
firms as well
as traditional chiefs, human rights activists and lawyers and
groups
involved in counselling of victims of violence.
The KPCS is a joint
government, industry and civil society initiative to
stop trade in conflict
diamonds - rough diamonds used by rebel movements and
other rouge groups to
finance wars against legitimate governments. -
ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
08 July
2009
Zimbabwe's power-sharing cabinet issued an ultimatum Wednesday
to the three
principals in the national unity government to resolve numerous
issues that
have been straining relations between the Movement for
Democratic Change and
ZANU-PF sides of the government.
MDC and
ZANU-PF sources told VOA that Wednesday's cabinet meeting was tense
with
extended and heated debate as members from the MDC formation led by
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai clashed with their ZANU-PF counterparts.
The
latter were said to have been agitated over last week's MDC boycott of a
cabinet meeting.
The MDC raised the stakes this week demanding
compliance in full with the
Global Political Agreement signed in September
2008 by President Robert
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and now-Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara. Senior
members of the Tsvangirai MDC formation accused
ZANU-PF of attempting to
torpedo the unity government.
Contentious
issues include an ongoing judicial crackdown on MDC and civic
activists, the
delay in swearing in MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett as deputy
agriculture
minister, the appointments of provincial governors and the
failure of the
National Security Council to convene.
Government sources said the three
principals will brief the cabinet next
Tuesday on how much time they will
need to settle the outstanding issues.
From Johannesburg, human rights
lawyer Dewa Mavhinga told reporter Blessing
Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the principals must resolve the
issues which continue to
jeopardize the longevity of the unity government.
http://www.voanews.com
By Chris Gande
Washington
08 July 2009
The head of
Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union said Wednesday that there
was probably
no political motive in the axe murder Friday of white
commercial farmer Bob
Vaughn-Evans, a director of the organization, who was
attacked at his home
in Gweru with his wife.
Vaughan-Evans's wife Jean was reported to be in
serious condition at Gweru
Hospital. It was the third attack on the couple
and an earlier assault left
her wheelchair-bound.
Commercial Farmers'
Union President Trevor Gifford told reporter Chris Gande
of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that preliminary investigations suggest the
couple was attacked
by criminals who have attacked and robbed vulnerable
residents in the Gweru
area.
Vaughan-Evans, a well-known agriculturalist and conservationist,
represented
the farmers union in Midlands province, of which Gweru is the
capital.
http://www.voanews.com/
By
Patience Rusere
Washington
08 July 2009
Reported
comments by Zimbabwean Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara on
Wednesday
returned a dispute within the country's fractious national unity
government
over the tenure of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono to the
political front
burner.
Mutambara was quoted in the state-controlled Herald newspaper as
urging
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to work with the central banker,
accused by
many of stoking hyperinflation and misappropriating funds,
instead of
demanding he be sacked or step down.
Reached by VOA,
Mutambara said he could not comment as he was in a meeting.
The Herald
said Mutambara made the remarks Tuesday in a meeting with
small-scale
miners. The paper said Gono himself was present along with other
government
officials.
The comments brought a statement from Mr. Tsvangirai's
formation of the
Movement for Democratic Change saying Gono must depart as
agreed under the
Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008 by
President Robert
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
Tsvangirai MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa told reporter Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that Gono's departure is needed to bolster
investor confidence.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
President Barack
Obama has told African leaders it is time to stop blaming
colonialism and
"Western oppression" for the continent's manifold problems.
By Alex
Spillius in Washington
Published: 12:28AM BST 09 Jul 2009
Ahead of
a visit to Ghana at the weekend, he said: "Ultimately, I'm a big
believer
that Africans are responsible for Africa.
"I think part of what's
hampered advancement in Africa is that for many
years we've made excuses
about corruption or poor governance, that this was
somehow the consequence
of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive,
or racism - I'm not a
big - I'm not a believer in excuses.
Mr Obama, the son of a Kenyan,
added: "I'd say I'm probably as knowledgeable
about African history as
anybody who's occupied my office. And I can give
you chapter and verse on
why the colonial maps that were drawn helped to
spur on conflict, and the
terms of trade that were uneven emerging out of
colonialism.
"And yet
the fact is we're in 2009," continued the US president. "The West
and the
United States has not been responsible for what's happened to
Zimbabwe's
economy over the last 15 or 20 years.
"It hasn't been responsible for
some of the disastrous policies that we've
seen elsewhere in Africa. And I
think that it's very important for African
leadership to take responsibility
and be held accountable."
Mr Obama told AllAfrica.com that he chose Ghana
for his first trip to the
continent as president to highlight the country's
development as a
democracy.
Providing glimpses of a speech to be
delivered in Accra on Saturday, he
explained: "Ghana has now undergone a
couple of successful elections in
which power was transferred peacefully,
even a very close election."
Mr Obama made it clear that Kenya's ongoing
instability had ruled out his
father's homeland as an initial destination,
despite the euphoria it would
have produced.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
July
8 2009
HARARE - Workers at President Robert Mugabe's farm, Gushungo
Dairy Estate
Holdings, have poured cold water on recent reports that the
veteran
president and his wife Grace, a former typist, are model farmers.
They said
this after Mugabe commissioned a new state-of-the-art milking
parlour
sourced from South Africa last week, amid praises from his fawning
ministers
that Zimbabweans needed to emulate the Mugabes for "taking farming
seriously".
The farm in Mazowe, formerly known as Foyle
Farm, was seized from Ian
Webster and was at the time one of the best dairy
estates in the world.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, workers told The
Zimbabwean this week
that the Mugabes' "success" was based on free money
acquired from the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and free labour taken from
government-run
agricultural enterprises such as ARDA.
A former manager at
Gushungo Dairy Holdings, told this newspaper that over
the last four years
and on the instruction of Grace Mugabe, he and other
managers applied for
loans amounting to several million South African Rands
from the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe in their individual capacities.
"When we asked Grace if we would
not end up being saddled with her personal
debts, she would always tell us
that she had already spoken to people at the
Reserve Bank and that the money
was awaiting collection," he said.
Several employees had accompanied Grace to
South Africa to identify the
milking parlour, one of the top two in
Africa.
"The highlights of our visit to South Africa to identify different
farming
equipment were the shopping binges that we would do as the woman was
generous with the free funds," added the manager, who, although he was
contracted to and paid by ARDA, spent all his time working for the
Mugabes.
"So really for the politicians to mislead the nation that the First
Family
are good farmers is simply not true. For quite a long time we
provided free
labour at the expense of the taxpayer, while money was being
taken from the
RBZ."
An current employee at the farm said the trend had
not changed. Agricultural
experts from state enterprises were still being
seconded to work at the
estate.
"It is so crude to the point that
agriculture minister, Joseph Made, is
essentially the President's farm
manager. He spends most of his time
supervising workers from government
agricultural institutions," said the
employee.
Local government minister,
Ignatius Chombo, was at a loss for words after
seeing the equipment sourced
using free RBZ funds.
"I have never seen a dairy of this kind. It's a major
challenge to all
farmers. It has to be emulated. I am extremely impressed,"
he said.
Mashonaland Central governor, Martin Dinha, also became tongue-tied
after
touring the complex.
He was quoted in a local newspaper as saying:
"Gushungo dairy gives us a lot
of proud (sic) as a province."
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Lizwe Sebatha
Thursday 09 July 2009
BULAWAYO - Foreign exhibitors
from Western countries and the Far East
have snubbed this year's edition of
Zimbabwe's annual mining and engineering
exhibition, Mine
Entra.
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) general manager
Daniel
Chagaru on Wednesday said the ZITF company had only received
responses from
two southern African countries over participation at this
year's Mine Entra.
"There are three foreign companies
participating, two from South
Africa and one from Zambia," Chigaru told
journalists at a press briefing.
This year's Mine Entra runs from
July 22 to 24 under the theme
"Providing a platform for Dynamic
Take-off".
"We have not received any bookings from countries in
Europe, the Far
East and the West to exhibit at the 2009 Mine Entra,"
Chigaru added.
The annual mining and engineering trade exhibition
has over the years
experienced a flight of exhibitors from the West and
Europe over the country's
bad image.
Chigaru said a snub of the
Mine Entra "does not augur well for the
resuscitation of the mining and
engineering sector as the exhibition forms
an ideal marketing forum for
mining and engineering companies".
The mining industry is still
failing to attract new investment because
of government's controversial
policies such as last year's proposed law to
compel foreign-owned mines to
surrender 51 percent stake to indigenous
businessmen or the
state.
The proposed law triggered uncertainty in the sector, which
is already
handicapped by low exchange rate and foreign currency
shortages.
Meanwhile a two-day international investment conference
expected to be
attended by 100 world-renowned financiers opens in Harare
tomorrow.
According to the ministry of economic planning and
investment
promotion, 700 delegates are expected to attend the conference,
part of the
inclusive government's effort to showcase the nation's
investment
opportunities and revive the country's comatose economy. -
ZimOnline
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
At least
144,000 asylum seekers will be allowed to stay in Britain due to a
backlog
of claims.
By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
Published: 7:00AM BST
09 Jul 2009
More than 63,000 of the 450,000 historic cases that were
found to have
slipped under the radar for years have now been told they can
stay.
Many are because they have been in the country for so long hat the
Home
Office would have difficulty trying to remove them on human rights
grounds
because they have effectively settled here.
Officials working
through the so-called legacy backlog have so far examined
197,500 cases and
there has been a 32 per cent approval rate, Lin Homer, the
chief executive
of the UK Border Agency, told MPs yesterday.
If that continues then some
144,000 will be able to stay once all the cases
files have been looked at,
in what the Tories have labelled an amnesty by
the back door.
Damian
Green, the shadow immigration minister, said: "Any progress is
painfully
slow on this."
The 450,000 files in the Case Resolution Programme were
unearthed in 2006
after the foreign prisoners scandal.
Among them are
claimants who should have been deported as far back as the
mid-1990s.
Ministers have promised to work through all the cases by
2011, while also
having to deal with all fresh asylum claims and those
failed cases still
awaiting deportation.
Miss Homer told the Commons
Home Affairs Select Committee that she is
confident that target will still
be met.
Human rights laws will be the reason most cases were approved,
either
because it is unsafe to return the asylum seekers or because they
have been
here so long they now have families and are protected under the
right to
family life.
The list includes 5,150 from Zimbabwe, 4,900
from Pakistan and 4,500 from
Somalia.
Miss Homer revealed that at
least 7,000 so far may never be traced and their
files have been
archived.
http://www.sabcnews.com
July 09 2009 ,
6:10:00
Manelise Dubase, Washington
The US has
downplayed the latest confrontation between Zimbabwean
President Robert
Mugabe and the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa,
Johnny Carson.
Mugabe reportedly referred to Carson as "an idiot" during
their private
meeting in Libya last week. According to the State Department,
Carson
expressed concerns about continuing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
That
comment reportedly irritated Zimbabwe's veteran leader. But the State
Department brushed aside Mugabe's characterisation of Carson as an
idiot.
"Johnny Carson is one of our best diplomats. I know he has
very
strong feelings about the development of democracy in Zimbabwe but
beyond
that I'm not going to add any adverbs beyond the fact that Johnny
Carson is
a very strong and a committed advocate for US policy," says
Spokesperson for
the US State Department; Ian Kelly.
Kelly
implied that Mugabe's outburst was a ploy to divert attention
from the real
issues. "I think what we're focusing on is to get this global
political
agreement fully implemented. You know that the Secretary and
President met
with Mr Tsvangirai, and so we're looking forward to getting
that CPA
agreement fully implemented," Kelly added.
In a separate interview
earlier, US President Barack Obama said the US
and the West are not
responsible for what has happened to Zimbabwe's economy
in the last few
years. President Mugabe has been insisting that the US and
its allies are
responsible for Zimbabwe's economic crisis. He has cited
targeted sanctions
against him and his top officials as the reason
http://www.sowetan.co.za/
09 July 2009
Katlego
Moeng
Zimbabweans living in and around the Central Methodist
Church in the
Johannesburg city centre have mixed feelings about returning
home. They all
agree, however, that lack of jobs drive them to South
Africa.
Linah Zuma, 21, from Masvingo in southeastern
Zimbabwe, said she arrived in
Johannesburg yesterday morning after boarding
a train at Musina in Limpopo.
"There is a train in Musina that
ferries people with asylum papers for free.
I came here because there is no
money in Zimbabwe. I don't know anyone here
but I am sure I can find a job,
any job," she said.
Asked why she decided to leave Zimbabwe while
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai was trying to encourage people to return
home, Zuma said: "There
is peace, yes, but life is tough."
Her
spirit was deflated within hours of arriving in Johannesburg when she
met
fellow Zimbabwean Jacob Ndlovu.
Ndlovu, a welder, has been in
Johannesburg for four months. He says despite
his daily efforts, he is still
jobless.
Steven Tarwirei has also been pounding the streets looking
for a job without
success.
"Before the police started chasing us
away, I used to sleep outside the
church with no blanket," he
said.
But Peter Kani said: "I will not return home. There are no jobs
in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai does not know what he is talking about. He is not
suffering like
we
are."
_______________________________________________________________________
151
helped to restart lives in Zimbabwe
THE International Organisation for
Migration has, since May, helped 151
Zimbabweans return home to restart
their lives.
They lived at the Central Methodist Church.
Among them were 76 adults, 20
babies and unaccompanied
minors.
The first bus left on May 27 with 28 adults, eight
unaccompanied minors and
infants. The second bus left on June 24 with 48
adults and 12 babies and
unaccompanied minors while the third left on July 3
with 55 adults and an
infant on board.
"Two recent assessments by
IOM in Limpopo shows that the main reasons for
coming to South Africa are
lack of employment opportunities and the state of
the economy back home,"
said Nde Ndifonka, IOM spokesperson.
IOM provides humanitarian
assistance to displaced groups in Zimbabwe. -
Katlego Moeng
http://www.voanews.com
By Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye
Washington
08 July
2009
Zimbabwe Cricket has appointed former captain
Alistair Campbell the new
chairman of the national team's player selection
committee - a decision in
line with recommendations by the International
Cricket Council aimed at
returning the team to international test
play.
One of the ICC's recommendations was to bring former players back
into the
organization. Many key players departed Zimbabwe Cricket earlier
this decade
over issues ranging from the deterioration of the rule of law in
the country
to alleged organizational corruption.
Campbell retired
from Zimbabwe Cricket in 2003 having captained since 1996.
Zimbabwe
Cricket Managing Director Ozias Bvute told reporter Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Campbell, who will take
up his post at the beginning of August, will bring a wealth of experience to
the organization.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Toendepi Shonhe Thursday
09 July 2009
OPINION: The manifestation of
structural issues in Zimbabwe's power sharing
government has tended to
negate the purpose and intention of last September's
Global Political
Agreement (GPA) between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF
party and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and deputy Premier Arthur
Mutambara's MDC
formations.
The two main structural issues are the institutional
architecture as the
central vehicle driving government policies and
programmes, and power
dynamics within the polity in
Zimbabwe.
Institutions are governance structures based on rules, norms,
values and
systems of cultural meaning. They are the set of working rules
used to
determine the ruling elite; action allowed and constrained,
aggregation
rules applicable, procedures allowable, available information,
rewards for
performance, creating checks and balances, facilitating
political
cooperation and reducing political uncertainties.
The rules
include characteristics such as the public degree of access to
decision-making, availability of information from government agencies or
sharing of power between national and provincial authorities.
The
institutional architecture, in creating constraints and facilitating
success
for given actions, tends to determine outcomes through institutional
organisation of the polity while economic structures tend to privilege some
interest while demobilising others.
Historical institutionalism is
grounded on the assumption that political
institutions and previously
enacted public policy significantly structure
political behaviour of
bureaucrats, elected officials and interest groups
during the policy-making
process.
Institutional configuration of governments and political party
systems
condition politicians and social groups' behaviour, defining
institutions as
the formal and informal procedures, routines, norms and
conventions embedded
in the organisational structure of the polity or
political economy,
emphasising also the asymmetries of power associated with
the operation and
development of institutions.
Historical
institutions attempt to explain in relatively explicit terms how
power is
currently configured in the GNU - by elaborating how institutions
give some
groups or interests disproportionate access to decision-making
processes,
stressing how some groups of interests lose while theirs win.
They also
emphasise the contextual features of a given situation often
inherited from
the past, mediate and influence outcomes and as such ZANU PF
is better
placed to gain as its interests are well captured by the existing
institutional arrangement.
Susan Boyden (2009) defines state
institutions to compose of legislative
bodies and parliamentary and
subordinate law-making institutions, executive
bodies including governmental
bureau and departments of state, judicial
bodies (primarily courts of law),
located at national regional and local
level.
The continued grip by
ZANU PF in these spheres particularly at bureaucratic
levels ensures that
ZANU PF intentions see the day.
As already elaborated through my emphasis
on the historical assumption that
institutions and public policy structure
bureaucratic behaviour, there
exists tilted institutions favouring ZANU PF,
directing decision making at
national, regional and local level.
The
GPA signed on September 15, 2008, created consensus on the need to build
institutions that support and consolidate democracy in Zimbabwe through
attaining commitment from the three main political parties in the
country.
These institutions are supposedly intended to create a framework
for easy
development of policies that deepen democracy "in multi
dimensional,
incorporating the effects on public policy, on citizenship and
social
justice, extending effectiveness, responsiveness, accountability and
capacitating to resolve conflicts among competing interests" (Ingram &
Smith
1998).
The envisaged policies are intended to foster the goals
and rationale
through the implementation structure, rules and tools, effect
on values,
beliefs and social constructions correcting existing imbalances
amongst
political actors and society and Zimbabweans as a whole.
It
would appear as if the policy-making process within the GNU (which should
have been placed in the Prime Minister's Office after the reconfiguration as
per the GPA), has remained plugged mainly within Cabinet and has tended to
emerge within a context of degenerative pluralism, characterised by hyper
competitiveness, strategic and manipulative behavior, hidden agendas, a
focus on "winning" and gaining credit or "placing blame" discrediting one's
"opponents" without a willingness to search for common ground.
In
particular, ZANU PF continues to capitalise the existing legal framework
to
advance and guide illogical, deceptive, divisive constructions of
targeted
persons, systematically over-representing, undeserving of its
supporters,
disregarding democratic political rationality and
instrumentality
rationality (Ingram & Smith 1998).
The institutional framework
propagated by the GNU also reconfigured power
dynamics within the government
structure to the effect that decision-making
within institutions at national
level was significantly changed.
The provision for the creation of a
Prime Minister's Office responsible for
policy formulation, the
establishment of a Council of Ministers and the
envisaged establishment of a
Security Council and Council of State all help
to demonstrate and elaborate
the case in point.
Robert Dahl (1957) defines power as when "A has power
over B to the extent
that he can get B to do something B would not otherwise
do."
Bacharach & Banta (1962) assert that "power is exercised when A
devotes his
energy to creating or reinforcing social and political values
and
institutional practices that limit the scope of the political process to
public consolidation of only those issues that are comparatively innocent to
A".
Within the Zimbabwean context, power can easily be traced through
decision-making processes that in this case continue to reflect ZANU PF
positions, while suppressing those of the MDC.
The unilateral
appointment of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon
Gono and the
Attorney General Johannes Tomana, governors, permanent
secretaries and
ambassadors are cases in point.
Further, the continued arrests of
opposition MPs, activists and arbitrary
detentions through invoking Section
121 subsection 3 exposes that ZANU PF
continues to do what MDC does not
want.
This demonstrates that ZANU PF holds the power within the GNU.
There are no
existing examples where MDC has exercised power, without
consent by ZANU PF.
Where announcements by MDC on policy issues were
made, ZANU PF has tended to
quickly countervail them through outrageous
statements.
ZANU PF does not even hide its intention to undermine the GPA
and GNU
through overstatement of its powers for decision-making through
non-decision
making, and manipulation of dominant community values, myths
and political
institutions and procedures.
ZANU PF's blatant refusal
to abide by the court-directed abolishment of the
Media and Information
Commission (MIC) and its provisions and the continued
dominance by the
Public Service Commission, both of which are manned by pro-
ZANU PF cadres
and the presence of similar individuals in other government
departments,
ministries, commissions and parastatals at bureaucratic level
tilt decision
making in its favour, much to the frustration, disadvantage
and
embarrassment of the MDC and the broader democratic contingent,
resulting in
protest actions such as the recent Cabinet boycott.
Perhaps, in
attempting to establish the feasibility of institution building
for the
re-establishment of democracy, it may be prudent to establish how
power is
distributed in the country: whether power is up for grabs; whether
it is
fragmented; or whether the situation is closed with power already
controlled
by one group.
Institutional reform or reconstruction is difficult in a
closed situation,
such as that of Zimbabwe where despite the GPA, ZANU PF
continues to have
better leverage and control of state
institutions.
Zimbabwe is both a de jure and de facto state, as it enjoys
international
recognition and the ruling elite exercises power over the
people, but does
not uphold the rule of law and therefore fails to attain
the Weberian status
due to weak institutions.
The GPA presupposes a
failed state in its prescriptions, focusing on setting
up democratic
institutions, political reconstruction based on a new people
driven
constitution, new electoral laws, deepening of independent electoral
framework/infrastructure, election monitoring mechanisms, strengthening of
parliamentary institutions, independent judiciary, strengthening of civic
society organisations, upholding of rule of law, accountability and police
and military accountability to civilian authorities as applied by
multilateral organisations on collapsed states.
The construction of
power and its location within the Zimbabwean context
probably point to the
fact that it may be premature to emphasise
institutional
rebuilding.
The over-reliance by ZANU PF on "raw power" for governing
points to the fact
that the MDC will need superior powers to enforce
institutional
transformation in Zimbabwe.
The MDC needs to focus on
grabbing power en-route to institutions and state
reconstruction.
Institutional building may be good in the long run but
perhaps not in the
short term, because in the short term power trumps
institutions.
The
entrenched power of ZANU PF seems only susceptible to the strong
countervailing force of the international community, because clearly there
is no incentive for ZANU PF to limit its hold on raw power by developing
democratic institutions.
Examples elsewhere in Africa demonstrate
that regimes easily survive in the
absence of institutions for long periods.
Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire (now
DRC) stayed in power for 30 years and Emperor
Haille Selassie in Ethiopia
for 50 years without institutional
support.
The rush for institutional reconstruction may easily lead to the
ruling
elite, controlling the whims of power, retaining authority or
consolidating
their hold to it using the institutions as was the case in
Uganda where
leadership retained control of central government but
constructed local
government institution to consolidate their
hold.
The fear for quick construction of institutions is that it
increases chances
of creating hollow institutions of democracy without
significance due to
irrelevance and lack of establishment, due to lack of
time for consolidation
through problem solving.
The challenge within
the Zimbabwean experience cannot be separated from the
very basis of the
negotiations that led to the inclusive government (GPA),
which was itself a
result of a failed electoral process, where the people's
voice could not
determine the ruling elite.
The Pretoria negotiations were a negation of
the people's will, a reversal
of democratic gains, centred now on the views
of a few individuals, and
disregarding the aspirations of the majority of
Zimbabweans.
The intended purpose of deepening democracy through
institutional
architecture that promotes such reform needs to be underpinned
on the desire
for economic development, growth and stability, necessary for
the attainment
of a developmental state.
A developmental state is
essentially one whose ideological underpinning is
developmentalist, in that
it conceives its mission as that of ensuring
economic development, usually
interpreted by high rates of economic growth
and structural change in the
productive system, both domestically and in its
relationship to the
institutional economy.
At institutional level, emphasis is placed on the
state's capacity to
implement economic policies unencumbered by the claims
of private interests.
Do existing institutional arrangements support
economic policies for
development in Zimbabwe?
This by far is the
relevant question today within the context of the
inclusive government.
Strides have been made through the Short Term Economic
Recovery Programme
(STERP) launched by the inclusive government, to engender
currency
stabilisation, inflation control, economic growth, reviving
production,
restoration of social services and business confidence.
The response by
multi-national institutions will either spur growth or
constrain it. Yet
such a response is based on political processes either
perceived as
developing democracy or retarding the exercise of human rights
by
citizens.
By and large the international community's view is that no
major progress
has been made to develop democracy. Institutional support and
tilt of power
dynamics continue to favour ZANU PF and this needs to come to
an end.
**** Toendepi Shonhe is the Director General of the MDC-T. He
writes in his
personal capacity - ZimOnline