http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
CIVIL society organisations on Friday submitted a petition to
Mozambican
authorities pleading with Sadc to ensure that Zimbabwe institutes
key
reforms ahead of elections.
REPORT BY NQABA MATSHAZI
The
Constitutional Court recently ordered President Robert Mugabe to
proclaim
election dates and have the polls held by July 31 this year.
But other
political parties including the two MDC formations and civil
society insist
that the elections must only be held after key reforms are
made to ensure a
level playing field.
The petition was presented to the Mozambican Foreign
Affairs ministry, the
Joachim Chissano Foundation and will also be
distributed at a Sadc
extraordinary summit to be held at a date yet to be
announced.
Among the key concerns for the civil society groups was that
Sadc send an
observer mission to Zimbabwe to assess the pre-electoral
environment.
“We request Sadc to constitute and deploy an observer
mission to Zimbabwe to
monitor key electoral processes and assess the
pre-electoral environment as
soon as possible, preferably before the expiry
of the life of parliament,
June 29,” reads part of the
petition.
Zimbabwean civil societies fear that the country is hurtling
towards an
election without key reforms and this will be detrimental to
democracy,
leading to a disputed election, as with the 2008
polls.
The last elections were bloody and MDC-T claims that 200 of its
supporters
were killed by Zanu PF militia and State security agents as they
tried to
prop up President Robert Mugabe, who lost to MDC leader and Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai however, failed to garner
enough votes to claim presidency,
leading to the formation of the Government
of National Unity.
The civil society organisations said it was important
that the Sadc observer
mission be deployed early, as there were already
signs that there was a
clampdown on dissenting political players and the
media.
“Civil society members, journalists working for the private media
and
specifically targeted party members are being harassed, assaulted and
arrested on a continuous basis,” the petition continues. “The violence
against ordinary citizens is turning up in volume, as we head towards
elections.”
Ahead of the voter registration exercise set to start on
Monday (tomorrow),
the civic society, under the umbrella of the Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition,
raised concern that in the past there had not had access
to the voters’ roll
and when they did, they realised that it was in
shambles.
“For the past few elections, we have not had access to the
voters’ roll,
even though it is public information,” the petition reads.
“When we have
been able to have sight of this very important document, we
have noticed
that it was a mess.
Among the key reforms the
organisations are calling for, are a proper voter
registration exercise,
followed by a non-partisan voter registration
exercise, a professional
security services sector and media reforms.
The organisations also asked
Sadc, if it was going to help fund the
elections, to ensure that the funding
came with conditions that Zimbabwe was
committed to following the Sadc
guidelines on free and fair elections.
The organisations were in
Mozambique ahead of a Sadc summit which was set to
deliberate on political
problems in Zimbabwe, but the meeting was postponed
indefinitely after Zanu
PF asked for more time to study a ruling by the
Constitutional Court which
ordered Mugabe to proclaim election dates and
have the polls held by July 31
this year.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday urged Zimbabwe to allow
outside
observers led by a regional consortium of African nations to monitor
elections to ensure the vote is peaceful and
credible.
Reuters
The 15-member Southern African Development
Community (Sadc), which includes
South Africa, had called a summit this
weekend which was postponed to help
Zimbabwe raise an estimated US$132
million needed for an election.
The regional group, which includes South
Africa, wants to avoid a rerun of a
disputed poll five years ago, which
sparked violence and prompted a flood of
refugees into neighbouring
countries.
Zimbabwe’s constitutional court told President Robert Mugabe
on May 31 to
hold elections before the end of July, in a ruling on an
application by a
Zimbabwean citizen demanding that an election date be set
before the current
parliament expires this month.
Mugabe (89), one of
Africa’s oldest heads of state, has clung to power since
independence from
Britain in 1980 and will face his long-time rival, Morgan
Tsvangirai, in an
election.
“The United States sincerely hopes Zimbabwe will hold peaceful,
credible
presidential and parliamentary elections this year,” State
Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a daily briefing.
“We believe
the credibility of these elections would be enhanced if a broad
range of
international monitors led by Sadc were accredited to observe,”
Psaki said,
adding: “This would help to verify that the elections are truly
representative of the will of the Zimbabwean people.”
ECONOMIC
RECOVERY UNDER THREAT
Although there is no formal opinion poll, surveys
in the last year by
Freedom House, a US political think tank, and African
research group
Afro-Barometer have given (President Robert) Mugabe a narrow
lead over
Tsvangirai.
The country’s Finance minister (Tendai Biti)
said on May 28 uncertainty over
the election was pushing the country’s
fragile economy closer to recession.
A repeat of the 2008 election violence
could end Zimbabwe’s economic
recovery.
On Friday, the International
Monetary Fund said it was willing to negotiate
an economic monitoring
programme with Zimbabwe, the first step in a process
that could see the
country fully restore relations with the global lender
and donors.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
ZANU PF’S call for early elections is empty political bravado,
analysts have
noted.
REPORT BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
Armed with the
recent Constitution Court ruling, which ordered President
Robert Mugabe to
proclaim dates for elections and have them by July 31 this
year, Zanu PF has
been insisting that elections must be held by that date.
Ironically, the
analysts noted, the party has failed to hold its primary
elections because
of rampant factionalism while at same time agitating for
early
polls.
They said Zanu PF has been misled by numerous political surveys that
“falsely” predicted its victory against the MDC formations.
Late last
year, the UK-based Zimbabwe Vigil, said the MDC-T was likely to
lose the
elections because of rampant corruption within its leadership.
Freedom House
and Afro-Barometer surveys also predicted Mugabe’s electoral
victory.
Basing on the referendum voting patterns, National
Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) chairman, Professor Lovemore Madhuku,
Tsvangirai’s former ally, also
said Zanu PF was headed for victory in the
elections.
But other commentators dismissed Madhuku’s prophecy saying his
predictions
were motivated by sour grapes.
Political analyst,
Dumisani Nkomo said the fact that Zanu PF had postponed
holding its primary
elections because of factionalism, was a clear
indication that it was not
ready for elections.
“If you look at what is happening in Manicaland and
Bulawayo provinces, you
can see the party is in disarray,” said
Nkomo.
“They are failing to appoint a second Vice-President following the
death of
John Nkomo, because of factionalism. The party is also broke,
individuals
are rich but the party itself has no money.”
Workers at
the party’s headquarters have gone for at least three months
without
pay.
Zanu PF recently sent a team of senior party officials to
Manicaland,
Masvingo and Bulawayo in an attempt to deal with factionalism
but failed to
unite the warring camps.
But Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare
Gumbo insisted that the party was ready for
polls as soon as the election
date was proclaimed.
He said the lack of money could not affect the
preparation for the party’s
election manifesto. “We are finalising the
manifesto and the rules and
regulations for primary elections,” Gumbo
said.
Political analyst, Phillip Pasirayi said Zanu PF was least prepared
and the
party’s empty bravado was a result of the belief, that the MDC-T
brand had
been tainted by corruption and poor services delivery in most
local councils
that eroded its support in its urban strongholds.
“To
this end, we have seen Zanu PF politburo members urging residents in
many
suburbs to kick out the non-performing councillors,” said Pasirayi.
Apart
from that, the repressive and propaganda machinery, including the
State
media and security agents, that was associated with the violent 2008
polls,
were still in place to prop up Mugabe.
“The inclusive government has
failed to uproot this machinery and implement
media and security reforms to
ensure that the coming polls yield a
democratic and legitimate outcome,”
said Pasirayi.
He believes MDC-T, which is currently holding equally
controversial primary
elections, was more prepared than Zanu PF.
“In
my view, the MDC-T party is better prepared for the coming elections
than
the other parties which are failing to hold primary elections,” said
Pasirayi. “The unveiling by PM Tsvangirai of the MDC policies has
demonstrated the party’s preparedness for elections and readiness to
govern.”
INTIMIDATION OF VOTERS ON THE RISE
It cannot be
ruled out that Zanu PF also wants to capitalise on the March
“referendum
wave”, where voter turn-out was very high in areas the party
commands a lot
of support, particularly in rural areas.
The party allegedly
force-march-ed people in some rural areas and housing
co-operatives in
Harare to go and register as voters for the elections.
Those who tried to
resist were threatened with eviction from the areas they
live or reminded of
the horrors of the 2008 elections, in which the MDC-T
claims that at least
200 of its supporters were killed by State security
agents.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
Baba Jukwa, the faceless Facebook character that is giving Zanu
PF and
security agents sleepless nights, also said Zanu PF was not prepared
for the
coming elections.
“Don’t be confused by charlatans with
double speak. My [Zanu PF] party is
not even prepared. In some
constituencies, we don’t have even aspiring
candidates,” said Baba Jukwa.
“My party is grappling with its total collapse
in seven of the 10 provinces.
The rules to govern our primary elections are
not even ready and we are
hoping to start deliberating on them at next
Wednesday’s politburo
meeting.”
Baba Jukwa said Zanu PF’s headache was the impending defeat in
all
parliamentary seats in Manicaland, Harare, Masvingo, Midlands and the
three
Matabeleland provinces.
He claimed that in the Midlands
Province, Zanu PF will win some seats in
Gokwe and two in Mberengwa and
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Chirumanzu-Zibangwe
constituencies.
Baba Jukwa
predicted the fall of former Information minister Jonathan Moyo
in
Tsholotsho and Kembo Mohadi in Beitbridge, noting Obert Mpofu would
retain
his constituency.
“So until such a time when my party finds a strategy to
negotiate itself out
[of] this glaring challenge, they will also drag
elections,” said Baba
Jukwa.
“So rather than for Morgan Tsvangirai to
insist on election postponement,
this is [the] time to pounce when the enemy
is limping and in total
disarray.”
But Nkomo said: “Zanu PF is
banking on the security agents to prop them up
as has been happening in
previous elections.”
However, it remains to be seen whether the security
agents would again
subvert the will of the people should popular vote go
against Mugabe,
because Sadc and the African Union have a keen interest on
Zimbabwe polls.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
Political analyst, Shakespeare Hamauswa said there was a
possibility of a
coalition between the MDC formations since they united
against Zanu PF over
the court ruling. However, for that to happen, Hamauswa
said, compromises
should be made.
On the coalition between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to deny Ncube a place on the
principals’ table, Hamauswa said on
reflection Ncube “will realise that it
was not necessarily that he didn’t
attend because of Tsvangirai but that he
had created a monster in Arthur
Mutambara”.
He said the political parties have learnt from history what
mistakes they
have made and have an opportunity to correct them.
In
the 2008 elections MDC threw its weight behind independent candidate
Simba
Makoni.
Tsvangirai got 44,87% of the votes, which were inadequate to
secure him the
presidential post.
Mugabe got 43,24% while Makoni
managed 8,31%.
Had the two formations entered into a coalition,
Tsvangirai would have
smiled all the way to State House.
Oxford
University lecturer, Phillan Zamchiya, said there were key
determinants to
the formation of a pre-electoral pact and the question was
whether these
were strongly present in Zimbabwe or not.
Zamchiya said for a coalition
to happen, there is need for ideologically
compatible parties. He said the
two MDC formations are compatible
ideologically and very little separates
them.
If the electoral threshold to form a government are high, Zamchiya
said,
parties are encouraged to form a pact.
“In Zimbabwe it is high,
you need 50% plus one vote to be President,” he
said.
Zamchiya said
if political parties have asymmetrical electoral regional
strength, then a
coalition was more likely and this is moreso if there are
trends of
identity-based voting rather than issue-based voting.
“The 2008 election
shows us MDC-N had support in Matabeleland South and
MDC-T in other
provinces,” he said.
He said what threatens the coalition is that the
parties have asymmetrical
electoral strengths. He said the MDC-T had a
broader support base compared
to MDC-N, adding that it would have been
easier if they had relatively the
same electoral strength.
Zamchiya
said what threatens the coalition was an element of proportional
representation, “so smaller parties can thrive without an electoral
pact”.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
THE two MDC formations share more in common and should agree on
an electoral
pact to face Zanu PF as a united front in the harmonised
elections, analysts
have said.
REPORT BY NDAMU SANDU
The
Constitutional Court recently ruled that elections should be held by
July 31
this year to end the life of the inclusive government formed in
2009.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai said last week that he was open
to a united
front to fight Zanu PF candidate President Robert Mugabe in the
make or
break polls.
Tsvangirai spoke after the parties had met to
resist the holding of
elections without the completion of
reforms.
But Welshman Ncube, the leader of the smaller MDC formation,
told our sister
paper, The Zimbabwe Independent that he had “said it over
and over again
that we are not getting into any coalition with the
MDC-T”.
In the past, Ncube had accused MDC-T of getting into bed with
Zanu PF to
deny him a place on the principals’ table, after Sadc had
recognised the MDC
leader as a principal instead of deputy premier Arthur
Mutambara.
“We now have an alliance between Tsvangirai and Mugabe which
also must mean
that we now have an alliance between Zanu PF and MDC-T which
is working
tirelessly against the MDC that I lead,” Ncube has said in the
past.
Are the two MDC formations ideologically poles apart or are there
personality clashes between Ncube and Tsvangirai?
Dumisani Nkomo of
the Habakkuk Trust said the two MDCs were not
ideologically poles
apart.
“I think they have more in common than that which divides them.
Even in a
church, you find some people who sin. One shouldn’t expect that
parties are
made up of angels,” Nkomo said.
He attributed the
reluctance by Ncube for a pact with the mainstream MDC to
historical issues
and personality differences.
Nkomo said MDC felt let down by MDC-T when
there were attempts to unite the
two parties ahead of the 2008 harmonised
elections. He said Zimbabweans
should not read too much into Ncube’s
declaration “as in politics,
everything is possible”.
“They [MDC]
might be trying to build leverage, but it is important for the
parties to
consider an electoral pact where they agree on one Presidential
candidate
and one candidate for each constituency. It should not be a big
brother-small brother approach but a win-win situation,” Nkomo
said.
TSVANGIRAI NEEDS NCUBE’S VOTES TO WIN — ANALYST
Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition director, McDonald Lewanika said the current
electoral
map based on 2008 results seems to suggest that Tsvangirai cannot
win the
first round without Ncube’s votes.
“More than personal gripes or revenge,
I think Ncube’s reluctance to talk of
a pact now, is based on a power
equation. Whatever is perceived as power now
and Ncube’s votes now, if they
are retained in an election with no clear
winner, they quadruple in value,”
he said.
Lewanika said Ncube has no real choice than to eventually get
into a
political bed with Tsvangirai.
“The price of doing that [Ncube
agreeing to a coalition with Tsvangirai] is
lower now because of the stakes,
and will be higher just before an election
or in a run- off scenario,”
Lewanika said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
BULAWAYO — Three Zanu PF activists accused of perpetrating
violence during a
meeting at the party’s provincial headquarters in March
this year were last
week further remanded for continuation of
trial.
REPORT BY SILAS NKALA
Noah Gatsi (57), Ashley Shorai
Mashungu (31), and Robert Ncube (58) are
denying the charge of public
violence and are out of custody on a US$150
bail each.
Magistrate Crispen
Mberewere remanded the three to June 27.
It is alleged that on March 10,
the three were part of the Zanu PF members
who were at the meeting held at
party’s headquarters, Davies hall.
The meeting was meant to discuss the then
draft constitution.
The party’s national chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo was
reportedly present.
Violence allegedly erupted assome activists
demonstrated against former Zanu
PF provincial chairman, Killian Sibanda
calling for his ouster.
Police were called to restore order and the three
were fingered as being
some of the instigators of mayhem, leading to their
arrest.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News,
Politics
MUTARE — Violence broke out among MDC-T members in
Chikanga-Dangamvura
constituency on Thursday evening in Mutare ahead of a
confirmation exercise
today, leaving one of the party’s councillors
seriously injured.
REPORT BY OBEY MANAYITI
The constituency is
currently represented by National Housing and Social
Amenities minister,
Giles Mutsekwa who, if not confirmed, will square-off
with prominent lawyer
and human rights campaigner, Arnold Tsunga.
Mutare city councillor,
Chris-pen Dube was left with loose front teeth and
several injuries
following a fierce fighting among the MDC-T supporters.
Police picked up
the party’s organising secretary for the constituency,
Kingstone Mutandi
over the fracas.
Dube told The Standard that he was badly assaulted in
full view of Mutsekwa
at Mega Watt building, where the verification was
taking place.
He said a misunderstanding was sparked following a failed
verification
process of the constituency’s Electoral College.
Dube
accused those in Mutsekwa’s camp of trying to manipulate the list of
those
who will vote today.
“Mutsekwa came in the company of his youths at Mega
Watt where I was with
Tsunga. I had the impression that they were going to
assault Tsunga and that
is when I tried to restrain them and I was badly
assaulted,” said Dube.
He added that he went to seek medication at a
local clinic where his teeth
were wired.
Dube said his assailants had
resorted to violence because they lost touch
with the
grassroots.
Mutsekwa denied being involved in the fracas, describing the
matter as a
mudslinging campaign.
“Those guys are trying to tarnish
my image ahead of my confirmation. This is
a sign of desperation. They are
really struggling to get support,” said
Mutsekwa.
“They abducted
Happymore Chidziwa who was sent by the national leadership to
conduct a
verification exercise of the Electoral College. Mutandi and others
went
there to release Chidziwa and Dube became physical against Mutandi,” he
said.
Mutandi is expected to appear in court soon.
The party’s
national organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa dispelled reports
that they
are suspending the confirmation exercise because of violence.
“We don’t
know about that,” said Chamisa. “The whole programme is going
ahead and we
don’t have problems.”
MDC-T will be conducting primary elections in 26
constituencies in
Manicaland province and already campaigns have started, as
members fight to
represent the party in the forthcoming harmonised
elections.
The confirmation exercise is a litmus test for many sitting
MPs, who are
facing stiff competition from other members to represent the
party in the
upcoming elections.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News, Politics
A
Harare magistrate yesterday recused himself from a case involving top
human
rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.
REPORT BY MOSES CHIBAYA
This
followed an application by her lawyer showing the court was already
privy to
the facts that had been presented before it.
The magistrate, Tendai Mawe
agreed to recuse himself. The matter is set to
be heard tomorrow by another
magistrate.
Mtetwa is facing allegations of “defeating or obstructing the
course of
justice”.
She was arrested on March 17 for allegedly
attempting to block the police
from searching the house of a senior MDC-T
official in Westgate and private
offices of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
in the capital.
Police had allegedly received information the previous
day that MDC-T
officials — Thabani Mpofu, Warship Dumba, Felix Matsinde and
Mehluli
Tshuma — were unlawfully compiling criminal dockets in respect of
prominent
government officials.
Mawe said the court had already heard
evidence in the case of State versus
Mpofu, which had the same
facts.
“The court is therefore already privy to the evidence which shall
be lead in
this matter, as such it is not desirable to hear this matter
whilst also
hearing the matter of State versus Thabani Mpofu according to
this ground
only the application is granted for recusal and the matter is
postponed to
June 10, so that this matter is allocated another magistrate,”
said Mawe.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News, Politics
The
Police Protection Unit has withdrawn its officers who were guarding
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono’s residence, The
Standard was
told yesterday.
REPORT BY MOSES CHIBAYA
Sources said the officers,
who were providing 24-hour security at Gono’s
mansion in Borrowdale, were
withdrawn in March when the central bank boss
was away on business and
repeated efforts to have them reinstated drew the
make-or-break polls can be
held.
Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara have insisted
that the
elections be held in accordance with a Constitutional Court ruling
which
said they must be held by July 31.
Mugabe told reporters in
Japan last week that he would consult the Justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa
before telling “others when we think elections
within, now the time frame
given to us, can be held and we will announce the
day.”
But MDC-T and
MDC formations argue that elections should only be carried out
once all the
processes dictated by the new Constitution are completed.
These processes
include, among other things, a mandatory 30-day voter
registration exercise,
inspection of the voter’s roll and the sitting of the
nomination
court.
The MDC formations are also demanding that outstanding reforms on
the
security sector, media and electoral laws be made to enable a level
playing
field for the polls.
Sources said the meeting was going to be
a very difficult one because both
Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s political lives
depended on these elections.
The MDC-T is aware that an election that is
held without a levelled playing
field would be skewed in favour of Zanu PF.
The party is therefore now
pinning its hopes of having key reforms before
next month’s harmonised
elections on Sadc as the guarantor of the global
political agreement (GPA).
The party’s secretary-general Tendai Biti on
Friday told The Standard that
his party expected the regional body to ensure
key reforms were made before
July 31.
Biti, who is also the Finance
minister in the shaky coalition government,
also hoped the on-going
inter-party talks between Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations would result in
the dates for elections being pushed further to
allow for the implementation
of reforms.
“This thing [GPA] is guaranteed by Sadc, this thing is
guaranteed by the
African Union. We are all going to be bound by Sadc,” Biti
said. He added:
“We spent the whole of yesterday [Thursday] before the
facilitators [Sadc]
and we in fact agreed on certain things that need to be
done, such as voter
registration, and then followed by voter inspection,
then notice of the
election dates and campaign period.”
Biti said
there was no way the July 31 deadline would be achieved if the
issues were
to be addressed as required by the law.
“But I have absolutely no doubt
that after the summit and the discussions,
sanity will prevail,” said MDC-T
secretary-general.
The parties in the unity government last week met
South African President
Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team, which was in the
country to assess Zimbabwe’s
preparedness for elections.
Sadc last
week postponed indefinitely a summit that was scheduled for today
in Maputo,
Mozambique after Zanu PF indicated that it needed more time to
study the
implications of the Constitutional Court ruling.
But a senior Zanu PF
official, Paul Mangwana told a public meeting hosted by
Crisis Coalition in
Zimbabwe last week that his party would not listen to
Sadc but would abide
by the Supreme Court ruling.
“Sadc is not a court. They have no right to
make an order; it’s only the
court that can make an order,” said
Mangwana.
But Biti said it was not possible to comply with the date
because there
should be a mandatory minimum 30-day period for voter
registration, followed
by one month voter inspection, then another 45 days’
notice.
Biti said the Constitution was gazetted on May 22 and if voter
registration
started the following day, the 30 days will then expire on June
23.
“When it [voter registration] expires on June 23, let us assume that
the
proclamation will then be made on June 24, the nomination court can only
sit
within 14 days after proclamation so you add 14 days to June 24, that
will
get you to July 7th or 8th,” said Biti.
MORE TIME
NEEDED
The constitution prescribed that, [Tendai] Biti said, between the
sitting of
the nomination court and the time of election there has to be an
unfettered
30 days.
“That is 30 days of campaigning and that will get
you to August 7th or 8th.
So with great respect the Constitutional Court
passed an unconstitutional
judgement,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Local, News
The Police
Protection Unit has withdrawn its officers who were guarding
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono’s residence, The
Standard was told
yesterday.
REPORT BY NDAMU SANDU
Sources said the officers, who
were providing 24-hour security at Gono’s
mansion in Borrowdale, were
withdrawn in March when the central bank boss
was away on business and
repeated efforts to have them reinstated drew
blanks.
However, the
sources said, Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
operatives have
remained in protection of the embattled Gono who is in his
final second term
at the helm of the central bank ending November 30.
The withdrawal of the
officers comes at a time when the central banker had
been accused of having
spirited away gold coins from the bank by Amai Jukwa,
a faceless character
on the social networking site, Facebook.
Amai Jukwa has been critical of
Gono, accusing him of deploying the
Anti-Corruption Commission to
investigate the National Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment Board over
the way it had handled indigenisation
transactions.
Close sources
from the bank told The Standard yesterday that when Gono came
back from an
Afreximbank meeting in Egypt, he discovered that the officers
had left their
posts and further inquiries yielded no positive results.
An RBZ board
member said Gono had briefed the board about the development.
“The
governor briefed us on this development which surprised us all because
it is
unprecedented. Even in South Africa and the region, central bank
governors
are enjoying police protection at their residences,” he said.
It is
understood that Gono reported the matter to President Robert Mugabe
and
Finance minister, Tendai Biti.
The two are said to have told Gono that
they were powerless to do anything,
raising further questions on who really
had the final say on the matter.
Gono told The Standard one must find
“permanent and unbreakable refuge,
security and protection in God not from
man”.
“If you haven’t done so [seeking permanent peace and security] from
God, do
so now,” Gono said.
He said matters of the State, security
and statecraft were complicated,
adding that it was not a right for one to
have individualised police
protection.
“We are 13 million people. Put
your faith in God and you won’t have
sleepless nights,” he
said.
Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba said Mugabe does not
deploy
police officers.
“The fact that he [Gono] complains to the
President does not deal with the
matter at hand. It’s a matter for the
Police Commissioner General [Augustine
Chihuri],” he said.
No comment
could be obtained from the police, as spokespersons Charity
Charamba and
Andrew Phiri’s numbers were unavailable.
Gono has been in the eye of the
storm for his criticism of certain
government policies, especially his
opposition to the seizure of
foreign-owned banks under the guise of
indigenisation — the bedrock of Zanu
PF’s campaign.
He criticised the
manner in which Zimplats, Unki and Mimosa deals had been
undertaken saying
he had not been consulted.
This drew the ire of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment
minister, Saviour Kasukuwere and Zanu PF
politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who
launched scathing attacks on
Gono.
The RBZ boss’s erstwhile allies in Zanu PF have also deserted him.
He has
however, found support in President Mugabe who recently said the
mining
indigenisation deals had not been properly handled.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Community
News
NYANGA — Scores of small-holder farmers in Manicaland province are
benefitting from an economic recovery programme being spearheaded by a
non-governmental organisation which teaches them good farming methods, loans
and linking them to lucrative markets.
REPORT BY OUR
CORRESPONDENT
The two-year Economic Recovery and Development (ERD)
programme, which is
being championed by the International Rescue Committee
(IRC) in conjunction
with the government and the private sector, has
resulted in food security
and increased income for some communities in the
districts it operates in.
So far, the programme is supporting 2 512
farmers in Mutasa, Mutare and
Nyanga districts. It focuses mainly on
horticultural produces such as
potatoes, garlic, onions, sugar beans,
paprika, tabacco, chillies, honey,
ground nuts and indigenous
chickens.
Gilbert Urombo (20), an orphan who joined the project after his
mother
passed on, has been paying school fees for his brothers, providing
food as
well as procuring agricultural inputs.
“Had it not been for
this programme, life was not going to be easy for us
since our mother was
our breadwinner,” said Urombo. “Ever since my mother
passed on, I have
managed to care for my brothers as well as paying their
fees.”
IRC’s
ERD coordinator, Priscilla Dembetembe said the recovery programme was
mooted
after realising that farmers were failing to recapitalise their
operations,
following the dollarisation of the economy in 2009 after a
decade-long
economic meltdown.
She said the programme had ensured food security in
areas it is being
implemented and created employment for nearly 3 000
people.
Dembetembe said about 60% of the farmers managed to service their
loans and
realised incomes which they reinvested into purchasing
agricultural inputs.
“We also linked groundnuts farmers with buyers in
Makoni, while those who
produce honey were linked with Savanna Delights and
Food Lovers Market both
in Harare.
Those who produce sugar beans were
linked with Kettex and Capsicum
companies,” she said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Community
News
RECREATIONAL facilities in Bulawayo have crumbled due to several
years of
neglect and vandalism.
REPORT BY MUSA DUBE
The
facilities, mainly youth centres located in the city’s high-density
suburbs,
were designed to entertain young people through various activities
such as
dramas, choirs, boxing, basketball, swimming, netball and soccer.
A tour
by Standardcommunity last week in Bulawayo’s Mpopoma, Mzilikazi,
Makokoba,
Sizinda and Tshabalala high-density suburbs revealed that most of
the
facilities have deteriorated and are no longer usable.
Once the pride of
local suburbs, the facilities are now run down due to
vandalism and neglect
by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC), the custodian of
the
facilities.
Peter Ngwenya, a resident of Mzilikazi suburb, bemoaned the
current state of
the recreational and youth centres around the
city.
“We used to call them 16 Plus Youth Centres and they were a big
source of
entertainment for the townships. No one could enter those premises
without
permission and we could only access them during a given time,” he
said.
“These centres played important and multi-faceted roles and were a
platform
for entertainment to residents. They catered for the sporting needs
of the
youth and were feeder entities for a number of sporting clubs such as
Highlanders Football Club.”
A former Bulawayo schools development
tennis ball coach, Ambrose Nyoni said
most of the tennis courts and grounds
were now rutted and were covered by
overgrown grass and bushes.
He
said it was no surprise that the region had no tennis players to talk
about,
as the nurturing grounds had been destroyed.
“These institutions were put
in place to be breeding places for talent and
it is unfortunate that they
have been destroyed,” said Nyoni. “These are the
places where the future
Byron Blacks are supposed to come from.”
He said there was a lot of
untapped and raw talent in the communities, but
unfortunately they were not
being exposed because there are no more
facilities.
“With the
exception of South Africa, most of the countries in the region
like
Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia have never had an opportunity to own such
centres like the one we had here in Zimbabwe and in Bulawayo in particular,
but it’s unfortunate we have destroyed it,” Nyoni said.
Bulawayo
United Residents Association chairperson, Winos Dube said the
collapse of
the facilities had become a thorn in the flesh for residents.
“These are
some of the challenges that we have been talking about, to say
there is a
lot of infrastructure which has just collapsed which shows that
the standard
of development has actually deteriorated to such levels where
we are calling
on the local authorities in conjunction with the corporate
world to
resuscitate the facilities,” said Dube.
“There were a lot of people who
were developed from these facilities, such
as Cont Mhlanga, who came from
these systems that were there some years
back.
These places should be
revived so that our youths can be occupied and are
able to develop their
skills and talents,” he said.
Mhlanga is a renowned artiste who built
Amakhosi Centre in Bulawayo for the
benefit of youths and the promotion of
culture.
Dube called upon the city council to revive the crumbling
infrastructure,
saying that would help remove youths from the streets where
they engaged in
nefarious activities such as drug abuse and
prostitution.
Bulawayo deputy mayor, Amen Mpofu said plans were underway
to resuscitate
the community centres.
“As council, our plans are to
reinvest in the infrastructure but we need to
first come up with a lasting
solution on how to protect them from
irresponsible people in our
communities,” said Mpofu.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in
Business
MUTARE — A South African resource development consultant, Paul
Jourdan says
Zimbabwe’s indigenisation law is a recipe for disaster and
reduces the
inflow of much needed foreign direct investment
(FDI).
REPORT BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
According to the Indigenisation
Act, any foreign-owned businesses with a net
asset value of US$500 000 and
above should all be in the hands of the locals
in the next five
years.
Zanu PF, which is driving the programme, said the programme is
meant to
empower the locals and redress colonial imbalances.
The two
MDC formations however accuse Zanu PF of using the programme to
curry favour
with the electorate in the make-or-break harmonised polls
expected this
year.
But Jourdan, who is assisting government in the drafting of the new
minerals
policy document which should succeed the current Mineral and Mining
Act,
encouraged Zimbabwe to revisit the law.
He proposed that the
threshold for locals should be 20% for new investors,
renewable after
probably 10 years.
It would gradually increase to 51%.
“I think
this will make Zimbabwe attractive for FDI but if we maintain the
status quo
in the short-term, we will not be able to attract the foreign
direct
investment. We have to decide, we cannot say we want indigenisation
and FDI
with the current policy in place. I humbly tell you your
indigenisation
rules and what they are perceived is going to stop FDI,” he
said. “So how do
we finance your indigenisation because we need both, how do
we configure it?
What I recommend is to attract new FDI and target 21% for
locals. You can’t
be half pregnant.”
He said since there was a serious liquidity crunch in
the economy,
government should make a compromise in the engagement of
foreign investors.
“There is no capital in Zimbabwe; it was destroyed
during the zillion dollar
crisis that also affected the capital base. So
there is no capital. There is
crisis of liquidity and we hear the minister
of Finance saying this. This is
not a political party thing we all know
that. The Reserve Bank has no money.
There is no lender of last resort and
we need to get capital flowing,”
Jourdan said.
He said the 51% model
was not attractive to new investors but could only
suit current mines, such
as Zimplats and Mimosa who have been operating in
the country for
years.
He said the 10% share community share ownership trusts create poor
and rich
communities, adding that the natural resources should be equally
distributed
among all citizens of the country.
Some of the community
trusts launched include Chegutu-Mhondoro-Ngezi Zvimba,
Tongogara Community
Share Ownership Trust at Unki Mine in Shurugwi, the
Mashonaland Central
Community Share Ownership Trusts and the Marange-Zimunya
Community Share
Ownership Trust.
Jourdan said the trusts concept was a recipe for
disaster as the country
risks creating an inequitable distribution of
wealth.
“I refer to South Africa; all the resources belong to people of
the country,
not the land owner, not mining companies, community or
province. The problem
is that the rich communities will one day be
overwhelmed by a sea of
poverty. The poor communities will rise up and say
let’s share the wealth
equally,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Business
THE Zimbabwe
Power Company (ZPC) is in talks with a Chinese Bank keen to
finance the
expansion of Hwange Power Station, a government official told an
energy
efficiency conference last week.
REPORT BY OUR STAFF
Partson
Mbiriri, Energy and Power Development permanent-secretary said the
Chinese
bank was prepared to take equity up to 40% to bankroll the
construction of
two additional units of 300MW each.
A ZPC team is in China to follow-up
on a similar initiative by top
government officials to tie loose ends on a
deal to finance Kariba South
expansion.
The government delegation
that included Finance minister Tendai Biti, met
China Exim Bank where it
lodged the final document that would lead to
financial closure on the
funding for Kariba South expansion.
“The biggest bank in China said we
have the money and are prepared to
participate in anything on Hwange if all
the proposals are right. They said
they are prepared to work with the
contractor,” Mbiriri said.
The expansion of Hwange Power Station will
cost over US$1 billion. The
thermal station has an installed capacity of
920MW but currently generating
525MW. Kariba South expansion is set to chew
US$400 million and result in
the generation of additional 300MW.
The
expansion of the two power stations is meant to increase the generation
capacity, which is currently inadequate to meet the local demand. ZPC
generates an average of 1200MW which is insufficient to meet demand that can
go up to as high as 1600MW.
Mbiriri said the ministry was concerned
with both the losses on transmission
and generation inefficiencies. He said
Phase one under Zim-Fund would target
replacing 600 transformers and
switching gears on the transmission network.
“Quite a lot of the
so-called load shedding is coming out of faults because
many of the
transformers and switch gears are old technology,” Mbiriri said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Business
ZIMBABWE
has been classified a “grant-only country” status by the African
Development
Bank (AfDB) and requires the same nod from the World Bank to
qualify for
debt relief and interest-free loans under the Heavily Indebted
Poor
Countries (HIPC) initiative.
REPORT BY NDAMU SANDU
HIPC provides
debt relief and low-interest loans to either cancel or reduce
external debt
repayments to sustainable levels.
This comes at a time the debt-burdened
country is engaging creditors to
resolve the over US$10 billion external
debt.
The government has engaged multilateral financing institutions on
the
resolution of the country’s debt overhang under a recovery programme,
the
Zimbabwe Accelerated Re-engagement Economic Programme
(Zarep).
Zarep would be monitored through the IMF Staff Monitored
Programme expected
to take effect this month.
Ebrima Faal, AfDB
director for southern Africa told Standardbusiness that
Zarep would support
Zimbabwe’s arrears clearance, debt relief initiatives
and mechanisms through
ensuring a track record of implementing sound
macro-economic policies with
anticipated support from development partners.
“Despite progress made,
issues outstanding for Zimbabwe include the need to
clarify if Zimbabwe will
be granted relief under the HIPC initiative, noting
that the Bank’s arrears
clearance programme is designed and implemented
within a coordinated HIPC
framework with the IMF and the World Bank,” Faal
said.
“The
classification of Zimbabwe to a grant-only country status by the World
Bank
is an important requirement that needs to be fulfilled for HIPC or
HIPC-like
eligibility. The AfDB has already classified Zimbabwe to a
grant-only
country status.”
Zimbabwe, alongside Sudan and Somalia, are in line to
tap into the US$500
million set up by AfDB, for the trio to access and clear
arrears.
The facility is available under the auspices of the African
Development Fund
(ADF) and is meant for fragile states to help clear their
arrears.
Cote d’Ivoire and Togo accessed the funds under the ADF-12 that
ran from
2008 to 2010.
Faal said Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia are on
track in terms of the technical
requirements for arrears clearance support
from the Bank Group and the
commitment by respective governments to
normalise relations with the
international community.
“If the current
momentum is sustained, it is likely all the three countries
could qualify
for arrears clearance during the ADF-13 period [2014-2016],”
Faal said,
adding that the facility is accessed on a first come-first serve
basis.
He said the ADF Deputies (representing the governors of the
ADF State
participants or donors), under ADF-12 in its meeting in Praia,
Cape Verde in
September 2012, considered ring-fencing the resources set
aside for arrears
clearance for Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia through the
ADF-12 period, with a
presumption that they could be rolled over into ADF-13
if necessary.
Faal said AfDB bank management would present to the
deputies progress made
by the three countries and assessment of potential
utilisation of the
resources under ADF-12 and/or ADF-13 which commences in
2014.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in
Opinion
Zimbabwe’s fluid political drama has of late been spiced by the
entry of
Baba Jukwa into this turbulent mine field, who, within months, has
attracted
more than 130 000 followers on Facebook. He, like the fictitious
Matigari in
Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Matigari, claims to have a compelling mission
in Zimbabwe’s
political landscape of fighting evil, corruption and nepotism.
In his own
words, he is a ‘concerned father, fighting nepotism and directly
linking
community with their leaders, government and
ministers.”
Report by William Muchayi
However, unlike Matigari,
Baba Jukwa is real and not fictitious although he
prefers anonymity,
promising to disclose his identity at the appropriate
time. Baba Jukwa’s
nasty public spat with Amai Jukwa, reflects the
succession dynamics in Zanu
PF where the Mnangagwa and Mujuru factions are
pitted in a ferocious tug of
war to succeed Mugabe.
Unlike Amai Jukwa who is an advocate of the status
quo, Baba Jukwa is a
reformist whose grand plan is to reform Zanu PF in
order to ensure the party’s
survival and continued relevance. In Baba
Jukwa’s view, Zanu PF desperately
needs renewal and a change of direction,
if ever the former liberation
movement is to survive and weather the
challenges of post-independence
Zimbabwe. The party fights for relevance and
its liberation credentials
alone cannot save it from extinction if it fails
to reform and adapt to the
challenges of the day. As Baba Jukwa views it,
the current leadership in
Zanu PF — the government, the military and police
force have diverted from
the core principles that guided the struggle, hence
the urgent need for
reform and a change of course by the party if ever it is
to survive.
Attempts to rebrand the Mugabe image, which is already
soiled, are futile as
that would not resuscitate the fortunes of the party.
Leadership renewal in
Zanu PF, according to Baba Jukwa, must go parallel
with a change in
direction of the party, as the two are paramount to its
survival. The old
guard who are the torch bearers of the party are both
physically and
mentally incapacitated to effect the much-needed reforms.
Their ideas,
besides being archaic, no longer resonate with the electorate
33 years after
independence. The Young Turks, who are expected to be better
positioned to
take over from the old guard, are in no better position as
they lack
credibility. This group, like the old guard, does not have the
party at
heart but just masquerade as reformers in an attempt to disguise
their
hidden agenda which deviates from the aims and aspirations of the
struggle.
Nobody within Zanu PF has dared to challenge Mugabe and his
leadership
publicly before, besides feable attempts by Dzikamai Mavhaire,
Margret Dongo
and Michael Mataure. The above three have called for
leadership renewal in
Zanu PF before and as usual, Mugabe descended upon
them with the force of a
sledge hammer, with devastating political
consequences.
Unlike Dongo, Mataure and Mavhaire, Baba Jukwa calls for
not only leadership
renewal, but a change of culture in Zanu PF which
glorifies incompetence,
corruption, nepotism , lack of accountability and
violence. Mugabe,
according to Baba Jukwa, is surrounded by a bunch of
sycophants who compete
to outmanoeuvre one another in praising the
president, not because they love
him so much, but for
favours.
Surprisingly, the president seems to enjoy all this drama, as he
has become
the biblical Nebuchadnezzar listening only to praise songs and
not to
criticism. This culture, according to Baba Jukwa, has created a
semi-god in
Mugabe, thereby ruining the party as very few advisors
surrounding the
president are genuine and bold enough to correct him when he
goes wrong. The
rest just sing along, not because they enjoy the music, but
because by
singing as loud as they can, that guarantees them positions in
government
and protection of the wealth they have amassed.
Instead of
addressing the genuine issues that are vital for the party’s
survival, many
in Zanu PF are up in arms against Baba Jukwa. Thousands of
taxpayers money
has been put on this mysterious figure’s head. Does anyone
in Zanu PF bother
to scrutinise the truths raised by Baba Jukwa?
Who really is this Bradley
Manning of Zimbabwe who has dared to swim in
crocodile-infested river
against the tide? Is this character a real Zanu PF
cadre or is a mole from
the opposition? How does he/she get access to all
the classified
information? Zanu PF risks making the same mistake made by
Jews in
crucifying Jesus assuming that their redeemer was yet to come ,
unknowing
that by so doing, they had murdered their own son who holds the
keys to
heaven.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Opinion
July 31, the deadline
set by the Constitutional Court for the holding of the
harmonised election,
is just 51 days away, yet there is little on the ground
to suggest minimum
conditions are in place to allow Zimbabwe to hold
undisputable
polls.
The Standard Editorial
There is a lot that needs to be done
in the shortest possible time. The
security sector needs to be reformed to
ensure that service chiefs adhere
only to their constitutional mandates and
are restricted from dabbling in
politics.
No credible election can
take place when the voters’ roll is riddled with
inaccuracies and ghost
voters. It is therefore imperative that the roll is
cleaned up before the
polling takes place. A comprehensive registration
exercise that embraces
those who were yesterday deemed “aliens” should also
be
undertaken.
Repressive pieces of legislation also need to be amended.
Among these are
the Public Order and Security Act (Posa), the Access
to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), the Broadcasting
Services
Act, Criminal Law and Codification Reform Act, which all contain
sections
that are inconsistent with the constitution. These sections have in
the past
been used to restrict democratic space.
The Electoral Act,
which should govern the conduct of the election, needs an
overhaul as it has
to provide parameters on how the new proportional
representation system is
going to work in Zimbabwe. All these laws need
urgent amendments, so that
they could form the required democratic legal
framework that would make it
possible for Zimbabwe to hold credible
elections.
Sadc, the
guarantors of the Global Political Agreement that formed the basis
for the
inclusive government, needs to act fast to ensure these changes are
implemented. There is little time left and the regional body, which
postponed its Maputo meeting on Zimbabwe at the request of President Robert
Mugabe, has to urgently convene a summit that should consider these and
other matters crucial for the holding of peaceful, free and fair
elections.
Any dilly-dallying by Sadc leaders in solving these matters
can only work in
favour of those who are keen to subvert the will of the
people in the
harmonised elections.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Opinion
From the voters’ point
of view, the new system will be fairly easy to
understand.
veritas
Voters are used to the idea of harmonised
elections and casting three
separate votes in one polling-station does not
seem to have caused any great
difficulty in the past.
Whether all
voters will understand that their vote for a constituency
candidate will
also be counted in three other elections is perhaps more
doubtful.
At
the very least, the parties’ lists of candidates will have to be
displayed
prominently at every polling station, with notices informing
voters that a
vote for a party’s constituency candidate will also be a vote
for all the
party’s party-list candidates.
In the National Assembly, the advantages
of the first-past-the-post system
will be combined with those of
proportional representation. The 210
constituency members, elected on a
first-past-the-post basis, will retain
links to their local communities
since they will depend on those local
communities for their election, while
the 60 women party-list members may
allow smaller parties more equitable
representation in the Assembly.
However, all the party-list members of
the National Assembly will be women,
so there will be at least 60 women
members of the Assembly. At least half
the 60 elected senators will be women
since the parties’ lists will have to
have equal numbers of men and women
candidates and for the same reason half
of the 10 elected members of each
provincial council will be women.
When vacancies occur in parliament
under our present constituency-based
electoral system, the vacancies have to
be filled by holding by-elections.
Under the new Constitution, if a
party-list member of parliament dies or
vacates his or her seat the vacancy
will be filled by appointing the next
candidate on the party’s
list.
All the elected members of the Senate and provincial councils will
be
elected on party lists, so there will be no place for independent
candidates
(i.e candidates who do not represent a political party) on those
bodies.
The only forums where independent candidates will be able to gain
a seat
will be in the National Assembly and in local authority
councils.
Paradoxically, by reserving 60 seats in the National Assembly
for women, the
new Constitution may marginalise women. Political parties may
tend to put
forward men as candidates for the constituency seats in the
National
Assembly because their women candidates will have a greater chance
of
election as party-list candidates.
A party-list system increases
the power of political parties because, by
definition, the party lists are
prepared by the parties. While political
parties are necessary for the
smooth running of a parliamentary system, in
Zimbabwe they have quite enough
power as it is without being given more.
‘VOTERS HAVE LACK OF
CHOICE’
Voters will lose their right to choose between different
candidates for
different elected bodies. For example, a voter who likes
party A’s
constituency candidate for the National Assembly but dislikes the
party’s
candidates for the Senate will have to vote for those candidates
willy-nilly
or else forgo voting for the constituency candidate.
Put
differently, parties will present voters with “packages” of candidates
who
must be voted for en bloc — and very large packages they will be, too.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Opinion
The
new Constitution introduces proportional representation for the first
time
as a permanent feature of Zimbabwe’s electoral system.
All proportional
representation electoral systems — and there are many of
them — are intended
to ensure that the number of seats that a political
party wins in a
legislative election matches the party’s share of the votes
cast in the
election.
That is not always the case with the first-past-the-post
system, which is
the system that up to now has operated in
Zimbabwe.
First-past-the-post works fairly well if voters have to choose
between only
two candidates or parties, but if there are three or more there
is often a
mismatch between the total number of votes cast for a party and
the number
of seats a party wins.
Elections will be based on the
votes cast for constituency candidates (i.e
candidates standing for election
in a National Assembly constituency) in the
province concerned. So when a
voter casts a vote for a particular candidate
who is standing for election
in a National Assembly constituency, that one
vote will be counted in four
separate elections.
Firstly, the election of the constituency candidate
for whom the voter
actually casts his or her vote. Constituency elections,
incidentally, will
be conducted on a first-past-the-post basis as they
always have been.
Secondly, the vote will count towards the election of
one of the women
candidates put forward by the party whom the constituency
candidate
represents. In other words, if a voter votes for a constituency
candidate
who represents Party A, that vote will also go towards electing
one of the
six women candidates whom Party A has listed as candidates for
election to
the National Assembly in the province concerned.
Thirdly
and similarly, the vote will count towards the election of one of
the six
senators whom the constituency candidate’s party has listed for
election to
the Senate in the province.
The elections to the Senate and to provincial
councils will have to be based
on a party-list system (see sections 120 (2)
and 268 (3)). There is a
similar requirement for the election of women
members to the National
Assembly (see section 124(1)(b)).
Any
vacancies that occur in the parliamentary seats elected by proportional
representation — i.e senators or the 60 women members of the National
Assembly — must be filled by persons of the same gender and belonging to the
same party as the persons who previously held the seats (section 157 (1)
(d)). There is no similar provision for the party-list members of provincial
councils, but for the sake of consistency, the same principles should apply.
This means that party lists voted for at the time of the elections must be
long enough so that future vacancies can be filled from them.
Voting
methods must be simple, accurate, verifiable, secure and transparent
(section 156(a)).
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
June 9, 2013 in Editorial
The
three parties that appended their signatures to the Global Political
Agreement (GPA), among other commitments, vowed that they were determined to
solve the Zimbabwean political crisis once and for all.
Report by
Nevanji Madanhire
In the first clause of the GPA preamble, the parties
said they were
“concerned about the recent challenges that we have faced as
a country and
the multiple threats to the wellbeing of our people” and,
therefore, they
were “determined to resolve these
permanently”.
Article II of the GPA is a declaration of commitment: “The
parties hereby
declare and agree to work together to create a genuine,
viable, permanent,
sustainable and nationally acceptable solution to the
Zimbabwe situation and
in particular to implement the following agreement
[GPA] with the aims of
resolving once and for all the current political and
economic situations and
charting a new political direction for the
country.”
Looked at simply, what the GPA did was give the three parties
not only the
authority, but also the responsibility, to shepherd the country
out of the
debilitating crisis it found itself in.
All the problems
that the Government of National Unity (GNU) — borne out
of the GPA — has
encountered during its subsistence have been a result of
the struggle
between authority and responsibility.
As they say, authority can be
delegated, responsibility cannot.
The acrimony we have seen in the past
few weeks resulting from the
Constitutional Court (Concourt)’s verdict that
President Robert Mugabe
announce election dates and the elections be held by
July 31 was a result of
one party to the GPA trying to delegate
responsibility.
In this case, Zanu PF, through subterfuge and intrigue,
sought to delegate
the responsibility to declare election dates to the
Concourt when that
responsibility clearly lies with the three parties to the
agreement through
their leaders, the principals and also very importantly,
through the
guarantors of the GPA, namely the Southern African Development
Community
(Sadc) and the African Union (AU).
It was always the
responsibility of the principals to come up with and
superintend the
election roadmap in a way acceptable to Sadc and AU.
On May 16 last year,
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, was asked about
the electoral
roadmap in the House of Assembly, upon which he listed seven
reforms that
had to be done before elections could be help. These were: the
Constitution,
media reforms, political reforms, electoral reforms, national
healing,
security sector realignment and economic reforms.
He said: “What we want
to do next time around is to make sure that when we
go into elections, those
elections will be respected by the winners and
losers. The winners will be
able to form a legitimate democratic government
and the losers are able to
congratulate the winners. For us to do that, we
must go through these
reforms carefully.”
Clearly, Mutambara was speaking for the principals,
and defining their
responsibility.
Of the seven reforms listed, two
are hated by Zanu PF. One is media reform
and the other is security sector
alignment. The party wishes to exclusively
control the mass media, the most
powerful tool for any political party to
spread its policies and woo voters.
Zanu PF wishes to continue to use public
radio and television to spew its
propaganda, which is mostly based on hate
language and verbal abuse. This
has worked for it in the past and it doesn’t
wish to see this
change.
A partisan security sector is also important to its electoral
game plan. In
the recent past we have seen, not only selective application
of the law, but
also military personnel leaving the barracks for political
podiums and
election rallies. Not only has this been highly intimidating to
the general
populace which has often been physically abused by soldiers, but
it has also
caused a lot of anxiety to voters and political
observers.
But the GPA is binding; President Mugabe and Zanu PF cannot
renege on
Article II, the Declaration of Commitment, cited above.
If
Jealousy Mawarire was the responsible and concerned citizen he purports
to
be, then he put the cart before the horse. He should have approached the
Concourt to force Mugabe to implement all reforms required by the electoral
roadmap first before demanding election dates. In him we see a clear case of
authority without responsibility. As a bona fide citizen of Zimbabwe, he has
every right to approach the Constitutional Court, and the court can grant
his desire, but his wish does not come with responsibility.
Elections
in Zimbabwe have always been bloody affairs; each election since
independence, has not gone without violence and death. In 2008, more than
200 innocent people lost their lives due to electoral violence, most of
which was state sponsored. One of the responsibilities bestowed upon
political parties by the GPA is to ensure that not another life is lost
again during elections. This is a theme Jealousy Mawarire seems to have
missed completely, hence his rush to the courts.
Those who say
election dates should be process-driven are right. Luckily
they include the
Sadc and their appointed facilitator to the GPA, South
African President
Jacob Zuma. Zanu PF conspirators have dishonestly accused
Zuma of
interfering in Zimbabwe’s affairs when he states the importance of
following
the election roadmap, but as facilitator he is an integral part of
the
process of ensuring the Zimbabwean crisis is solved properly, once and
for
all.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is very right in stating that
Zimbabwe
surrendered part of its sovereignty when it allowed South Africa to
be the
facilitator and Sadc and the AU to be the guarantors of the
GPA.
“To stand up and say South Africa has no right to interfere, it’s
not
interfering; you invited them to be the facilitator, so Sadc is as
important
a stakeholder in this process as us Zimbabweans. No amount of
shouting is
going to make them bystanders,” Tsvangirai said addressing civic
organisations in Bulawayo last week.
The Concourt ruling has put
Zimbabwe at a crossroads; it teeters on a knife
edge where it must either
fall back to its reprehensible past, or gather
itself and move forward in a
way that charts a new political direction for
the country.
