http://www.canada.com/
BY GILLIAN GOTORA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JUNE 12, 2013 1:10
PM
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's prime minister said Wednesday
that he won't
agree to hold elections in July after President Robert Mugabe
said he would
go ahead with the long-awaited polls.
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai said that Mugabe cannot decide on an
election date without
consent from other leaders in the power-sharing
government.
Tsvangirai said any elections held at Mugabe's behest
will not be deemed
"legitimate."
"It seems they are determined to
commit suicide, it is what they want," he
said at a press briefing of civic
leaders.
Mugabe was forced by regional leaders to form a coalition
government with
former opposition leader Tsvangirai after violent and
disputed elections in
2008.
The nation's highest court in May ordered
Mugabe to hold polls by the end of
July, arguing that the elections should
be linked to the dissolution of the
parliament at the end of its current
five-year term on June 29.
Mugabe has said he will abide by the ruling
and hold the vote July 31
despite objections from his partners in the
coalition. Tsvangirai has said
he wants polls to end the embittered
four-year-old coalition in September at
the earliest.
A lawsuit was
brought to the court on May 24 to force Mugabe to call early
polls. The
private court application claimed the country could not be run
without the
existence of the parliament, rendering the government illegal.
A new
constitution overwhelmingly accepted in a March 16 referendum requires
amendments to voters' lists as well as a 30-day registration of new voters
that will end on July 9.
Tsvangirai claimed the lawsuit was
instigated by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
loyalists eager for early polls so that
they can take advantage of loopholes
in the electoral laws to rig the
vote.
"That ruling is a political directive which has been given a legal
effect,
it doesn't create an environment for a legitimate election"
Tsvangirai said.
Mugabe, 89, who has ruled the country since independence
from colonial rule
in 1980, has been accused of appointing sympathetic
judges from the justice
ministry and the legal
profession.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party is also
demanding media
reforms to end bias by the nation's dominant state media
controlled by
Mugabe loyalists and an end to political intimidation by the
partisan police
and military.
"We want to remove all obstacles to a
free and fair election. If ZANU-PF
wants to roughshod us, I will just stand
up and say I will not agree with
you," Tsvangirai said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Violet Gonda
SW
Radio Africa
12 June 2013
The much awaited SADC summit on Zimbabwe,
which is expected to deal with
rules governing forthcoming elections, is now
set to be held on Saturday,
after it was postponed twice to accommodate ZANU
PF.
The regional body announced in a statement late Tuesday that the
extraordinary Summit of heads of state and government will be held in Maputo
and will also discuss political developments in the region.
SADC
leaders were supposed to have met in the Mozambican capital last Sunday
but
that meeting was moved to Monday in South Africa, but this too had to be
postponed because President Robert Mugabe said he was too busy trying to
fulfill a court order by the country’s highest court to hold elections by
July 31st.
The developments come as a showdown is looming between
ZANU PF and the MDC
formations over when the elections should be
held.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jameson Timba,
insists the
issue is not about the date of the elections but the reforms
that have to be
implemented before the polls, to create a free environment
where people can
express themselves.
“We want SADC to reaffirm all
its previous resolutions on Zimbabwe from the
time that SADC became a
curator of the political process in Zimbabwe. The
next issue is for them to
engage with the parties with respect to the issue
of the election roadmap
that was signed by the three parties in the GPA,”
Timba told SW Radio
Africa.
The MDC-T says some of the reforms needed include a code of
conduct for the
security sector, but political commentator and ZANU PF
insider, Livingston
Dzikira, said if the content of the roadmap is to bring
issues such as
security sector reform, that will be a “sheer waste of time”
on the eve of
elections.
“Those issues need a whole tenure of
governance to be able to be addressed.
Unfortunately that tenure has already
passed. Both parties were in
government but I did not see a motion from the
MDCs to amend the security
sector laws in the country. They only started
talking about security sector
reforms on the eve of
elections.”
Dzikira said the MDC formations will try to use SADC as a way
to “backdoor a
veto” over the Constitutional Court order. He said the court
order presents
a sovereign legitimacy challenge, which will show to what
extent SADC will
respect the internal processes in Zimbabwe.
ZANU PF
says there is enough time to institute all electoral requirements
and has
even said it has the capacity to hold one-day primary elections, in
a move
that is seen as an attempt to fast track remaining electoral
processes so as
to meet the July deadline.
However experts say Mugabe faces various legal
dilemmas and if he goes ahead
he will breach time limits in the Electoral
Act and in the constitution,
which will make it difficult for him to meet
the July 31st deadline.
There are two other urgent applications that have
been filed in the
Constitutional Court that have the potential of affecting
the July 31st
deadline.
Observer say if the court challenges are
successful it will show that the
July 31st date is flexible and the
Constitutional Court will set an election
date that is close to the July
date. This could mean calling for election in
the middle of August – a
scenario that ZANU PF does not want as it will mean
holding polls during the
United Nations World Tourism Organization
conference.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
SW Radio Africa
12 June 2013
The
Constitutional Court ruling that an election be called by July 31st is
being
challenged by Zimbabwean citizens, who say the short time frame
violates
their rights.
The ruling almost two weeks ago followed a challenge by
Harare man Jealousy
Mawarire, who had approached the newly constituted court
asking for an order
clarifying when an election could be held.
The
result was the court order compelling Robert Mugabe to call an election
before the end of July.
Speculation has since been rife that the
court ruling forms part of a wider
ZANU PF plan to force elections to take
place early, despite a lack of
reforms that would ensure a credible poll.
Mawarire himself has been linked
to ZANU PF, and his case was allegedly
bankrolled by the CIO using funds
from a ZANU PF propaganda initiative
called ‘Operation Spiderweb’.
Both MDC formations within the coalition
government have critcised the
ruling and raised concern about the short time
frame the ruling has put in
place for fresh polls.
Other Zimbabweans
have also been left distressed by the ruling, and two
separate challenges
have now been filed by citizens, seeking to have the
decision
overturned.
The first case, filed at the Supreme Court last Friday,
involves Bulawayo
woman Maria Phiri who, under Zimbabwe’s old constitution,
was regarded as an
alien and unable to vote. She argues that former aliens
have to acquire
identity cards first before registering, and may not be able
to take
advantage of the current registration process. As such, she argues,
polls
could only be held after August 12th.
The second case, filed on
Monday at the Constitutional Court, has been
brought forward by human rights
activist Nixon Nyikadzino who claims his
rights and the rights of other
Zimbabweans will be violated if elections are
held before July
31st.
Nyikadzino told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that before an
election can
take place, the conditions must be such that Zimbabweans’ human
rights will
be protected. He said that there has not been enough progress in
ensuring
this is possible yet.
“As a human rights defender, I have
been a victim of torture, harassment,
arrests and so on… If the election is
held before July 31st I feel I will
not be able to exercise my right to vote
freely,” Nyikadzino said.
He added: “What the Constitutional Court ruled
was to protect the rights of
one individual. But in doing so they have
ignored the rights of many.”
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
meanwhile has lashed out at the
state media for what they say is a
“continuation of the sustained and
unrelenting attack against the legal
profession in Zimbabwe.” The lawyers
were responding to a Herald article
about the fresh legal challenges filed
against the Constitutional Court
ruling, which accused lawyers of being
involved in planning “frivolous and
vexatious” cases.
The article lists some of Zimbabwe’s top human rights
lawyers by name and,
according to the group’s spokesman, Kumbirai Mafunda,
said this is a clear
attack on the legal profession.
“We have sought
a right of reply, because we feel the Herald article is in
breach of
professional legal ethics. We believe they are trying to soil the
image of
the ZLHR,” Mafunda said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga
Moyo
SW Radio Africa
12 June 2013
The MDC has asked the
Joint Monitoring and Resolution Committee (JOMIC) to
intervene following a
terror campaign directed at the party’s supporters in
Insiza North,
Matebeleland South.
In a letter to JOMIC, the party’s secretary-general
Priscilla Misihairabwi,
raised concern over what she described as a campaign
of intimidation against
MDC supporters by well-known ZANU PF
activists.
The party says the thugs are being sponsored by the ZANU PF MP
for the area,
Andrew Langa, who is also the Deputy Minister for Public
Service.
Langa’s acts of violence during previous elections are
well-documented in a
report by democracy lobby group Sokwanele, which can be
accessed here:
http://www.sokwanele.com/articles/sokwanele/degreesofviolence_20may2005.html
In
the last month alone, the MDC letter cites four incidents of violence in
Insiza North, the latest of which was on June 8th.
“In Ward 21
well-known ZANU PF activists Denford Bathakathi, Walter
Bathakathi and
Majoni Ndlovu sent intimidating messages to our councilor,
Nqaba Khumalo,
telling him to vacate his homestead and settle elsewhere,”
Misihairabwi says
in the letter.
The three ZANU PF thugs are said to have threatened to
kill Khumalo and to
burn down his homestead, forcing him to flee from home
in the middle of the
night.
The MDC, which has been on a membership
recruitment drive, also revealed
that the party’s new members are being
forced to attend night re-orientation
meetings where they are subjected to
ZANU PF propaganda.
“We thus call for an urgent intervention by JOMIC to
deal with the issues of
intimidation but most importantly deal with issues
of ensuring that those
displaced go back home. We need to act on the matter
urgently before the
issues get out of hand,” the MDC said.
MDC policy
and research director Qhubani Moyo, who is eyeing the Insiza
North seat,
said his party was confident that JOMIC will take act to rein in
ZANU
PF.
“JOMIC has already said that they will be investigating the reports,
and
this will be followed by meetings with supporters of the various
political
parties and also work with police to bring violence perpetrators
to book,”
Moyo said.
However, he said this had been tried before,
with very little success.
“I think as part of their mechanisms JOMIC
should also disqualify any
political candidate who is involved in, or
sanctions, acts of violence and
intimidation,” Moyo said.
Moyo also
criticised the police, saying the force has also been harassing
and
arresting MDC activists who have been on a drive to recruit new
members.
“This well-orchestrated drive by ZANU PF to frustrate us is
proof that they
are running scared because our party has managed to
penetrate deep into ZANU
PF thought were its strongholds,” he
added.
Other ZANU PF activists implicated in the Insiza North terror
campaigns
include Rasta (real name Ollen Ncube) who operates in Zishamba,
Ward 20.
In Ward 13 a ZANU PF official, cited only as MaMpofu, is said to
have been
confiscating MDC membership cards and identity documents in a bid
to prevent
people from voting for the MDC.
Meanwhile violence
monitoring group HealZimbabwe on Monday reported that
political tension was
high in the Zaka area of Masvingo where villagers are
said to have been
force-marched to a ZANU PF meeting and made to chant party
slogans.
The group also stated that a ZANU PF official threatened to
shoot all MDC-T
supporters at a funeral, accusing them of being sell-outs.
No arrests were
made, despite a report being made to the police.
In
Mutoko, MDC-T supporters were recently forced to a meeting organised by
village heads where they were made to surrender party cards and
regalia.
Sources told SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme that
soldiers
patrol the villages on motorbikes, intimidating any suspected MDC-T
supporters.
Two of the soldiers have only been named only as Tsuwa
and Sirewu, who
operate in the Kawere and Mbudzi wards.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Fungai Kwaramba, Staff
Writer
Wednesday, 12 June 2013 12:44
HARARE - Chaotic scenes yesterday
continued to blight the ongoing mobile
voter registration process with
scores of the so-called aliens being
directed to the Zimbabwe National Army
and police for clearance.
Early yesterday, scores of villagers from
Goromonzi besieged the office of
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as they
sought answers after failing to get
a service at the mobile voter
registration centres which were overwhelmed by
large volumes of
people.
Ian Makone, chief secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, told
the Daily
News that dozens of people had been turned away from a mobile
voter
registration centre at Shumba Clinic in ward 3,
Goromonzi.
“More than 50 people failed to register yesterday on the
grounds that they
were aliens and they were sent back home,” Makone told the
Daily News
yesterday.
“Some of the elderly who didn’t have IDs were
told to first get clearance
from KGVI. Cabinet must revisit the issue
because this is taking place all
over the country. People were sent to the
army in order to verify if they do
not have criminal records.”
KGVI
is the army headquarters where national documents such as passports are
processed.
Despite a clause in the new Constitution which allows
people born of parents
from the Sadc region to register as voters, potential
voters such as
22-year-old Violet Kamozhi were not so lucky even though she
was born in
Zimbabwe.
“I was sent back home by officials because they
said I am an alien and now I
am lost and don’t know what to do after I was
told to go the army barracks
at KGVI,” said Kamozhi.
Those who spoke
to the Daily News said the process was cumbersome.
“We are being referred
to Harare, where do we get the money for transport?
Isn’t it that the
mobile voter registration was put in place to assist
register to vote?”
asked Daniel Chozarira.
Despite the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)
relaxing documents required
for one to register, the Daily News was
yesterday inundated with calls from
irate members of the public who were
claiming that affidavits which would
act as proof of residence were not
readily available at some centres.
Elsewhere, exuberant youths,
frustrated mothers with babies on their backs
and the elderly braced the
chilly weather in Harare’s volatile suburb of
Mbare as they waited for their
chance to register as voters, obtain a birth
certificate for babies or even
get a national ID for the first time.
“I arrived before this place opened
and now this is 12:30pm. I feel that the
number of officials conducting the
process is too small and cannot cater for
all the people here,” said
Gamuchirayi Tuwacha.
In Zvimba East at a mobile registration centre at
Trillion, people claimed
that the affidavits were being sold.
Efforts
to speak to Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede were futile yesterday,
but he
told Parliament on Monday that they had to cut corners in the
on-going
process since government has not adequately funded the mobile
exercise.
Zec last week announced that it had received $20 million
which would enable
a ward-based mobile voter registration exercise. However,
registration is
currently taking place at a district level.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
11/06/2013 00:00:00
by Gilbert
Nyambabvu
CABINET endorsed amendments to the Electoral Act Tuesday
but Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvanagirai’s office warned that any attempt to
use the Presidential
Powers Act to pass them into law would be illegal and
should be abandoned.
The government is scrambling to align the country’s
electoral laws with the
new Constitution in order to meet the July 31
Constitutional Court deadline
to hold fresh elections.
Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Cabinet had reached an agreement
over the
amendments at its Tuesday meeting.
“It was a lengthy discussion where Cabinet
discussed and accepted our
recommendations which is a good development that
clears the path towards our
elections,” he said.
“The amendments
(also) clarify that each polling station results will be
pinned outside the
polling station and candidates will get duplicate copies
of the polling
station results returns and these will be transmitted to the
ward collation
centres and directly to the national command centre.”
Still, there are
concerns that putting the changes before Parliament – where
deep divisions
between the parties over the timing of the polls would likely
play out -
could delay efforts to comply with the Court's time-frame.
This has
prompted calls for Mugabe to use the Presidential Powers Act to
ensure the
quick and smooth passage of the amendments into law.
Mugabe’s Zanu PF
party was pressing for the polls to immediately follow the
end of Parliament
on June 29 while the MDC parties wanted them delayed to
allow further
reforms but the Constitutional Court ruling pretty much ended
that
debate.
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chair and university law
lecturer,
Lovemore Madhuku told state media that once Cabinet approved the
changes,
Mugabe could use Presidential Powers Act to ensure they become
law.
He argued that putting the changes before Parliament could
needlessly delay
the process since the MPs were likely to “rubber stamp” the
decisions of
their political principals in the coalition Cabinet
anyway.
“Once Cabinet endorses the amendments, we know Parliament will
just
rubber-stamp that decision. As such, there is no need to wait for the
parliamentary processes because what is crucial is the endorsement of the
proposed amendments by Cabinet,” said Madhuku.
“The President can
gazette the amendments into law after Cabinet on Tuesday
using the
Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act Chapter 10:20 and on
Wednesday
or Thursday he can proclaim election dates.”
But Tsvangirai’s political
adviser, Alex Magaisa, warned that using the
Presidential Powers Act would
be “illegal” adding that “any thoughts to make
use (of) this draconian piece
of law should be abandoned”.
He said under the new Constitution,
mandatory amendments to the Electoral
Act could only be “effected by an Act
of Parliament and regulations made
under the Presidential Powers Act do not
qualify as an Act of Parliament”.
“As the preamble to the Presidential
Powers Act confirms, it allows the
President to make regulations but not to
enact an Act of Parliament,” he
argued.
“It is a unilateral
declaration of a law by the President probably in
consultation with the
Minister of Justice but certainly it would not have
been presented or passed
by both Houses of Parliament.
“The net effect of this is that since it is
mandatory under Section 157 to
provide for specific amendments as outlined
in that provision by an ‘Act of
Parliament’, these changes cannot be done by
the President acting alone
without Parliament by virtue of the Presidential
Powers Act.”
In addition, the premier’s adviser – who was a law lecturer
in the United
Kingdon before joining Tsvangirai’s office - said using that
Act to pass the
amendments into law would represent the height of “double
standards” in
light of the Constitutional Court ruling ordering elections to
be held by
July 31.
“One of the reasons cited in the Constitutional
Court judgment in the
Mawarire case, compliance with which is a ground upon
which the use of the
Presidential Powers Act is being justified, was that
unless elections were
held by 29 June 2013 when Parliament automatically
expires, the President
would start ruling by decree,” he added.
“This
was deemed to be a good reason enough to set a deadline for the
elections
and arguments have been advanced that the President does not want
to rule by
decree and wants to promote constitutionalism.
“The irony of proposing to
use the very same Presidential Powers Act even
while Parliament is still in
existence is lost on the proponents of this
course of action. Surely, if it
is wrong to use the Presidential Powers Act
in its current form after the
expiry of Parliament, it must be wrong to use
it now or at any other
time.
“It is impossible to reconcile these two positions: on the one
hand, that it
is wrong to let the President rule by decree using the
Presidential Powers
Act after the elections and on the other hand, that it
is perfectly right
for the President to make a decree to enact electoral law
amendments using
the reviled Presidential Powers Act.
“Anywhere in
the world, that would be called double-standards.”
Magaisa added that
resorting to a law that “usurps the power of Parliament”
in a manner “that
offends constitutionalism and democratic principles” would
impact adversely
on the credibility of the forthcoming elections.
“The most critical thing
about the next election is the legitimacy of the
result. This depends on,
among other things, the credibility of the
processes leading up to and
during elections," he said.
“There is need to build consensus through
consultations to ensure that
everyone goes into the election understanding
that the process is fair,
transparent and democratic.
“Unilateralism
and resorting to patently draconian legislation such as the
Presidential
Powers Act does little to protect the credibility and
legitimacy of the
election process.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
SW
Radio Africa
12 June 2013
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ) has raised concerns about
an alleged ‘purge’ of its members in
Harare, who blow the whistle on
corruption at their respective
schools.
The teachers’ union is seeking answers over the forced transfer
of teachers
in the Mbare/Hatfield district of Harare, in what they say are
unclear,
suspicious circumstances.
PTUZ Secretary General Raymond
Majongwe told SW Radio Africa that there
still needs to be a proper
explanation from the education authorities about
the transfers. But he said
it was suspicious that the teachers facing these
measures are the same PTUZ
members who have reported corruption and
financial abuse at their
schools.
“There is nothing wrong in rationing personnel in schools and
transferring
teachers from overstaffed schools to those with a shortage. But
we are
disappointed that the process is targeting those PTUZ members who
crossed
paths with their corrupt school heads, by acting as
whistle-blowers,”
Majongwe explained.
He said the process of
transferring the teachers to deal with overstaffing
has become a “circus,”
and “criminal.”
“All the affected teachers are PTUZ members. There is,
therefore, more than
what meets the eye,” Majongwe said.
According to
the PTUZ, teachers from Allan Wilson, Queen Elizabeth and
Hatfield High
Schools have so far been affected. But Majongwe said they are
receiving
fresh information that “no school in Harare Metropolitan Province
is going
to be spared of the ongoing purge.”
He also questioned the timing of this
process, adding it is “highly
suspicious that this is happening and
targeting active PTUZ members, this
close to elections.”
The PTUZ
will next week deliver a petition to Education Minister David
Coltart,
calling on the Minister to intervene and help stop the
victimization of its
members. That petition will be delivered next Wednesday
after a planned
march by the teachers’ union.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga Moyo
SW
Radio Africa
12 June 2013
A deeply divided ZANU PF has revealed that
its primary elections will be
conducted in just one day. The party’s
Secretary for Information and
Publicity, Rugare Gumbo, revealed Tuesday that
the party’s supreme body, the
Politburo, would meet Wednesday to settle on
the date.
Gumbo told state media that all card-carrying members will be
eligible to
participate in the process.
However, in what is an
indication that the faction-hit party may not be
ready for the July 31st
election it is hankering for, Gumbo told the Herald
newspaper that they were
still working out the logistics for conducting the
internal
process.
Gumbo told his party’s mouthpiece that the politburo would meet
Wednesday to
finalise the rules and regulations for the conduct of the
primary election,
including the party’s manifesto.
According to the
state paper, the party failed to finalise its elections
guidelines during
the politburo’s previous meeting, as the Women’s League
wanted clarification
on the quota of seats reserved for women.
Sources however told SW Radio
Africa that it was likely that the party will
conduct the one-day elections
next weekend.
The issue of infighting within ZANU PF was also expected to
be discussed,
with the party’s national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, who led a
probe into
the divisions, reporting back.
Meanwhile an official from
the MDC led by Welshman Ncube, said the party’s
standing committee was on
Wednesday locked in consultations with provincial
leaders on the best way to
conduct its candidate selection process.
The party was also debating what
an official called, the consensus approach,
where provinces choose their own
representatives. However, no agreement had
been reached by Wednesday
evening.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Wednesday, 12 June 2013 12:44
HARARE - President
Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF, which has been spoiling for
elections ahead of the
full implementation of agreed reforms, will today
hold a crunch Politburo
meeting where rules governing its stalled primary
elections are likely to
take centre stage.
This comes as Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court has
ruled that the
octogenarian leader must call for polls by July 31 and the
key election
date, and timing issue, has caused serious strife in the
government of
national unity, in a development that has also sucked in the
Southern
African Development Community (Sadc).
On Tuesday, Zanu PF
heavyweights Rugare Gumbo and party secretary for
administration Didymus
Mutasa gave a clear affirmation that the issue of
primary elections, among
other key issues, would take centre stage, but
insisted this was an internal
matter.
“We are certainly going to discuss… how we are going to handle
the primary
elections,” Gumbo told the Daily News yesterday.
However,
party insiders said a highly-charged and dramatic gathering was in
the
offing as the ex-liberation movement battles factional-driven fights
around
the criterion, and choice of certain characters for its primary
elections.
As it is, reports that Defence minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s party legal
committee has recommended that acceptable candidates
must have “consistently
served” the party for five years, be 40 years-plus
in age and a host of
other requirements have proven to be divisive, as some
people perceive this
is a war against the so-called Young
Turks.
Already, speculation is rife that people like Tsholotsho North
Member of
Parliament and serial political flip-flopper Jonathan Moyo may be
affected
by these regulations.
On the other hand, a march by some
serving and retired security men as well
as the preservation of certain
seats for women — under an envisaged quota
system — has also proven to be
points of hot discussion.
“Given the circumstances we are in, there is no
way (we) can afford not to
look at the issue of primary elections and how
they are going to be held
considering women’s representation, which the
party considers important,”
said one source, who indicated that different
factions were also coming up
with various proposals to be debated
today.
He warned, though, that Zanu PF was critically racing against time
and the
point rings true considering the court deadline is drawing close,
and
shambolic state of its structures.
As it is, Zanu PF has somehow
“ducked” a broader and Sadc-led meeting in
Mozambique to discuss the
Zimbabwe election issue, especially in terms of
its funding and preparations
thereof.
Another insider said they were bracing for another night of
“long knives” as
the party has previously failed to have fruitful outcomes
out of its lengthy
meetings.
With an increase in internal fighting,
the Zanu PF Politburo — the highest
decision-making body between congresses
— has had to shelve no less than
three meetings after failing to agree on
certain issues pertaining to the
election.
Besides the sabre-rattling
around fresh polls — given impetus by Centre for
Elections and Democracy in
Southern Africa director Jealousy Mawarire’s May
31 court victory — the
ex-majority party is locked in a mortal combat with
its coalition government
partners led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic
Change, and other forces.
Although Mugabe and his hierarchy have
instructed people to stop campaigning
until an official announcement on the
primary election dates has been made,
many aspiring individuals remain
undeterred — a development that has
escalated party infighting ahead of the
make-or-break harmonised polls.
Buoyed by the 60-seat quota provided for
in the new Constitution, the party’s
Women’s League is demanding safe seats
for its members, while dozens of
current and retired soldiers, and police
officers are also vying for power
on a Zanu PF ticket, thus setting the
stage for a volatile meeting.
Also today, the Politburo is expected to
flesh out a proposal by a cabal of
ambitious youngsters coalescing under the
banner of “Generation 40” to
retire the old guard — another point of a
bruising battle in the
faction-riddled party.
Apart from spelling out
who qualifies for primaries and subsequently
Parliament in the impending
elections, the meeting is also expected to adopt
criteria for the vetting
and approval of candidates for the crucial primary
poll. - Fungi Kwaramba
and Mugove Tafirenyika
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Benedict Nhlapho
12.06.2013
JOHANNESBURG —
Following the ruling by the Supreme Court that elections be
held by July 31
this year, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
formation of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is taking its election
campaign to the estimated
3.5 million Zimbabweans outside the country.
The party says this is a
make or break election hence the campaign to
attract eligible voters back
home to cast their ballots.
As Zimbabwe prepares for this year’s general
election, the MDC-T formation
is taking its election campaign to the
diaspora. The party’s first port of
call is South Africa. Here it’s
targeting over two million Zimbabweans who
came to look for greener pastures
after fleeing political and economic
turmoil in their homeland.
The
party recently held a campaign trail in Hilbrow, Johannesburg. Party
supporters sang, danced and shouted that victory is certain for their leader
Tsvangirai.
The party’s national deputy organising secretary,
Abednico Bhebhe, says they
want diasporans to go in their thousands to
Zimbabwe and support the MDC’s
bid to remove Zanu-PF from
office.
"They should come back home and vote and this is the only
opportunity that
they have to come and exercise their constitutional right
which allows them
to choose a leadership which they want,” said Mr.
Bhebhe.
Shelton Chiyangwa, the party’s youth organiser in South
Africa, says they
have embarked on a “tell five” campaign in which each
member is urged to
spread the election message to at least five
people.
“We are telling friends, relatives, everyone around us, back home
and in
South Africa to register to vote and fully participate for a
landslide
victory,” said Chitangwa.
The MDC-T diaspora campaign, at
least in South Africa, it seems, is bearing
results if comments by people
like Washy Mabizela are anything to go by.
“I have to apply for my leave
so that I get enough time to go and vote. My
vote is my future, if l fail to
go and vote l will be messing around with my
future,” said
Mabizela.
But some like Kidwell Ndlovu are adamant that voting in
Zimbabwe is a waste
of time.
“Mugabe always rigs elections, so it’s
useless to go and vote,” he said.
The party’s diaspora campaign is also
meeting resistance from some
Zimbabwean political parties.
Fierce
violence erupted at a recent rally when members of the Mthwakazi
Liberation
Front, who wanted to force their way into the venue, clashed with
MDC-T
supporters.
And Mthwakazi Liberation Front spokeswoman Prudence Mpofu
accuses MDC-T
supporters of provoking them.
“They manhandled me as
some men said enda kunobvisira zvi stress zvako (go
and get rid of your
stress somewhere and not here),”
But Kumbirai Muchemwa, the party’s
spokesman in South Africa disagrees.
“We did not provoke Mthwakazi
people. We do not subscribe to violence and we
did not engage in any
violence. They actually started hailing insults at us
when we asked them to
vacate the premises,” said Muchemwa.
Even this challenge failed
to dampen the spirit of MDC-T campaigners, who
vowed to continue with the
campaign trail in different parts of South Africa
before moving
elsewhere.
Bhebhe said he is not scared of elections as had been
intimated by some
within Zanu-PF circles.
“Oh yes, MDC is ready for
elections. It’s ready for election anytime, any
day, any year we are ready
for elections, but all what we are saying, let’s
honour our signatures that
we put in the Global Political Agreement such
that when the elections take
place no one is going to dispute these
elections, that’s all what we are
saying,” said Bhebhe.
From South Africa the campaign moves to countries
like Botswana and the
United Kingdom where Zimbabweans are found in their
thousands.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/
12.06.13
by Business Reporter
Meikles
Limited Group said its ability to play a greater role in the
economic future
of the country was hampered by its inability to access a
deposit of $40.5
million at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The Group has been unable to
access the funds for more than a decade.
Although the Group has received
promises of repayment from RBZ, nothing has
materialised.
“The funds
on deposit with the RBZ originated from the listing of the Group
on both
Zimbabwe and London Stock Exchanges and the raising of funds from a
number
of substantial international investors. These funds were remitted to
Zimbabwe and ultimately placed on deposit with the RBZ at the insistence of
the then Governor... to be used for balance of payment support. The Group
has been provided with a deposit slip statement by the RBZ in acknowledgment
of the fact that the RBZ is indebted to the Group,” said the Group’s
Executive Chairman, John Moxon.
Gideon Gono’s governorship term is
ending this year and he won’t be eligible
for re-appointment. If a new
governor is appointed before Meikles gets its
money, three consecutive
governors will have come and gone before the money
is repaid.
Meikles
has also indicated that its inability to access this money
represents the
most significant challenge to the well-being of the Group.
“These funds
are required for group purposes and the government is obliged
to make them
available,” said Moxon. “It is calculated that our inability to
recover our
deposit has resulted in the Group paying excessive interest of
$7 million
during the year under review. It is also anticipated that the
interest costs
in the forthcoming financial year will amount to $8 million,
should we fail
to recover the deposit.”
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/
12.06.13
by Aaron Dube
Most Zimbabweans in
South Africa are eagerly waiting for the elections – but
many without
passports despair of being able to go home and vote.
Miriam Mandava
from Masvingo is uncertain whether she will make it to vote
as she lost her
passport last week en route to Johannesburg. “I crossed the
Musina border
using my passport but when l arrived home it was nowhere to be
found,” she
said. Mandava is appealing to anyone who has seen it to call her
no +27
(0)84 4526 771. Her passport no is BN 65 1741 and she was born in
1962-12-21. “I’m one of those who is determined to go home and play a part
in a new Zimbabwe by casting their votes back home,” she said.
The
Zimbabwean spoke to a Zim Consulate official in Joburg , identified only
as
Stephen, who said any Zimbabwean who has lost their passport must come
and
apply at their offices where a new passport costs R250 and takes only a
month.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
12/06/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
A TEAM from ESSAR Africa is expected at Ziscosteel this
week as part of
efforts to revive operations at the moth-balled steel
giant.
ZISCO’s US$750 million takeover by ESSAR had stalled over the
transfer
mineral resources forcing officials from the India-based firm
decamping from
the Redcliff site and workers at the company going for months
without pay.
But the permanent secretary for Industry and Commerce,
Abigail Shonhiwa,
told a Parliamentary committee Tuesday that the deal had
not collapsed.
“The deal is still there and it was re-confirmed by
Cabinet on September 12
last year. We have held a number of meetings and we
are expecting the
initial team to be on the ground tomorrow,” Shoniwa told
MPs.
“In our discussions, we said that operations have to start. This is
the team
coming from our partners who were previously at ZISCO.
“We
had hoped that these people get on the ground earlier, but I got
confirmation that they will be here last week and I also got the
confirmation on (Monday). They will be here to work with old ZISCO
management to get things going.”
Operations at ZISCO stopped in 2009
as the company bulked under massive
debts, lack of working capital and a
host of other problems blamed on poor
management.
The company’s
estimated 3,000 workers have not been paid since June last
year.
William
Mutomba, who chairs Parliament’s committee on Industry and Commerce,
said
legislators were concerned about the plight of the workers.
“This
committee has been given numerous commitments that operations would
resume
at Zisco … we are worried about the situation of workers who are
failing to
send children to school and are suffering,” said Mutomba.
Shoniwa said
the ESSAR takeover was now being handled by the Office of the
President and
Cabinet in a bid to speed up conclusion of the transaction.
“Things were
not happening - so it just escalated to a higher level and the
Office of the
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet was involved,”
she
revealed.
“It was that anxiety that things should start moving - that is
how the
Office of the President and Cabinet was involved.”
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Wednesday, 12 June 2013 12:44
HARARE -
Opposition leader Simba Makoni has demanded equal access to the
media for
political parties as the nation hurtles towards harmonised
elections.
The Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD) leader said Zanu PF was
enjoying unfair
advantage in broadcast media and has not taken heed of the
calls from other
parties to give fair coverage to other political
contestants.
Speaking recently in Bulawayo, Makoni said Media,
Information and Publicity
minister Webster Shamu had no right to deny other
parties coverage on
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
He said
the inclusive government had failed to push the media reform agenda,
but
said with political will, changes can be made before Zimbabwe goes to
the
polls.
“Opening up ZBC to Morgan Tsvangirai, Simba Makoni and Dumiso
Dabengwa do
not require a new law, but requires Webster Shamu to instruct
Happison
Muchechetere that he should not bar other people from the air,”
Makoni said.
Makoni was optimistic that if more pressure is exerted on
Shamu, other
political parties will be given coverage.
“If we, the
people demand that Webster Shamu take the actions that guarantee
us free and
fair elections, he can never ignore the call of the people. And
if all of us
begin echoing the same message to President Robert Mugabe and
Muchechetere,
they will take heed,” Makoni said.
ZBC chief executive officer
Muchechetere blamed political parties which he
said did not submit their
itineraries to the station for it to diarise their
events.
Muchechetere said political parties are free to flight
adverts on ZBC or buy
airtime.
Last week, leader of the smaller MDC
Welshman Ncube demanded that media
reforms in broadcast media be enacted
before the watershed elections, saying
they were a key factor for a free and
fair election. - Mugove Tafirenyika
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Gibbs
Dube
12.06.2013
WASHINGTON DC — The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) says the
majority of Zimbabweans are earning wages as low as $50 a
month, a situation
that has almost reduced them to beggars as some of them
now live on one meal
a day.
Hundreds of bread winners lose jobs every
day, forcing them to resort to
unconventional ways of making money such as
corruption and prostitution. But
there are others who have taken advantage
of massive jobs losses to make a
decent living in a nation where poverty
levels are as high as 63 percent.
It is no longer surprising in Zimbabwe
to find a teacher moonlighting in a
non-governmental organization or even
conducting private lessons in order to
supplement his income. Teachers
netting about $300 a month may be in a
better position than factory workers
who hardly make $100 per month.
The struggle for survival has become part
of life in a country once
considered worldwide as Africa’s
breadbasket.
Bulawayo-based tourism consultant, Zifiso Masiye, believes
that political
bickering among parties in the unity government has resulted
in the near
decimation of the working class.
However, he says workers
are still insecure though the job market improved
after the formation of the
unity government in 2009. This is due to the
large number of retrenchments
and company closures.
According the ZCTU, between 5,000 and 6,000 workers
lost their jobs in 2012
and more than 8,000 are expected to be jobless this
year. Less than 500,000
people are believed to be in the formal job
sector.
For Mr. Masiye, this is an indication that the Zimbabwe economy
cannot
sustain high wages in a country with 12.9 million people.
The
situation is worse for unemployed Zimbabweans like Linda Mpofu of
Gwanda,
who only survives on what she calls piece jobs offered by
non-governmental
organizations.
Like most unemployed people, she has almost lost hope of
getting a decent
job.
She says some employed Zimbabweans end up
getting involved in armed
robberies, illegal gold panning, corrupt
activities and prostitution in an
effort to make a living.
But some
people who lost their jobs have successfully ventured into the
informal
sector where over 2 million people produce various goods. Some of
them have
become successful business persons and merchants.
Roita Matava of
Harare’s Mabvuku high density suburb, who produces an
assortment of
leatherwear at his home and sells it in the lucrative South
African market,
says the informal sector has changed his life.
Mr. Matava’s only fear is
that his income can be eroded by a high rate of
inflation.
Zimbabwe
recorded historic hyperinflation rates between 2000 and 2008 before
the
formation of the unity government. The country introduced a multiple
currently system in 2009 which observers say stabilized the
economy.
Despite this positive economic outlook, workers are struggling
to make ends
meet.
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
The MDC is extremely appalled by the
fraudulent attempts by the Registrar General of Voters, Tobaiwa Mudede to carry
out the voter registration and the inspection of the voters’ roll exercise at
district level instead of the ward level as directed by Cabinet.
The new
exercise is clearly provided for in Section 6(3) of the Sixth Schedule of the
new Constitution. This clause is clear that mobile voter registration has to be
intensive meaning that it should be at ward level.
The shift by Mudede
is nothing but another attempt by the Zanu PF to further disenfranchise the
people of Zimbabwe. The MDC therefore demands that the Registrar General’s
office and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) unconditionally move this
process to the wards.
Mudede’s illegal move is nothing but a fraud meant
to assist the rigging machinery of a panic stricken Zanu PF.
The
distribution of centres reveals that inexplicably some provinces with known high
potential yield of voters as well as high population density as evidenced in the
last census figures have been allocated with fewer registration centres as
compared to those with a relatively lower voter population density.
This will result in overcrowding at the fewer centres allocated leading
to the disenfranchisement of the prospective voters. In areas which Mudede
unwittingly perceives to be Zanu PF strongholds, he has created more
registration centres while in some areas which he perceives to be MDC
strongholds; very few centres have been established.
For instance, some
wards in Harare province have been restricted to a single registration centre
with wards 27, 28, and 29 having all been clustered to be served at Glen View A
Community Centre for only four days.
Harare South, which has a Zanu PF
MP, has one ward, has been allocated five centres and the team will be deployed
to register voters in the one ward for 15 days.
In the Hatfield
Constituency held by the MDC, Mudede has not established a single centre while
in Harare South Constituency which is held by Zanu PF, four centres have been
established. Harare South Constituency is the only constituency presently under
the control of Zanu PF in Harare and it is largely composed of informal
community and resettlement areas.
In total, Bulawayo has only 36
registration centres while Harare has a total of 44.
In other provinces
where Zanu PF will want to use its rigging machinery, Mudede has increased the
registration centres by very high margins although the provinces have less
demographic population than Harare which has over 2 million than Mashonaland
West, which has 1, 4 million but has been allocated 444 registration centres.
Mashonaland East has a population of 1, 3 million but has 362 registration
centres while Mashonaland Central has a population of 1, 1 million and 382
registration centres.
The claims by Mudede that his office is facing
financial constraints to carry out the exercise are false as only this month;
the Treasury released over US$20 million for the exercise.
Not least, the
MDC is totally outraged by the Registrar General’s attempts to complicate the
registration requirements of “aliens” by unnecessarily referring them to KGVI to
get police clearance in order to get an ID. This move by Mudede’s office is
totally unacceptable as it is aimed at discouraging the aliens as potential
voters from registering.
Because of the bungling of the voter
registration exercise, the MDC is now in doubt whether ZEC can truly be expected
to organise an election that complies with all the provisions of the new
Constitution.
The fraudulent and chaotic mobile voter registration
exercise being carried out by Mudede will certainly produce an incomplete and
unsatisfactory voters’ roll which will not enable Zimbabwe to have an election
that is credible locally and which satisfies SADC and the African Union
guidelines governing the conduct of free and fair elections.
However,
the MDC urges the people of Zimbabwe to ensure that they take part in the mobile
voter registration exercise while the party engages all the relevant
stakeholders in ensuring that Mudede complies with the laws of the country.
--
MDC Information & Publicity Department
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
RIGHT OF REPLY TO HERALD ARTICLE OF 12 JUNE
2013
12 June 2013
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has noted
the front-page article in
The Herald edition of 12 June 2013 authored by
Caesar Zvayi and entitled
“MDC-T launches litigation crusade”. This article
was published without
adherence to basic journalistic standards and ethics
that include the right
of reply or comment by those organisations and
individuals named in the
story.
It is disappointing that such articles
continue to be published in a new
constitutional era that obliges
institutions and individuals to promote
national unity, peace and stability,
and specifically obliges the media to
refrain from incitement and hate
speech, afford a right of reply, and
promote diverse and dissenting
opinions.
All Zimbabweans have a constitutionally protected right to consult
with
lawyers of their choice in order to exercise and protect their
fundamental
rights and freedoms, moreso where they believe such rights are
under threat
of violation. Clients must be able to do so in confidence,
which is why
lawyer-client privilege is protected under our laws.
Publication of such
communications is not only a breach of professional
legal ethics, but is
also a grave breach of the law, for which offenders can
and must be
prosecuted if law enforcement officers are not to be seen to be
condoning
illegalities.
Whilst we stand in defence of freedom of
expression, freedom of the media
and protection of media practitioners to
carry out their work without undue
hindrance, the breach of professional
legal privilege is a crime that cannot
go unpunished, as it has the
potential to undermine not only access to
effective legal remedies, but also
the administration of justice at its very
core. Such prosecution is also
critical in order to stem the chilling effect
such articles have on other
potential litigants who will be too fearful to
consult lawyers in the
future, in case their legal issues are publicised in
violation of such legal
privilege. Such fear and self-censorship leads to
further violations of
their fundamental rights and freedoms.
It is not lost on us that this article
is a continuation of the sustained
and unrelenting attack against the legal
profession in Zimbabwe.
As officers of the court, lawyers are protected under
national and
international laws, norms and standards to carry out their
professional
duties without attack and without being identified with their
clients or
their clients’ cause. Where they are consulted, it is indeed
their duty to
provide professional legal services, and they do not
intentionally file
“frivolous and vexatious” cases. Lawyers are a vital
bridge between the
people, the law, and the courts that are meant to protect
them and ensure
their rights are realised and protected. Any assault on
lawyers is therefore
an associated assault on the law and on the
judiciary.
What is more dangerous in the article at hand is the blatant
propagandistic
attempt to interfere in serious litigation that is pending
before the
courts, and seeking to set the legal profession on a collision
course with
the judiciary. We have the greatest respect for the courts of
Zimbabwe and
remain certain that the bench will see through these facile
attempts at
inciting such divisions.
Litigation is the right of every
Zimbabwean where they feel their rights
have been, or are likely to be,
violated. Lawyers have a duty to provide
professional services to assist
this process, starting with confidential
consultations with their clients to
take instructions in a safe environment
where the legal privilege is
protected. These rights and protections must be
respected, failing which
lawyers will be within their rights to take
appropriate legal action,
including lodging of criminal complaints, to
ensure such intimidation,
harassment and interference comes to an end and
integrity is restored to our
profession and the administration of justice.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Dr. Alex T. Magaisa
The media reports today that
Cabinet has agreed to the proposed amendments
to the Electoral Act, which
means the Bill should now go through the
parliamentary process. It is
Parliament’s duty to scrutinise the Bill and
ensure that it conforms to the
new Constitution. One of the highlights of
the changes to the Electoral Act,
as highlighted by the Justice Minister in
the media today is the amendment
to section 57. This is because s. 57 is one
provision that severely
compromised the secrecy of voting, itself a key
constitutional
right
Section 57 regulates the manner of voting at the polling station.
It states
that after a person has taken the ballot paper and signified the
preferred
candidate, he/she is required to
“(iii) then fold the
ballot paper so that the official mark is visible and
the names of the
candidates and the cross made by him or her are not visible
and, having held
up the ballot paper so that the presiding officer can
recognise the official
mark, drop the ballot paper in the ballot box placed
in front of the
presiding officer …”
The problem with this provision is that it presents
opportunities for
intimidation against the voter, thereby compromising the
integrity of the
electoral process. Critics of this provision have long
argued that by
requiring a voter to “hold up” his/her ballot paper to an
electoral officer,
after making his/her preferred choice, this provision can
be and has been
used to scare the voter into thinking that his/her vote will
be seen. The
very act of lifting up the ballot paper to show the official
mark to the
electoral officer is not only unnecessary but it also
compromised the
secrecy of the vote. Election manipulators, especially in
rural
constituencies used this provision to con and intimidate the voter
into
believing that his/her choice would be seen by the officers. This meant
the
voter would be forced to vote for a candidate that is not his/her choice
but
the preferred choice of the intimidators.
Those in support of
this provision argued that it was necessary to ensure
that the correct
ballot papers were used for voting. This was unconvincing
because the
consequence of using the wrong ballot paper would be that it
would be
regarded as spoilt paper resulting in a spoilt vote. A voter who
uses the
wrong ballot paper is accepting the risk that his vote will be
regarded as
spoilt and will not count. In other words, the vote would not
count.
Furthermore, if the idea is to prevent electoral fraud, there are
better
ways of achieving that within the current framework. For example, the
authenticity of the ballot papers can be guaranteed by ensuring that they
have serial numbers or other specific features for verification purposes.
The election agents for candidates will also be stationed in the polling
station to watch over the voting process.
If the media reports are to
be believed, this provision has now been
dropped. It will no longer be
necessary for the voter to hold up his/her
ballot paper to show the official
mark to the electoral officer. This will
remove the element of fear that has
been built around the application of
this provision. The voter must now be
educated, especially in rural areas,
that it is no longer necessary to hold
up his or her ballot paper to the
electoral officer before inserting it into
the ballot box.
This will enhance the secrecy of the vote and is in
conformity with the
voter’s political rights guaranteed under s. 67 of the
new Constitution
which states that every Zimbabwean citizen has the right to
make political
choices freely. Section 57 of the Electoral Act emasculated
the right of the
voter to make political choices freely because of fear and
intimidation.
The change is also consistent with s. 155 (1) of the new
Constitution which
requires that elections “must be conducted by secret
ballot” because s. 57
compromised the secrecy of the vote. Finally, the new
manner of voting is
also in conformity with s. 156 of the new Constitution
which places an
obligation on ZEC to ensure that “whatever voting method is
used, it is
simple, accurate, verifiable, secure and
transparent”.
Overall, the change is a victory for fairness, transparency
and
common-sense.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/
12.06.13
by William
Muchayi
Zimbabwe’s fluid political drama has of late been spiced up
by the entry of
Baba Jukwa into this turbulent mine field. Within a few
months he has
attracted more than 100,000 followers on Facebook. Like the
fictitious
Matigari in Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Matigari, he claims to have a
compelling
mission in our political landscape to fight evil, corruption and
nepotism.
In his own words, he is a ‘concerned father , fighting nepotism
and directly
linking community with their leaders ,
g
However, unlike Matigari, Baba Jukwa is real and not fictitious
- although
he prefers anonymity. He has promised to disclose his identity at
the
appropriate time. Like Bradley Manning of the United States, who is on
trial
for allegedly disclosing thousands of classified materials to
Wikileaks, he
claims to be an advocate of free expression in a hostile
environment in
which citizens’ basic freedoms are curtailed by the military
junta.
“Baba Jukwa’s nasty public spat with Amai Jukwa reflects the
succession
dynamics in Zanu (PF)”
Who is this Bradley Manning of
Zimbabwe who has dared to swim in
crocodile-infested river against the tide?
Is he a real cadre or is he a
mole from the opposition? How does he/she get
access to all the classified
information?
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.
Re-branding
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 his view the party desperately
needs renewal and a change of direction if
it is to survive and weather the
challenges of post-
independence
Zimbabwe.
Its liberation credentials alone cannot
save it from extinction if it fails
to reform and adapt to the challenges of
the day. The dreams and aspirations
of the liberation struggle have been
betrayed by the former liberation
movement and for it to be relevant, an
acknowledgement of responsibility for
past and present failures by the party
has to be made. Baba Jukwa says the
current leadership, the government, the
military and police force have
diverted from the core principles that guided
the struggle, hence the urgent
need for reform.
This is a synopsis of
his arguments:
Attempts to rebrand the Mugabe image, which is already
soiled, are futile.
Leadership renewal 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. Although
young physically, they are a bunch of political
amateurs whose potential is
limited by corruption , incompetence and lack of
direction. 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.
Nobody dares
Nobody within Zanu (PF) has ever dared to
challenge Mugabe and his
leadership publicly apart from feeble attempts by
Dzikamai Mavhaire, Margret
Dongo and Michael Mataure. Mugabe descended upon
them with the force of a
sledge hammer, with devastating political
consequences. Unlike them Baba
Jukwa calls for not only leadership renewal,
but a change of the culture in
Zanu (PF) that glorifies incompetence,
corruption, nepotism , lack of
accountability and violence.
Mugabe is
surrounded by a bunch of sycophants who compete to outmanoeuvre
one another
in praising the president, not because they love him but for
favours. These
vultures compete to loot as much as they can in the presence
of Mugabe who
seems to protect their interests as long as they continue
singing their
praise songs.
Who has forgotten the late Tony Gara equating President
Mugabe to the
messiah? Didn’t the vice president Joyce Mujuru dubiously
claim that Mugabe
is anointed to rule the country for ever while Webster
Shamu embarrassingly
wished he had been born to the Gushungo
family?
This has created a semi-god in Mugabe, thereby ruining the party
as few
advisors surrounding the president are bold enough to correct him
when he
goes wrong. The rest just sing to protect the wealth they have
amassed.
Corruption unlimited
At its 2012 annual conference,
Mugabe threatened to punish anyone in the
party implicated in corrupt
activities. Since then, no-one has been punished
except Mike Madiro, the
former Zanu Manicaland chairperson arrested on stock
theft charges, a case
which is widely viewed to be more connected to the
succession battle than
anything else.
Diamonds from Chiadzwa are looted in broad daylight.
Treasury is almost
bankrupt. Embarrassingly, the Zimbabwe government appeals
to SADC and the
international community to fund its elections, while
boasting about
sovereignty. Baba Jukwa says the starting point for Zanu (PF)
is to
acknowledge its mistakes before blaming others for the country’s
misfortunes. It is naïve and arrogant for Mugabe and his leadership to
divert attention from criticism by shifting blame to others - especially the
West.
The security sector is crowded by clowns whose professional
conduct can best
be equated to that of the Islamic Al Shabab militias in
Somalia, with the
exception of a few commanders like General Vilario
Sibanda. The top brass
within the security forces has been so brainwashed to
the extent of being
unable to separate national from party business They
have become an
extension of Zanu (PF)’s suppression machinery contrary to
military ethics.
Shocking reports
The use of violence to
intimidate opponents is not a solution to revive the
fortunes of the party.
The anti-western rhetoric has been over told and no
longer resonates with
the public. The shocking reports from Rusape recently
of war veterans
forcing school children to witness exhumations are intended
to instil fear
among opponents and teach those born after 1980 about the war
of liberation.
Zanu (PF) needs to embrace change in order to guarantee
continuity.
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. Whether Baba
Jukwa will be apprehended or not, time will tell. What
is certain is that
innocent souls will be victimised by his pursuers in
mistaken identity and
that most of the truths laid bare by this mysterious
figure will linger on
for long in the minds of both his admirers and foes. -
Muchayi is a
political analyst who can be contacted on wmuchayi@gmail.com
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Prof Moyo
& Co poisoning Zim society
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
00:00
PROFESSOR Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo, a central Zanu-PF
politician, brutally
attacked three lawyers and the Prime Minister (PM) of
the Republic of
Zimbabwe in a so-called opinion piece published
in
the Monday June 3 2013 edition of The Herald newspaper under the
heading
“When lawyers become pedestrian for political
expediency.”
The “crime” committed by the lawyers was their expression of
views on issues
arising out of the Jealousy Mbizvo Mawarire vs Robert
Gabriel Mugabe N.O + 4
Others case (CCZ 1/13), wherein the Constitutional
Court declared that
Zimbabwe’s next harmonised elections should be conducted
as soon as
possible, and in any event by July 31 2013.
In his
article, Moyo referred to the three as “good for nothing lawyers,”
then
“bush lawyers” and he sought to entrench the “open mouth, shut mind”
cliché
that he has crafted specially for anti-PM insults.
Moyo’s vitriolic
assault on his four targets — Hon. Senator David Coltart,
Chris Mhike, Greg
Linnington (lawyers), and Rt. Hon Morgan Tsvangirai (PM)
was further
developed in The Sunday Mail edition of June 9–15 2013, under at
least two
articles. One was another piece by Moyo entitled: “Tsvangirai’s
open zip,
open mouth and shut mind,” and the other by Moyo’s comrade Dr
Tafataona
Mahoso, who penned an equally bellicose expose under the heading:
“Lawfare
and MDCs’ fear of elections.”
The targeting of lawyers in newspaper
columns is not a new phenomenon in
Zimbabwe. One of the worst affected
victims is eminent lawyer Beatrice
Mtetwa, who is constantly featured in The
Herald’s Nathaniel Manheru column,
a section that was introduced when Moyo
was a Government Minister with
significant influence on affairs at Zimpapers
— the media house that
publishes the newspaper.
Jonathan Moyo &
Co (in this article “& Co refers to “and comrades”) have in
the past,
spewed hateful speech against Mtetwa, to abhorrent and xenophobic
levels.
Even judges have fallen victim to the culture of press-based
hate speech.
Justice Charles Hungwe’s current woes were preceded by intensive
and adverse
press coverage.
Of course, Professor Moyo & Co are
entitled to their opinions, but they must
seriously re-consider the method
and language of their communications. In
placing their views in the public
domain through the mass media, the
expression of their views could easily
adulterate the flow of information on
these platforms from the mass
communication form that it should be, into
mass destruction; of Zimbabwe’s
social, moral or academic fabric.
While there has been massive
speculation about Jonathan Moyo & Co’s intimate
involvement in the
Mawarire case, I will not even bother addressing the
legal issues that Moyo
raises in his article, for doing so is pointless in
the limited space that
is available to the writer in this column.
In any event, Moyo is
certainly not adequately geared to meaningfully engage
with any of the three
lawyers that he attacks in his article, in terms of
literacy on legal
issues. Information at hand from impeccable sources is to
the effect that
Moyo’s current ambitions beside his quest for ascendency on
the political
ladder also include enrolment into law school so that he also
becomes a
lawyer, like three of the targets of his subject Herald article.
However,
before Moyo commences his legal studies and completes same, he must
perhaps
confine himself to political science, and related simple matters,
for which
he is schooled — then leave the interpretation of law to lawyers.
If he
insists on participating in discourse on law, then he must do so in
more
civilised language.
In the June 3, 2013, article he seeks, as he has done
in previous
commentary, to present himself as a guru in legal matters. The
State-controlled media often includes Moyo’s interpretations in stories
headlined “. . . say Legal Experts.” Now he believes that his own layman’s
views are more credible than the training-and-practice based interpretations
of lawyers.
What is more worrisome though is the fact that the
language used by Jonathan
Moyo & Co in their attacks on lawyers, MDC
politicians, and other citizens,
is gravely harmful to the peace, integrity
and harmony of Zimbabwean
society. The culture of violence and insult on
account of difference in
opinion is poisonous to Zimbabwe’s sound societal
configuration.
In attacking the three lawyers, Moyo infests his ‘opinion’
with derogatory
terms like “nonsense,” “Rhodie,” “living in cuckoo land,”
“pedestrian,”
“bush lawyers,” and “MDC politics of treachery.
While
well educated and less educated Asians, Americans and Europeans make
breakthrough inventions in the mobile phone and computer, aviation and motor
car, rocket science, educational science and medical fields, and many other
developmental sectors, some of our professors and high-ranking politicians
here spend considerable time concocting noxious slurs.
This trait has
resulted in a situation where the decency and politesse that
should
characterise debate in a democratic and civilised society, is fast
vanishing
from ours.
In his Herald article, Moyo shuns the academic and dignified
etiquette that
is expected of the professor that he is.
He resorts to
the primitive customs of name-calling, racism and ‘character
assassination,’
particularly in respect of Senator Coltart.
Moyo paints Coltart’s
personal history unfairly and inaccurately, in
extremely pejorative terms,
as if his own (Moyo) history is saintly.
Unfortunately, the disdain for
lawyers displayed by Jonathan Moyo & Co in
their regular and lengthy
communications generally translates into actual
ill-treatment for lawyers at
courts, police stations, prisons, and other
work stations these
days.
Last week the writer witnessed the humiliation and frustration of
fellow
lawyers — Mtetwa, Norman Bvekwa, and Admire Rubaya at Rotten Row
Magistrates’
Court as these were made to sit and wait for practically an
entire day, by a
magistrate who arrogantly and stubbornly refused to
postpone their case to a
more convenient date.
Certain prosecutors,
judicial officers, policemen/ women, and state
officials have ceased to
accord lawyers the respect they have traditionally
enjoyed, or that obtains
for lawyers in other civilised jurisdictions.
This disrespect and
harassment, the repulsive language being used against
lawyers and against
the generality of the population especially against
‘opposition
politicians,’ and the presentation of non-lawyer partisan
politicians as
legal experts or as objective commentators in the media in
Zimbabwe, today
all threaten the good order and purity of our society. What
are our children
learning from all this hate and mudslinging?
We expect our politicians
and the media to do better, for peace, sanity and
civilisation begins with
politicians, with the media, and with all of us!
Chris Mhike is a lawyer
practising in Harare. He writes in his personal
capacity.
----------
Comments
Majaira_Jairosi • 21 hours
ago −
Unbelievable that the Herald has authorised the publication of an
article
critical of Zanu PF apologists. Never heard of, not in this era,
mashura
chaiwo, Tenzi chidzokai vanhu venyu vaye vatanga.
11
•Reply•Share ›
G Tichatonga Majaira_Jairosi • 8 hours
ago
Blasphemy.
2 •Reply•Share ›
Mhofu Chaiyo • 14 hours ago
Well
done Herald! Is this part of media reforms? I will not delve much into
what
Mhike is saying, but to simply say, this is what it should be in a
genuine
democracy. I share the same sentiments with Mhike on the culture of
obscenity being promoted by the likes of Jonathan Moyo and tafataona Mahoso.
I wonder what sort of parents this two gentlemen are!
9 •Reply•Share
›
G Tichatonga Mhofu Chaiyo • 8 hours ago
The Herald newspaper never
publishes obscenities....those with open zips
should just close them.
2
•Reply•Share ›
Chihelele • 13 hours ago
Thought I was reading news day
or daily news. This is a first. Especially
the legal expert part
7
•Reply•Share ›
Save • 12 hours ago
for the very time herald is spot
on. or maybe they want to get rid of prof
moyo????????
7 •Reply•Share
›
G Tichatonga • 12 hours ago
Chris - you take yourself too seriously.
Lawyers are not Gods and should not
expect any special treatment from
anybody - we are all equal before the law.
You even have the temerity to
describe a magistrate as "arrogant and
stubborn" just because your
colleagues could not have their way.
In your elevated false sense of
importance you then declare that the
interpretation of law should be left to
lawyers - what nonsense! In fact,
which law school taught you that kind of
drivel?
Coltart may be a lawyer yes but he is also a politician and must be
given a
coat that befits him. If Coltart feels aggrieved then he must seek
legal
redress and not expect people who appear to be half-backed lawyers
such as
you to try and defend them however poorly.
You haven't started
Chris - I am sure you will get your just dessert when
Moyo finds time to
respond. Zvarwadza ka.
4 2 •Reply•Share ›
Chatigiji • 12 hours
ago
Yes, unbelievable! Is this the first drop of rain to build up before
washing
away the dam?
7 •Reply•Share ›
muvhoti • 11 hours
ago
m waiting for Prof to respond to this.....please Herald we wud want to
get
his argument too.....
BILL
WATCH 19/2013
[11th
June 2013]
Are
Elections by End of July Possible?
Constitutional Court
Judgment of 31st May
In a majority
judgment handed down by Chief Justice Chidyausiku on 31st May the Constitutional
Court ordered and directed the President:
“to proclaim as soon
as possible a date(s) for the holding of Presidential election, general election
and elections for members of governing bodies of local authorities in
terms of s 58(l) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which elections should take
place by no later than 31 July 2013”.
Court Watch 7/2013,
of 11th June, describes the background to the case and the judgments [i.e., the
majority judgment and the two dissenting judgments] in more detail, and refers
to suggestions for further court action that might be taken should the President
find it constitutionally, legally or practically impossible to comply with the
court’s order.
Why the Timing set by
the Court is Difficult, Maybe Impossible
Formal proclamation
must be gazetted: The Constitutional
Court’s use of the word “proclaim” in
its order indicates that the court was referring to the formal legal step of a
proclamation in the Government Gazette complying with section 157(3) of the new
Constitution and the Electoral Law. The
President cannot comply merely by making a public statement naming the election
date.
The Electoral Law
[Act and Regulations] cannot be changed after the electoral proclamation: Section 157(5) of the
new Constitution provides that “after an
election has been called, no change to the Electoral Law or to any other law
relating to elections has effect for the purpose of that election”. [Note:
Section 157 is applicable, because it is on the list of provisions of the new
Constitution that came into operation immediately the Constitution was gazetted
on 22nd May.]
But the Electoral Law
still needs to be changed to comply with the new Constitution: The forthcoming
election is an election for the purposes of the new Constitution [because now
that the new Constitution has been gazetted, it is too late to have an election
under the former Constitution]. And the
Electoral Law has to be changed to fit the new Constitution. There are important essential changes to be
made to the Electoral Act to make it comply with the new Constitution, for
instance to deal with new features such as:
·
election of 60 women
members of the National Assembly under a party-list system of proportional
representation
·
election of 60
Senators under a party-list system of proportional
representation
·
election of 10
provincial councillors for each provincial council under a party-list system of
proportional representation.
The new Constitution
adopts the principle of party-list proportional representation but leaves the
detail to be provided for by the “Electoral Law”, defined as “the Act of Parliament that regulates
elections in terms of this Constitution”, i.e., the Electoral Act.
The significance of
this is that until an Electoral Amendment Bill making appropriate amendments to
the Electoral Act has been passed by Parliament, assented to by the President
and gazetted, it will not be legally possible for the President to “proclaim” the election date.
[Note
on Presidential Powers regulations: There has been a suggestion that the
necessary changes to the Electoral Act can be made by regulations made by the
President under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act [PPTM Act]. This is
not so. The PPTM Act itself says that it cannot be used to do by
regulation what the Constitution says must be provided for “by, rather than in
terms of, an Act of Parliament”. And the
new Constitution requires just that: for instance, section 120 refers to
elections “in the manner prescribed in the Electoral Law”, and the election of
Senators having to be “in accordance with the Electoral Law”, i.e., the Act of
Parliament regulating elections.]
The Electoral
Amendment Bill still has to go to Parliament:
The Minister of
Justice
and Legal Affairs, as the Minister
responsible for the administration of the Electoral Act, has to get the
agreement of the GPA parties, then get the Bill through Cabinet, before taking
it to Parliament. In the President’s
absence in the Far East, there was no Cabinet meeting last week. So the Bill can only come before Cabinet on
Tuesday, 11th June. Monday 17th June is
the last day for gazetting a proclamation that would comply with the new
Constitution’s timeframe for an election on 30th July [see
below]. Which means that if the Bill is agreed by
Cabinet on Tuesday, it still has to be passed by both Houses of Parliament, and
assented to by the President, and gazetted as an Act in the Government Gazette,
all before 17th June.
That may seem
achievable in theory – if the three GPA parties can reach agreement on the Bill
in time for it to be rushed through Parliament in a day or two this week. But there will have been no time for the
gazetting of the Bill for public information, or for input from concerned
stakeholders – other political parties, civil society – let alone members of the
public at large. This would detract from
the acceptability of the Bill. [And the
proclamation date also depends on the date that the intensive voter education
period finishes – see below.]
Need to consult ZEC
before Electoral Act amended:
Section 157(4) of the
new Constitution – also already in force – says that no amendments may be made
to the Electoral Law unless ZEC has been consulted and its recommendations duly
considered. This requirement must not be
overlooked in undue haste to comply with the Constitutional Court’s order.
New Constitution
requires at least 44 days from proclamation date to polling day: Although the election
proclamation will actually be issued in terms of the Electoral Act, section
157(3) of the new Constitution stipulates the minimum content of the
proclamation: “The Electoral Law must provide for the
nomination of candidates in any election to take place at least fourteen days
after the publication of the proclamation calling for that election. Polling must take place at least thirty days
after the nomination of candidates.”
So the shortest election timetable compatible with section 157(3)
needs 44 days after the day the proclamation is gazetted:
Proclamation
gazetted Day 0
Earliest nomination
day Day 14 [at least 14 days after
proclamation]
Polling day Day 44 [at least 30
days after nomination day]
Longer periods can be
fixed, within limits set by the Electoral Act.
The Electoral Act currently allows for a campaign period of between 42
and 63 days between nomination day and polling day [these limits were suggested
by the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission when the Act was amended in 2012].
The 31st July – the
deadline specified by the court – is the 44th day after 17th June. It follows that unless the Electoral
Amendment Bill is through Parliament, signed by the President and gazetted as
law on or before Monday 17th June, it will be
impossible for the President to proclaim an election to be held on, let alone
before, the 31st July. But even this would
mean violating the new constitution as nomination day
can only be after voter registration is over – which will be the 9th July [see below]
Special 30-day
intensive voter registration/voters roll inspection exercise must precede
nomination day
The current absence
of a constitutionally-compliant Electoral Law is not the only problem. Another provision of the new Constitution
[Sixth Schedule, paragraph 6(3)] precludes an election with polling on 31st
July. Why? Because this paragraph lays down that there
must, for the purpose of these first elections, be a “special and intensive voter registration
and voters’ roll inspection exercise for at least thirty days after publication
day [22nd May]”. This exercise only
started on Monday 10th June and ZEC has said that the voters’ roll inspection
will be restricted to the same period, making Tuesday 9th July the 30th and last
day of this constitutionally-essential exercise.
Why must nomination
day wait until the exercise has been completed?
Because section 26A of the Electoral Act
provides that the voters roll must be closed for the purposes of the election 24
hours before nomination day [it has not been suggested that this will be changed
by the Electoral Amendment Bill]. As
Tuesday 9th July is the last day of the registration exercise, Thursday 11th
July becomes the earliest possible nomination day and Saturday 10th August the
earliest possible polling day – just ahead of two major national holidays [see
below].
Need to implement the
new Constitution’s “principles of the electoral
system”
Section 155 of the
new Constitution [another section already in force] obliges “the State” to take all appropriate
measures to ensure that effect is given to the principles the section spells
out. The use of the words “the State” is significant and must be
taken into account by the courts; it shows that the obligation is imposed on “all executive, legislative and judicial
institutions and agencies of government at every level” [new Constitution,
section 2]. The principles include
freedom from violence and electoral malpractices, proper registration of voters,
fair and equal access to electronic and print media, both public and private,
for all contesting parties and candidates.
A lot still has to be
done
1. Alignment
of laws with provisions of new Constitution already in force Parliament has not yet seen any of the Bills
needed to align existing statutes with those provisions of the new Constitution
that came into force on 22nd May. What
little remains of Parliament’s term should be meaningfully used to bring about
those reforms. While the Act most
obviously needing amendment is the Electoral Act, there are other laws that fall
short of the standards set by the new Declaration of Rights and need to be
changed now to avoid compromising the coming elections and the run-up to them –
laws such as POSA, AIPPA, provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act
on powers of arrest and detention and the time-limit for taking arrested persons
to court, and provisions of the Criminal Law Code that unduly inhibit freedom of
speech and expression and of the press, including criminalisation of defamation,
etc. [See
Constitution Watch 26/2013 of 8th May for more detail].
2. Implementation of Election
Roadmap Over and above legislative action, there are
still unfulfilled administrative steps envisaged in the Roadmap to Elections to
be implemented – these require action such as appointing new controlling boards
for the public media houses; ensuring impartial police administration of the law
to allow true freedom of speech and assembly to all political parties; and steps
to ensure there is no security force interference in the elections.
[See Bill Watch 14 and 15/2013 of 15th and
16th May for more detail.]
Timing
Extremely Tight
With
so much needing to be done in such a short time, doubts inevitably
arise:
·
Can
Parliament pass the necessary Bills in time for a 31st July
election?
·
Can
the voters roll be put into shape in the time available?
·
Can
ZEC fairly be expected to organise an election that complies with all aspects of
the new Constitution including those which say all prisoners have the right to
vote?
·
Can
funding be arranged?
·
Will
there be an attempt to comply with the order of the African Commission on Human
and Peoples Rights to cater for the Diaspora vote?
·
Will
a too-hasty rush to the polls only give rise to aggrieved would-be voters taking
ZEC and the Government to court for breaching their rights to a
properly-conducted election?
It
would be sad if the first election under the new Constitution were to be spoilt
by inadequate time, lack of funding, an incomplete or unsatisfactory voters
roll, or too little time for ZEC to satisfactorily arrange the logistics
associated with such a large project.
Zimbabwe desperately needs an election that is credible within the
country, within SADC and the international community.
Timing of
Presidential Runoff Election
and Clashes
with Other Forthcoming
Events
The election
proclamation must by law specify a date for the Presidential runoff election
should one become necessary. The
Electoral Act says so. Under present
Electoral Act timeframes a runoff election must be held at least 28 days and not
more than 42 days after the main election.
This means that there must be a weighing-up of the possible effects of
runoff election campaigning and/or polling clashing with important national and
international events coming up in August :
Heroes Day
12th August
Defence Forces
Day
13th August
UN World Tourism
Conference, Victoria Falls 24th to
29th August.
A poll on 31st July
or in the first half of August carries with it the possibility of a clash with
the national holidays – and holding a runoff Presidential election during or
shortly after the UNWTO Conference. This
raises the spectre of the run-up to the UNWTO Conference, or the Conference
itself, being thrown off course by the counter-attraction of the closing stages
of a hotly-contested runoff Presidential election
campaign.
Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied
COURT WATCH 7/2013
[11th June
2013]
First Judgment of
Constitutional Court
The
Election Date Case
Background: On
2nd May Jealousy Mawarire, Zimbabwean citizen, registered voter, and director of the Centre for
Elections and Democracy in Southern Africa, filed an urgent court application in
the Supreme Court seeking an order directing the President to proclaim elections
to be held no later than 30th June. Claiming that his rights under section 18 of
the then Constitution to the protection of the law, and to have public officials
obey the law, had been breached by the failure to proclaim the elections, he
cited the President, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara, MDC
leader Welshman Ncube and the Attorney-General as respondents.
The Registrar advised Mr Mawarire that if he wanted his case to be heard
urgently, he should file a separate urgent chamber application seeking leave for
the urgent hearing of his court application.
He did this successfully, and the court application was set down for
hearing on 24th May.
By the
time the case came before the court, the new Constitution had been gazetted, on
22nd May, with certain provisions, including rights corresponding to those in
the old Constitution cited in the case.
As the passing of time meant it was already impossible to hold elections
by 30th June, Mr Mawarire submitted an amended request that if the election
could not be before 30th June, it should be by 25th July.
Case
Transferred from Supreme Court to New Constitution
Court
The gazetting of the new
Constitution meant the case would be heard by the new Constitutional Court, with
the bench made up of Supreme Court judges doubling as judges of the
Constitutional Court. [Note: The Sixth Schedule to the new
Constitution, providing for a two-stage transition from the old to the new
Constitution, says that constitutional cases pending before the Supreme Court
must now be heard by the new nine-member Constitutional Court established by the
new Constitution. The Schedule also
provides that for the new Constitution’s first seven years the judges of the
Supreme Court will double as the judges of the Constitutional Court. Hours before the new Constitution came into
force, two new Supreme Court judges and two acting Supreme Court judges were
appointed to enable nine judges to sit on the new court’s first cases over the
next two days. ]
The court
hearing On 24th May nine judges of the Constitutional
Court heard legal argument from the lawyers representing Mr Mawarire, the
President, the Prime Minister and Professor Ncube. DPM Mutambara and the Attorney-General chose not to be represented.
All parties were agreed
that Parliament would be automatically dissolved on 29th June, at the end of its five-year life-span. The disagreement was over
when the elections for its successor could legally be held. Mr Mawarire’s lawyer argued that that the
wording of the relevant provisions of the old Constitution,[sections 58(1) and
63(4), created an ambiguity which should be resolved in favour of a reading that
the elections must be on or before 29th June, to avoid a situation in which
there would be no Parliament in existence.
The President’s lawyer agreed with Mr Mawarire. The lawyers for both the Prime Minister and
Professor Ncube argued that there was no
ambiguity, that the grammatical meaning of the constitutional provisions was
clear and that the elections could lawfully be held after 29th June as long as
they were held within the following 4 months, i.e. by 29th October. They based
their argument on section 58(1) of the old Constitution: ”A
general election...shall be
held on such day or days within a period not exceeding four months after...the
dissolution of Parliament...as the
President may, by proclamation in the Gazette, fix.” [Note:
this
provision has been the same since
Independence. Section 158 of the
new Constitution, stating that elections must be held before Parliament is
automatically dissolved at the end of its five year lifespan, is not in force;
paragraph 3(1)(e) of the new Constitution’s Sixth Schedule expressly excludes it
– “except section 158” – from the list of provisions that came into
operation on 22nd May.]
At the end of the hearing the court
reserved judgment.
Judgment of 31st May
[available from veritas@mango.zw]
The court’s judgment was
delivered in record time, on 31st May.
The
majority judgment [7 judges]:
The Chief Justice, with the
concurrence of six other judges, said the constitutional provisions were
ambiguous and should be read so as to avoid a temporary Parliamentary vacuum,
which would be “an absurdity” – so he
agreed with Mr Mawarire and the President on this point. But he then had to take account of the fact
that his decision meant the electoral process was already “derailed” – because it was already too
late to have an election by 29th June and at the same time comply with the
timelines for elections laid down in the Electoral Act and the new Constitution
– factors the Chief Justice referred to as the “exigencies of the
situation”. So, expressing his “desire to issue an order that will help
restore legality to the electoral process as quickly as possible”, the Chief
Justice said he was inclined to adopt Mr Mawarire’s alternative date but to “add six days to compensate for the period
between the hearing of this appeal and the handing down of this
judgment”. And that was the basis
for the Constitutional Court’s selection of 31st July as the election deadline
and its order to the President: “to proclaim as soon as possible a date(s)
for the holding of Presidential election, general election and elections for
members of governing bodies of local
authorities in terms of s 58(l) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which elections
should take place by no later than 31 July 2013”. The judges who concurred with the Chief
Justice were Supreme Court judges Ziyambi, Garwe, Gowora and Hlatshwayo,
and acting Supreme Court judges Chiweshe
and Guvava. The other two judges, Deputy
Chief Justice Malaba and Justice Patel,
dissented strongly; both of them would have dismissed the application.
The
two dissenting judgments
Deputy
Chief Justice Malaba first of all explained why in his view it was not for the
court to get involved in determining for the President the way in which he
should exercise his discretion to fix dates for elections. The court, he said, “cannot act as if it were the
Executive”. He rejected the alleged
ambiguity of the constitutional provisions and said section 58(1) [see above] clearly envisaged the
possibility of a period without a Parliament, as did the Constitutions of some
other countries.
[Noteworthy
is his comment that “whilst the applicant is concerned about the fate of
Parliament, he does not seem to be interested in the need to comply with the
requirements of the new Constitution designed to ensure that the electorate
plays a meaningful role in the electoral process”.]
Justice
Patel reached the same conclusion. He
examined the structure of the provisions of the old Constitution in issue,
sections 58 and 63, and concluded that “the wording used is unambiguous and does
not admit of any other interpretation, nor does it entail any absurdity”. He, too, said that the provisions of the
old Constitution still in force clearly envisage having a hiatus without a
Parliament.
Court’s
decision binding Although the
majority judgment has been severely criticised by a number of distinguished
constitutional lawyers, and in the two dissenting judgments, it must be
accepted. There is no higher court to overrule that decision,
meaning there can be no appeal. So it
must be complied with to the extent that compliance is constitutionally, legally
and practically possible.
Difficulties with
Judgment
Bill Watch 19/2013 of 10th June lists some of the
timing difficulties now faced by those who must attempt to comply with the
judgment while at the same time complying with the relevant constitutional and
legal provisions. The conclusion reached is that compliance may well be
impossible unless other constitutional provisions are breached in the course of
doing so. As well as the factor of
timing, some of the other objections and difficulties that have been raised are
outlined below:
Should
election date be set by the judiciary?
Deputy Chief Justice Malaba’s
objection to judges fixing election dates will strike many readers as
well-founded. As he pointed out, the
power to fix election dates – within whatever limits are fixed by the
Constitution or the Electoral Law – is essentially one for the exercise of an
executive discretion, taking into account “relevant factors relating to the proper
conduct of the elections in the national interest”.
Should the
Prime Minister have been consulted?
The President and the Prime Minister
were at odds over something on which agreement was to be expected. The Chief Justice’s decision was clearly
influenced by fact that the President’s lawyer said the President had no
objection to the court’s order for elections to be held by 31st July. In effect, therefore, the court allowed the
fixing of an election date without the Prime Minister’s consent, when Article 20
of the GPA, as enshrined in Schedule 8 to the old Constitution, clearly makes
that consent necessary, by implication if not by express
words.
ZEC an
interested party: The
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission [ZEC] is a major stakeholder in electoral matters. Section 157(4) of the new Constitution
recognises this: “No amendments may be made to the Electoral
Law, or to any subsidiary legislation made under that law, unless the
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission has been consulted and any recommendations made by the
Commission have been duly considered.”
By
analogy ZEC should have been consulted before the court set about fixing an
election date.
Other
interested parties left voiceless:
The
majority judgment, while referring to some of the legal “exigencies of the situation”, shows no
sign of having considered other exigencies, such as the capacity of the
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
to conduct an election complying with the court’s order, the ability of the
Government to fund it, or the wishes of other registered voters who might have
wanted the court to hear views very different from those of Mr Mawarire about
how best to balance the exigencies of the situation created by the court’s
interpretation of the constitutional provision on election timing. It is to be hoped that if there is a return
to the court [see below] there will
be an opportunity for other stakeholders and registered voters to make an
input. So far the court has not heard
from persons who may have very good reasons for arguing that the exigencies of
the situation call for a substantial extension of the polling day deadline, in
order to permit a credible election to be conducted. .
Last-minute
appointment of Supreme Court judges under old Constitution: MDC-T
have criticised the appointment of two new Supreme Court judges under the old
Constitution just hours before the new Constitution came into operation. They point out that once the new Constitution
is fully in operation the procedure for appointing judges must be far more open
and transparent, involving advertising the positions, calling for nominations,
public interviews of applicants by the Judicial Service Commission [JSC], and appointments made by the President from the list
submitted by the JSC.
Under the old Constitution judicial appointments could be made by the
President after merely consulting the JSC.
Is Compliance with the Judgment Constitutionally, Legally
and Practically Possible.
What if it turns out that the judgment requires the
impossible? The President and all
concerned will have to rely on the principle expressed in the Latin maxim: Lex non cogit ad
impossibilia [the law does not require one to do
the impossible]. Can an election
realistically take place on or before the 31st July? It is one point of view that that elections
cannot be said to have taken place until the results have been announced, in
which case the answer is a resounding No.
Even if this view is not taken, and the court’s order is taken to mean
that the 31st July must be the polling day or last polling day, there are so
many difficulties, both legal and otherwise, that the same conclusion is
reached: No.
What Can be Done if Compliance is Impossible
·
The court order enjoins the
President to proclaim the elections “as
soon as possible” and says the elections “should be” held no later than 31st
July. This is language that gives
guidance rather than imposing a peremptory command. And, as the Chief Justice said in his
judgment, the content of his order and his selection of the date were arrived at
having regard to the “exigencies of the
situation”. If the exigencies of the
situation were not satisfactorily or fully explained to or appreciated by the
court – or if, as may very well happen, the exigencies change – the court can be
asked for an extension.
·
There is great merit in the
suggestion by David Coltart, a constitutional lawyer as well as a politician and
Minister, that the way out of the
“constitutional quagmire” is to go to the Constitutional Court for a fresh
court order enabling the country to avoid being in contravention of other
electoral provisions and the Constitution itself. Such an application could be made by any
concerned citizen who, to paraphrase the Chief Justice’s words in the
Constitutional Court’s judgment, perceives in the present situation a looming
infringement of his or her right to have the coming elections conducted in
accordance with the principles stated in section 155 of the new
Constitution.
[Note There is a recent precedent for
extending an election deadline set by a court – in the successive judicial
adjustments made, in response to the exigencies of the situation, to the July
2012 Supreme Court order for the holding of by-elections; those adjustments
culminated in the complete waiver of compliance with the court’s order.]
Conclusion
It
would be regrettable if the court’s order forces Zimbabwe into having the first
election under its new Constitution falling short of the principles outlined in
section 155 of the new Constitution, such as that all eligible citizens are
registered as voters, all political parties have equal access to the public
media, etc. “The State” – not just the
Executive – is enjoined by section 155 to ensure all these principles are
honoured. ZEC must be given the
opportunity to do its job thoroughly so that all people trust the outcome. The election timeframe should also take into
account Zimbabwe’s obligations, as a member of SADC, to follow the SADC
Guidelines for Elections.
Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied
