http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News, Politics
GLOVES are off in
Zanu PF as a number of political heavyweights face stiff
challenges in
primaries set for Monday. The primaries are certain to provide
a litmus test
for the heavily divided party ahead of impending crucial
general
elections.
Report by Owen Gagare
Although some party bigwigs
managed to be nominated unchallenged, a number
of bruising battles, some of
which are drawn on factional lines, have added
interest to the internal
polls.
Headlining the clashes will be the battle between Zanu PF
political
commissar and Information minister Webster Shamu and Mashonaland
West
chairman John Mafa for the Chegutu West
constituency.
Shamu is a key member of the faction led by
Vice-President Joice Mujuru
while Mafa is in the camp led by Defence
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Another epic battle will pit Zanu PF
national spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, a
key member of the Mujuru faction in
Midlands, with former Labour minister
July Moyo, one of the strategists in
the Mnangagwa camp.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa will square off
with Arda chairman Basil
Nyabadza in Makoni Central, as the two factions
size each other up in
Manicaland.
Alongside women’s league boss Oppah
Muchinguri, Chinamasa is a key member of
the Mnangagwa faction in
Manicaland.
Muchinguri and Chinamasa have of late been clashing with
secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa, leader of the Mujuru faction in
Manicaland,
over political control.
Nyabadza is Mutasa’s
ally.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made will compete with youth league
member Kudzi
Chipanga, former Central Intelligence Organisation operative
Nation
Matongorere and Sarapiya Makuyahundi in Makoni West while Economic
Planning
and Investment Promotion deputy minister Samuel Undenge will battle
it out
with youth league official and musician Joshua
Sacco.
Manicaland governor Christopher Mushohwe is squaring off with
businessman
Jonathan Kadzura and Maxwell Marangwanda in Mutare
West.
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo will battle it out with
President
Robert Mugabe’s close relative Edwin Matibiri in Zvimba North
after his
ex-wife Marian was disqualified.
Politburo member Tendai
Savanhu will face Nelson Chadamoyo in Mbare.
Mashonaland East chairperson Ray
Kaukonde will have to shrug off the
challenge of Benard Taruvinga, Harold
Mukungatu and Nelson Watyoka in
Marondera Central.
The Gutu
senatorial seat is being contested by former deputy minister Shuvai
Mahofa,
Retired Colonel Suki Masanganisa and Nelson Mahwema.
Former Information
and Publicity minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu is being
challenged by businessman
Joe Tshuma in Mpopoma.
Battle lines have also been drawn in Epworth where
Amos Midzi faces Benard
Mhizha and CIO operative Coxwell
Chigwana.
Small and Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni will
clash with
Maplot Donga to represent the party in Nkayi South, while Home
Affairs
co-minister Kembo Mohadi is being challenged by district war
veterans’
chairman Philemon Mbedzi, Johane Ndou and Lawrence Tshili in
Beitbridge
East.
In Chiredzi West, provincial governor Titus Maluleke
will battle it out with
Bere Takunda, Darlington Chiwa, Veronica Makonese,
Mavis Demba and Eustina
Magocha.
The list of uncontested party
heavyweights include Mujuru, national chairman
Simon Khaya Moyo, Defence
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mutasa, politburo
member Jonathan Moyo, Mines
minister Obert Mpofu, State Security minister
Sydney Sekeramayi, Lands
minster Hebert Murerwa and Women Affairs minister
Olivia Muchena.
A
number of women have also joined their husbands in the political fray,
among
them Obert Mpofu’s wife, Sikhanyisiwe who is eyeing a House of
Assembly seat
under the Women’s quarter, while Mnangagwa’s wife Auxilia, is
eyeing the
Kwekwe senatorial seat which has been reserved for a woman.
Mohadi’s wife
Tambudzani is vying for the Beitbridge senatorial seat, while
Shamu’s wife
Constance is also eying one of the 60 seats reserved for women.
The seats
will be allocated to political parties through a proportional
representation
system.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News, Politics
FRESH
chaos rocked Zanu PF yesterday ahead of its potentially explosive
primary
elections on Monday as disqualified aspiring candidates stormed the
party
headquarters seeking redress, while the national elections directorate
struggled to compile the final list of contestants endorsed by the politburo
on Wednesday.
Faith Zaba/Brian Chitemba
Several disgruntled
candidates who were barred from contesting in the
primaries besieged the
offices of Zanu PF chairperson Simon Khaya Moyo and
political commissar
Webster Shamu demanding to be included on the final
list.
Some of the
aggrieved party officials included a former soldier, one Rwodzi
who had been
cleared by the Harare provincial elections directorate to
contest in the
Harare North constituency, Local Government minister Ignatius
Chombo’s
ex-wife Marian and Sharon Mugabe.
The commissariat department, which
conducts elections, took the whole day to
compile a list of candidates
approved at a politburo meeting which ended at
around 11pm on Wednesday
night.
This raised concerns among top party officials whether Zanu PF
will be able
to properly conduct primaries in the 210 constituencies and 1
958 wards as
well as to choose candidates for the senatorial seats and 60
women who will
be elected through proportional representation in just one
day in a bid to
shorten processes.
“If we took this long to compile a
simple list of candidates, which had
already been approved by the politburo,
I wonder if we will be able to
conduct credible elections in just one day,”
said a top politburo official
last night.
However, Khaya Moyo said
the party was capable of conducting primaries in
one day. This comes as the
party is truncating even its own internal
electoral process by flouting
rules and regulations endorsed by the
politburo as well as its constitution
to meet the July 31 poll date
proclaimed by President Robert Mugabe last
week.
Mugabe said the Nomination Court will sit on June 28, moves
described by
lawyers as “unconstitutional” and “illegal”.
Initially,
under the party’s election guideline Article 7(34)(1)13.1 on the
procedure
for conducting primary elections, the party had a provision
stating its
chairperson would inform provinces about dates and venues for
primaries two
weeks prior to the voting day.
However, the provision was changed to
ensure the party shortens its
electoral processes to meet Mugabe’s July 31
poll date.
At least 14 days’ notice is needed before primary elections,
but the
politburo changed this.
So Zanu PF has effectively violated
its constitution by using amended rules,
regulations and procedures without
the endorsement of the central committee,
its main decision-making body
outside congress.
According to Article 7(34) of the party’s constitution, the
central
committee has the powers to “make rules, regulations and procedures
to
govern the conduct of the party and its members”.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News,
Politics
SECURITY chiefs, under the banner of the Joint Operations
Command (Joc),
which brings together army, police and intelligence chiefs,
are making
preparations to dispatch senior officers to the country’s 10
provinces to
spearhead Zanu PF election campaigns, the Zimbabwe Independent
can reveal.
Report by Elias Mambo
Army insiders said Joc
commanders have been meeting at the Zimbabwe National
Army (ZNA)’s KG VI
headquarters for a number of months to strategise to
ensure a Zanu PF win in
the forthcoming elections.
Highly placed sources said retired Air
Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena, who is
running the Zanu PF commissariat
department with former CIO director
internal Sydney Nyanhongo, are working
with Joc members to ensure a Zanu PF
victory.
Under the plan
Major-General Engelbrecht Rugeje will be deployed in Masvingo
while
Brigadier-General David Sigauke will be in Mashonaland West and
Major-General Douglas Nyikayaramba will replace Brigadier-General Charles
Tarumbwa, who manned Manicaland in the 2008 disputed
elections.
Retired Major-General Victor Rungani will co-ordinate
campaigns in
Mashonaland East, while Vice Air-Marshal Titus Abu Basutu will
be deployed
in Matabeleland South with Brigadier-General Sibusiso Moyo in
Midlands.
Brigadier-General Sibangumuzi Khumalo will campaign in
Matabeleland North
whereas Colonel Chris Sibanda will be in Bulawayo and
Retired Air Commodore
Michael Karakadzai will cover
Harare.
Brigadier-General Etherton Shungu will be in charge of
Mashonaland Central
province.
“This is not something new because
after the 2008 disputed presidential
elections, 200 senior army members were
deployed and spearheaded a campaign
which forced Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai to pull out of the
presidential run-off,” said the
source.
Director of public relations in the ZNA Lieutenant-Colonel
Alphios Makotore
confirmed receiving the Independent’s inquiries on the
deployments last week
and promised to respond appropriately.
“We
received your questions and we are still working on them. We are going
to
respond to them,” Makotore said.
Zanu PF has been militarising its
structures since the party lost the 2008
elections and some reports claim it
has “replaced its defunct district
coordinating committees with the military
which is co-ordinating the
grassroots structures”.
Security service
chiefs have openly declared their political loyalty to
President Robert
Mugabe and Zanu PF.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Politics
SADC leaders
who met in Maputo last Saturday after President Robert Mugabe’s
unilateral
proclamation of the election date as July 31 followed a principle
known in
legal circles as stare decisis et non quieta movere.
Report by Herbert
Moyo
In simple English, it means they chose to stand by their previous
decisions
and not disturb the undisturbed — they did not move an
inch.
The resolutions which they have consistently maintained at every
summit
since the inauguration of Zimbabwe’s coalition government in 2009
include an
insistence on the implementation of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA),
elections roadmap and a raft of reforms on electoral, media
and security
sector issues.
According to the Sadc communiqué released
after the Maputo meeting, the
leaders “endorsed the report of the
facilitator, South African President
Jacob Zuma, and its recommendations
which include, among others, media
reform, upholding the rule of law, the
role of the Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic), election
date, validity of electoral
regulations and deployment of Sadc
observers”.
While Sadc acknowledged the ruling of the Constitutional
Court (Concourt) on
elections dates, it directed government to engage the
court to seek an
extension to accommodate remaining processes.
The
regional bloc concluded by “urging the three parties to the GPA to
undertake
immediate measures to create a conducive environment to the
holding of
peaceful, credible, free and fair elections”.
These resolutions and
demands by Sadc are all in keeping with decisions that
have been adopted by
the regional body since 2009 when Zuma took over as
South African president
and the mediation process from his predecessor,
Thabo Mbeki.
Sadc has
held various meetings on Zimbabwe since its summit in Kinshasa,
Democratic
Republic of Congo, in September 2009. There were subsequent
summits in
Livingstone (Zambia on March 31 2011), Windhoek (Namibia on May
20 2011),
Sandton (South Africa on June 11 and 12 2011), Luanda (Angola from
August 17
to 18 2011), in Maputo, (Mozambique from August 17 to 18 2012),
Dar es
Salaam (Tanzania from December 7 to 8 2012) and Cape Town (May 2013),
among
others.
The Sadc troika also held a number of summits across the region
upholding
the same resolutions which were endorsed and maintained last
weekend in
Maputo.
In all these summits, the Sadc message has
remained consistent, demanding
that the political parties in Zimbabwe fulfil
the GPA in order to create an
environment conducive to free and fair
elections.
Not even the Concourt order or Mugabe’s proclamation have
restrained Sadc,
which, according to Zimbabwe Democracy Institute director,
Pedzisai Ruhanya,
has come up with a “historic and clearest indication” that
it will assert
itself on the Zimbabwean issue to ensure the implementation
of the GPA
before peaceful and credible elections.
“Where is the
sovereignty Mugabe is always talking about?” asked Ruhanya,
adding that due
to Zuma’s efforts, “Sadc is effectively sending a clear
message to him and
his Zanu PF hardliners that any democratic transgressions
will not be
accepted. Sadc will not tolerate another sham election in
Zimbabwe
again.”
Ruhanya added: “They (Sadc) are effectively saying to Mugabe that
they know
the courts are not independent of the executive and that is why
they are
directing him to go back to the same courts to get a ruling which
will
enable him to fulfil GPA and roadmap benchmarks and minimum conditions
for
elections.”
Zuma and Sadc’s resolute stance, which has up to now
prevented Mugabe and
Zanu PF hardliners from forcing elections without
democratic reforms, has
been noted as a huge improvement compared to Mbeki’s
“quiet diplomacy”
approach which led to the GPA and coalition government at
a huge cost to
Zimbabwe and the region.
Bulawayo-based analyst Godwin
Phiri said Sadc has since become more
effective largely because Zuma and his
facilitation team, which includes
liberation struggle veterans, Mac Maharaj,
Charles Nqakula and Lindiwe Zulu,
has been “hands-on”, visiting Zimbabwe
time and again to gather correct
information about events on the ground and
push for the implementation of
reforms.
“Mugabe will not this time
around be allowed to get away with sham elections
as he did during Mbeki’s
era,” said Phiri. “You will recall that in 2002,
Mbeki remained silent when
Mugabe used the Presidential Powers (Temporary
Measures) Act to effect
self-serving amendments to the electoral laws
despite protests from the
MDC.
“Mbeki refused to make public a report by South African retired
generals on
political violence and take a tough stance against Mugabe, but
this time
Sadc, under Zuma’s mediation, will not tolerate any attempts to
stampede the
country into chaotic elections.”
Despite widespread
local and international criticism, Mbeki’s mediation has
its own defenders,
including his former director-general Frank Chikane, who
went as far as
crediting him for preventing a descent into civil war as the
United States
and United Kingdom pressed for tougher European Union and
United Nations
sanctions against Mugabe’s regime.
“The negotiating parties also came to
the table in a fighting mood,” wrote
Chikane in his book titled Things that
Could not be said from A(ids) to
Z(imbabwe).
“At times it felt like,
as the facilitation team, we were the only ones who
wanted peace for
Zimbabwe. Representatives of the people of Zimbabwe seemed
ready to continue
to fight and halt the talks,” said Chikane.
Chikane said Mbeki’s
“principled approach” incensed those who wanted to
pursue the “regime
change” strategy, which he refused to be pressured into.
“As stated, a
multiplicity of strategies was unleashed, including various
communication
strategies and intelligence projects, to get the public to buy
into the
‘regime change’ approach against the wishes of the Sadc and the AU
member
countries,” wrote Chikane.
Not surprisingly, Mugabe described Mbeki as a man
“with the patience of Job”.
However, with Zuma now driving the mediation
efforts, Sadc is fast losing
patience and asserting itself on the Zimbabwean
issue despite Mugabe’s
protestations.
But as Ruhanya pointed out,
progressive forces in Zimbabwe, including MDC
parties, need to build on
Sadc’s solid position and play their part in
uniting and pushing for
democratic change.
Analysts say Sadc — which showed that it was
determined to uphold its
resolutions and remain consistent until a solution
is found in the country —
has played its part and it is now up to
Zimbabweans to finish the job
through pressuring Mugabe and Zanu PF to
embrace reforms and accept free and
fair elections, whatever the
outcome.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News,
Politics
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe seems to have perfected the art of
abusing the
draconian Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act (PPTM
Act) to make
far-reaching changes to electoral laws to suit his political
agenda before
every election, analysts say.
Report by Brian
Chitemba
According to Section 2(1)(c) of the Act, the president shall
only issue a
decree if “because of the urgency, it is inexpedient to await
the passage
through parliament of an Act dealing with the
situation”.
However, Mugabe, before every election, particularly since
2000, has always
resorted to the emergency powers to change the rules of the
game.
Despite attempts in the new constitution to restrict the use of the
powers
of decree, Mugabe last week unilaterally amended the Electoral Act
through
an extraordinary Government Gazette Statutory Instrument 85 of 2013
to pave
way for the proclamation of elections dates and self-serving changes
to the
law. He has always done this before every election.
Before the
2008 elections, Mugabe enacted Statutory Instrument Number 46 of
2008 in a
move which his rival, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai said showed
“everything
that is wrong with this election in particular and Zimbabwe in
general”.
The regulations sought to amend Sections 55, 59 and 60 of
the Electoral Act
Chapter 2:13 as amended by the Electoral Laws Act
Amendment No 17 of 2007.
Amendment No 17 to the Electoral Act, which became
law on January 11 2008,
was a piece of law negotiated between the MDC
parties and Zanu PF during the
Sadc-sponsored talks facilitated by former
South African president Thabo
Mbeki.
That piece of legislation was
agreed to and signed by the parties in
Pretoria on October 30 2007 and
presented to Sadc through Mbeki on the very
same day. Those amendments,
together with changes to the Public Order and
Security Act, Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the
Broadcasting Act, which
were all passed in parliament on December 20 2007
and gazetted on January 11
2008, were hotly contested.
“Mugabe’s appetite of making presidential
decrees through his legendary
abuse of the Presidential Powers (Temporary
Measures) Act Chapter 10:20 is
unacceptable as it is a clear breach of the
rule of law,” MDC-T
secretary-general Tendai Biti said at the
time.
“Allowing Mugabe to make decrees is a breach of the doctrine of the
separation of powers. Put simply, the Presidential Powers (Temporary
Measures) Act is itself clearly unconstitutional.”
The PPTM Act came
into force in 1987 when Mugabe became executive president
after the
abolition of the ceremonial presidency and prime ministerial
posts. The
architect of legislation was the late Justice minister Eddison
Zvobgo.
Since then, Mugabe has been abusing the PPTM Act to make
changes before
elections to ensure his re-election.
After realising
that Zanu PF’s urban support base was waning, Mugabe invoked
the PPTM Act in
1995.
Prior to the 2002 presidential elections, he was at it again as he
used his
presidential powers to introduce a raft of amendments to the
Electoral Act
which influenced the running and outcome of the
polls.
Barely 24 hours before the polls, Mugabe invoked the PPMT Act to
make a
cocktail of changes to Section 158 of the Electoral Act resulting in
the
disenfranchement of “aliens”, banning of postal votes, limiting the
number
of polling stations in urban centres and extending the voter
registration
campaign in Zanu PF strongholds.
The MDC-T challenged
Mugabe’s controversial actions in the Supreme Court,
but the case was thrown
out a month after the elections.
In similar fashion last week, Mugabe used
his powers to amend the Electoral
Act and smuggled in a provision which
extends the voter registration
exercise by 12 days after nomination
day.
Section 26A of the Electoral Act 2:13 initially provided that voter
registration be finalised 24 hours before the nomination court sits after
which 44 days must elapse between the proclamation of election dates and
polling day.
Mugabe abused his contentious powers to meet the July 31
election deadline
as ordered by the Constitutional Court
(Concourt).
MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart, who is a
lawyer, criticised
Mugabe for using the presidential powers last week
describing his move as
“unconstitutional” since Section 157(1) states that
only an Act of
parliament can be used.
He argued Section 2(1)(c) of
the PPTM Act provides that the president shall
only issue a decree in urgent
cases which cannot await parliamentary debate,
but last week’s proclamation
was not necessary as parliament is still
sitting until June 29.
If
changes to the Electoral Amendment Bill were urgent, parliament could
have
convened immediately to pass the amendments agreed to at last week’s
cabinet
meeting.
“Section 157(1) of the new constitution states that ‘An Act of
parliament
must provide for the conduct of elections’. In other words, the
new
constitution specifically requires that the matter of electoral process
be
provided for by an Act. In other words, the Presidential Powers Act, as
undemocratic as it is, cannot be used for this type of matter even if it is
deemed urgent,” Coltart said.
“The flip side of the same coin is that
Section 157(1) states that an Act of
parliament must provide for the conduct
of elections. Section 2(1) makes it
quite clear that the president can only
issue ‘regulations’. Regulations are
not an Act of
parliament.”
However, constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku defended
Mugabe’s use of
presidential powers saying he by-passed parliament to comply
with the
Concourt ruling.
But Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs minister Eric Matinenga
insisted Mugabe acted
“unconstitutionally”.
Sadc leaders resolved last weekend Mugabe’s amendments
must be reversed and
done through parliament.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News, Politics
LAST
week’s announcement by President Robert Mugabe that elections will be
conducted on July 31 is not surprising; some of us saw it coming. It is
merely a confirmation of what everyone with political foresight
anticipated.
Report by Jacob Nkiwane
It is surprising to see
Zimbabwe’s political leadership panicking,
especially Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai of the MDC-T who shared the same
corridors of power with Mugabe
in a shaky coalition government for more than
four years.
Over the
years, Mugabe’s political survival has always been a result of
tact, guile
and artful manoeuvring of both the process and the system to his
advantage.
It is not by sheer luck that he has politically survived to this
end. He has
managed to use chaos as a surviving strategy both within and
outside his
party.
During the liberation struggle, he used the chaos created by the
assassination of Herbert Chitepo and the sudden death of Josiah Tongogara in
a car accident to emerge as the only credible leader capable of leading a
new country at Independence.
But, while he won the watershed
elections of 1980, he was not settled due to
the nagging popularity of the
late vice-president Joshua Nkomo.
The bloody conflict which characterised
the Gukurahundi era was a national
disaster which he, however, used as an
opportunity to cow Nkomo and
eventually emerge as the country’s unchallenged
leader.
The Unity Accord which followed in 1987 completely eliminated any
opposition
to Mugabe, turning Zimbabwe into a one-party state, which was
favourable to
him.
But the birth of MDC in 1999 created headaches for
the Zanu PF leader.
However, as a master of chaos, he instigated and
promoted farm invasions
under the pretext of land reform which he had
ignored for more than 20
years.
The chaos which followed saw the
tables turning and the revival of his
waning political
fortunes.
While the country endured successive years of economic decline
directly
linked to the chaotic land reform, he remained politically relevant
as a
purported champion of black empowerment.
In 2008, Tsvangirai
clearly defeated Mugabe in the first round of elections.
Mugabe, however,
created chaos by using violence and intimidation. This led
to a run-off
which was a sham of an election.
He was then forced to enter into a unity
government with Tsvangirai due to
widespread condemnation of the way he was
re-elected.
In the end, he emerged victorious by retaining all the
executive powers
while Tsvangirai was condemned to a ceremonial post of
prime minister.
Mugabe’s use of chaos won the day again.
While Mugabe
has failed to force the other coalition parties into early
elections despite
his insistence since 2010, he finally got a boost from the
Constitutional
Court (Concourt) which ruled that elections must be held by
July
31.
That ruling was in response to a legal challenge launched by a
suspected
Mugabe sympathiser, Jealousy Mawarire. The judgment brought the
much-needed
relief and an opportunity for Mugabe to once again use the
ensuing chaos to
his party’s advantage.
But why is Mugabe rushing?
The first reason is that Mugabe is old. He can no
longer withstand the
rigours of a long campaign period. A short campaign
period will not expose
his frailties to the general public who are
increasingly becoming more
sceptical about his age, health and his ability
to be an effective
president. His party does not have an alternative
candidate. If his health
fails him, Zanu PF is doomed.
Secondly, the possibility of a united front
against his party has sent
shockwaves into Zanu PF. The recent press
conference in which opposition
political leaders appeared together must have
ruffled Mugabe’s feathers. In
response, Mugabe is rushing elections to make
sure Tsvangirai and the other
opposition leaders have no time to
strategically unite.
Lastly, Mugabe and his party associates know that
they will never win if
elections are free and fair. The only option is
therefore to resort to their
old tactic of utilising chaos to their
advantage. The likely result will be
a disputed poll which is likely to lead
to another coalition government.
That will keep Zanu PF politically
relevant, hoping that an alternative,
strong and consensus candidate will
emerge in the future.
While I sympathise with Tsvangirai’s frustrations
regarding Mugabe’s
unilateral proclamation, it is however, sad to note that
he is playing into
Mugabe’s hands. Mugabe and his Zanu PF want Tsvangirai
and his party to
participate under protest or at the very least, refuse to
participate.
That will confuse Tsvangirai supporters who will be left
wondering whether
to participate in voting or not. Such a scenario will be
detrimental to the
MDC parties, but an advantage to Zanu PF.
In
addition, Tsvangirai’s approach of launching a court challenge is both
futile and a waste of time. While it may be a good way of playing to the
political gallery, the challenge is sure to fail considering the bench is
packed with Mugabe sympathisers who have issued the order for July 31
elections in the first place. One would be unreasonable and naïve to expect
the same court to reverse its own decision given the history of our
judiciary.
So how should Tsvangirai and the other opposition leaders
respond? The
answer is simple. They should participate in the elections.
Tsvangirai’s
efforts to engage and include Sadc in the chaos are welcome,
but not a
solution.
The MDC parties should know that Sadc came in to
help put out a fire on a
neighbour’s house, but not take over the home.
While the house is burnt, the
home still has its rules which must be
followed by family members. Some of
the rules may not be fair, but must be
challenged from within the home.
Running to neighbours for help each time
there is a problem in the home may
be a sign of lack of
leadership.
Tsvangirai and the other opposition leaders must work within
the legal
framework created by the unfortunate and misdirected court
ruling.
Instead of wasting time flying from one Sadc country to the next,
Tsvangirai
should concentrate on launching an extensive and comprehensive
political
campaign, outlining the vision of his party and reminding voters
to vote en
masse to thwart any possible rigging which was alleged in
previous
elections.
But who should be on the MDC-T presidential
ticket? There is no doubt that
Tsvangirai is the main force behind his
party. His persona has appealed to
the generality of Zimbabweans and
endeared him to voters and party
loyalists.
However, the same cannot
be said of his deputy, Thokozani Khupe. While the
Tsvangirai-Khupe ticket
could have generated some enthusiasm in 2008, the
situation has since
changed and calls for strategic alliances with other
possible candidates. In
politics there are no permanent friends, neither are
there permanent
enemies, but only permanent interests.
In that regard, Tsvangirai’s MDC-T
should immediately extend an olive branch
to MDC leader Welshman Ncube,
Mavambo/ Kusile/ Dawn leader Simba Makoni and
Zapu chief Dumiso Dabengwa and
propose a coalition with them.
While it would have been desirable to have
a woman as a vice-presidential
candidate, unfortunately, the situation at
hand calls for unity with other
political leaders who happen to be men. The
MDC parties can reserve the
Speaker of Parliament position for a woman
should they win the elections.
Ncube should be invited to stand as the first
vice-presidential candidate.
If the rift between Tsvangirai and Ncube is
too wide to close, Dabengwa
should be an alternative. Either way, Dabengwa
or Ncube should stand with
Tsvangirai.
Makoni would have been ideal,
but he is ruled out by local tribal politics
which are difficult to ignore.
He should nonetheless be invited to
participate as the second presidential
candidate.
The forthcoming elections are crucial and an acid test for the
political
leadership of the country. The idea of not participating is not an
option.
Mugabe has the legal backing he needed. Tsvangirai and his MDC
colleagues
should not leave Zanu PF to occupy the political space which came
as a
result of people’s decade-long suffering.
If Tsvangirai insists
on boycotting elections, it may be time for
Zimbabweans to start thinking of
looking at other alternative leaders. The
journey has been long and we hope
Tsvangirai and his advisors will not be
out-manoeuvred by Mugabe and his
Zanu PF again.
Nkiwane can be contacted on nkiwanejacob@yahoo.com
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
MORE details about
the dramatic events at the extraordinary Sadc summit on
Zimbabwe in Maputo,
Mozambique, last Saturday where President Robert Mugabe
was outmanoeuvred
and humiliated by his coalition government partners and
regional leaders
have emerged.
Report by Owen Gagare
Sources who attended the
summit said Mugabe was routed after Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC
leader Welshman Ncube, who joined forces, honed a
strategically shrewd
approach than his despite that he had lobbied Sadc
chairman, Mozambican
President Armando Guebuza and Namibian President
Hifikepunye Pohamba for
support before the meeting.
Mugabe arrived in Maputo on Friday evening
and met Guebuza at his villa
where he presented his case. On Saturday
morning he had a long meeting with
Pohamba, resulting in the summit
scheduled to start at 10am only beginning
around midday.
Namibian
Foreign minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndatwah called ICT minister Nelson
Chamisa
accidentally thinking he was her counterpart Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
before
the meeting.
Guebuza opened the meeting and gave the floor to South
African President
Jacob Zuma, Sadc appointed facilitator on
Zimbabwe.
Zuma began by reminding regional leaders the summit had been
called to
assess developments in Zimbabwe in the context of the Global
Political
Agreement (GPA) and agreements reached between the three coalition
government parties, effectively repudiating Mugabe’s earlier claims it was
convened to discuss elections funding.
He spoke about the need for
credible elections in an environment “free of
intimidation and violence” to
ensure the outcome is undisputed.
Zuma then informed regional leaders
that the Constitutional Court (Concourt)
of Zimbabwe had on May 31 ruled
general elections be held by July 31.
He told them Mugabe on June 13 had
issued a proclamation fixing July 31 as
the date for elections and June 28
nomination of candidates. Mugabe, Zuma
said, had invoked the Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to bypass
parliament to comply with the
Concourt ruling.
Zuma also told Sadc leaders he had received a letter
from five political
parties, including the MDC formations, which listed a
number of provisions
of the new constitution that need to be brought into
operation to ensure
elections are free and fair.
The parties
expressed concern at the practicality of the July 31 deadline.
He then
challenged regional leaders to take a position that would bring the
parties
together in order to minimise tensions, while carving a realistic
elections
roadmap.
Zuma also dealt with previous Sadc resolutions and made
recommendations
eventually incorporated into the communique.
Mugabe
then took to the floor after Zuma and gave a historical narrative on
Zimbabwe before coming into current issues, trying to justify hostile
political statements by security service chiefs and also claiming he was a
victim of hate speech by the media. Mugabe said Zimbabwe was ready for
elections given the prevailing peace and stability.
He also said some
people in the inclusive government were against polls as
they were not
elected in the first place. After Mugabe, Tsvangirai took to
the podium and
thanked the regional leaders for standing firm on Zimbabwe.
He complained
about unilateral decisions made by Mugabe in the last four
years, in
particular the elections date proclamation and amendments to the
Electoral
Act which he said were unconstitutional.
He urged Sadc leaders to recall
their pervious resolutions and insist on
their implementation. After dealing
with the political environment issues,
Ncube was then given the stage to
make a presentation dealing with legal
issues. He systematically tore apart
Mugabe’s case through structured legal
arguments, showing how the president
had acted unconstitutionally and
illegally using powers of decree.
As
emotions ran high, Botswana President Ian Khama proposed a lunch break.
Mugabe was reportedly looking visibly ruffled. After the break Khama was
given the floor and said he had listened to all the presentations and would
make some remarks. He said he had sought the opinion of his Attorney-General
on the Concourt ruling but would not delve into legal matters.
He
then tore into Mugabe’s presentation, mainly on security forces,
wondering
why 33 years after the liberation struggle people were still
talking about
the “bush war” instead of focusing on problems affecting the
people such as
service delivery, unemployment, disease and poverty.
Khama moved a motion
to adopt Zuma’s report as was. Guebuza then hit the
table to indicate the
adoption of the motion and Mugabe jokingly said: “that’s
violent Mr
chairman!”
To everyone’s surprise, Zambian Vice- President Guy Scott said
Zuma’s report
was very good. Scott has previously said South Africans are
“backward” and
equated Zuma to South Africa’s apartheid leader FW De Klerk.
He also
questioned Zuma’s handling of Zimbabwe’s political issues, saying he
must
leave them to Zambia.
Scott then suggested Zambia was concerned
about the fate of the UNWTO
general assembly given what is happening in
Zimbabwe, indicating it could be
moved to Botswana or South
Africa.
Pohamba spoke after Scott, asking how Sadc was going to proceed
given that
Tsvangirai had indicated he would challenge Mugabe’s proclamation
and
amendments in court.
In reply, Tsvangirai said he had not made a
court application, which
actually failed by accident after the premier left
with some signed copies,
but merely indicated he wanted to do
so.
Guebuza then asked if Mugabe had anything to say and he noted that he
had no
problem approaching the Concourt to seek an extension as suggested by
Zuma,
Tsvangirai and Ncube.
Guebuza hit the table again indicating
Zuma’s report was unanimously
adopted, amid another face-saving joke by
Mugabe who said “That’s very
violent Mr chairman!” Sadc executive secretary
Tomaz Salomao took over to
guide the process of drafting the
communique.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
INDIGENISATION minister Saviour
Kasukuwere yesterday told parliament that
any person who operates a business
without a valid Indigenisation Compliance
Certificate risks imprisonment of
up to four months with effect from January
1, 2014, according to the newly
gazetted Statutory Instrument 66 of 2013.
Staff Writer
The new
regulations come into effect at a time many companies in the
finance,
agriculture, tourism and retail sectors have not complied with the
51%
indigenisation policy that was implemented in 2010.
Kasukuwere told the
thematic committee on Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment chaired by
Gokwe North senator Tariro Mtingwende that the new
regulations will affect
every business starting from January next year in
all sectors of the economy
reserved for indigenous Zimbabweans under Third
schedule of the
regulations.
Kasukuwere said: “Any person who operates a business
referred to above
without an indigenisation compliance certificate with
effect from January I
2014 shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a
fine not exceeding Level
Four or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding
three months or both.”
Kasukuwere singled out two foreign multinational
companies he said were
defying complying with indigenisation
regulations.“Tongaat Hullett and
Standard Chartered Bank Zimbabwe have
displayed a non-cooperative attitude,”
he said.
Kasukuwere further
revealed that compliance by some companies has been
delayed by the issuance
of new sector specific regulations. “Gazetting of
specific general notices
changed the timeframes and thresholds for
compliance previously prescribed
in general regulations and some have new
compliance periods ranging from
2012 to 2015 depending on the relevant
sector and threshold,” he said.He
applauded BAT Zimbabwe, Lafarge, Schweppes
Zimbabwe Ltd, Portland Cement and
Old Mutual for complying.
These companies created employee ownership
schemes, disposed of shares to
the National Indigenisation Economic
Empowerment Fund and provided funding
for youths empowerment
trusts.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has
sourced about 50 graders, excavators and cranes
that will be handed over to
chiefs and provincial governors today in Harare
as he steps up his party’s
campaign ahead of crucial elections.
Report by Brian
Chitemba
Traditional leaders will in turn pressuretheir subjects into
voting for Zanu
PF.
Mugabe announced during the party’s Wednesday
politburo meeting that he
would unveil the equipment today at the open space
close to the Zimbabwe
Agricultural Society showgrounds – the same venue
where the 89 year-old
launched the anti-sanctions campaign in March
2011.
The Zimbabwe Independent yesterday witnessed government officials
making
last minute preparations for the ceremony which is expected to be
attended
by cabinet ministers, politburo members, Zanu PF supporters, chiefs
and
provincial governors.
Politburo members and governors, who were
in the capital earlier for the
politburo meeting this week, extended their
stay for the handover ceremony.
Sources said Mugabe was confident that
dishing out the graders, excavators
and cranes for use in rehabilitating
rural roads and maintenance of street
lamps in urban areas will boost the
party’s support ahead of elections.
In rural areas, chiefs will oversee
the use of the graders and excavators
which will be used for dam
construction.
“It’s part of Mugabe’s electioneering because he is
optimistic he will win
if he is seen to be doing something for the
electorate,” said a senior Zanu
PF official yesterday.
The equipment
was sourced from the Chinese multinational heavy machinery
manufacturing
firm – Sany Heavy Industry Ltd (Sany) although the value of
the machinery is
still shrouded in secrecy.
Mugabe is well-known for using farming inputs
and implements to drum up
support ahead of elections dating back to 2008
when Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono parcelled out farm equipment under
the farm mechanisation
programme.
Mugabe launched the controversial
US$20 million Presidential farming inputs
scheme last year that exclusively
benefitted Zanu PF supporters. It later
emerged that Mugabe received the
money from Equatorial Guinea President
Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo.
Zanu PF also sourced 550 vehicles valued at about US$14 million,
some of
which were donated by Meikles chief John Moxon.
The party has
revealed at its last three annual conferences that it was
broke despite
fears it had built a war chest for elections from Marange
diamond
revenues.
Since introduction of the multi-currency regime in 2009, Zanu
PF has been
relying on an overdraft facility with a local bank which
amounted to US$5
million in February 2012.
The funding was converted
into a loan of US$4,5 million and a US$500 000
overdraft which attracts an
11% interest per annum, resulting in an
unsustainable repayment obligation
of US$125 000 per month.
Its total expenditure for 2012 was US$7,9
million, with a huge chunk going
towards staff salaries (US$2,4 million),
Gweru conference (US$2,6 million)
and loan repayment and establishment fees
(US$1,7 million).
The party heavily relies on donations — which amounted
to US$2,6 million in
2012 — to fund its activities.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
GOVERNMENT principals
and party political leaders are sweating over attempts
to disentangle the
nation from the knotty electoral processes web and clean
the mess left by
President Robert Mugabe’s unconstitutional actions in
proclaiming a disputed
election date and amending the law by decree as part
of efforts to map the
way forward in the aftermath of last weekend’s crucial
Maputo Sadc
summit.
Report by Paidamoyo Muzulu
Throughout the week, Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara and
Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube
have been battling to crack
the conundrum of how to vary the Constitutional
Court (Concourt) order
directing that elections be held by July 31 and
reverse the president’s
illegal amendments to the Electoral Act.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai, Mutambara
and Ncube are meeting again today in order to
resolve whether to file
another Concourt application to replace the one
lodged by Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa on Tuesday after complaints,
from the two MDC coalition
government partners with Zanu PF, that it was
badly drafted.
The
principals will also need to find a way of dealing with Mugabe’s
arbitrary
changes to the electoral law by emergency powers to allow
parliament to do
that after they came out deadlocked on the issue on
Wednesday.
This
comes as Sadc diplomatic sources said yesterday regional leaders are
pushing
to ensure the volatile situation is resolved to avoid Zimbabwe
plunging into
a new crisis triggered by disputed elections.
As a result, Sadc-appointed
facilitator on the Zimbabwe situation, South
African President Jacob Zuma’s
facilitation team is expected in the country
any time from now to check on
progress after the Maputo resolutions which
demanded a review of the
Concourt ruling and reversal of Mugabe’s electoral
amendments.
Yesterday the Concourt ruled Chinamasa’s contested
application seeking a
two-week extension to its order for polls by July 31
to allow elections to
be held at least by August 14 as advised by the Sadc
summit.
Tsvangirai’s lawyer Chris Mhike confirmed the court ruled that
the matter
was urgent and a full Concourt bench will hear the case next
week.
“The matter has been referred to a full bench and would be heard
sometime
next week,” said Mhike. “The exact date and time of the hearing
would be
announced by the registrar of the Supreme Court in due
course.”
Mhike said there were no arguments as to the urgency of the
matter although
Tsvangirai expressed grave concerns to the court about the
manner in which
Chinamasa unilaterally brought the application before it
when he knew it
should have been done by consensus from the inclusive
government.
The principals’ meetings on Wednesday and today after cabinet
deliberations
on Tuesday came hot on the heels of the Sadc summit’s
recommendations last
weekend that directed them to return to the Concourt to
seek more time to
implement reforms before holding polls.
“(The Sadc)
summit acknowledged the ruling of the Constitutional Court of
Zimbabwe on
the elections date and agreed on the need for the government of
Zimbabwe to
engage the Constitutional Court to seek more time beyond July 31
2013
deadline for holding the harmonised elections,” Sadc’s Maputo
communiqué
said.
The Concourt is currently flooded with election-related
applications
following its controversial judgment on the Jealousy Mawarire
case that
resulted in the July 31 poll date.
However, time is running
out for the July 31 elections deadline as
proclaimed by Mugabe last week.
Zanu PF is also racing against time as it
prepares to hold primaries on
Monday ahead of the sitting of the Nomination
Court on June 28, which is
deemed illegal by the MDC parties and their
lawyers.
Zanu PF’s
politburo met on Wednesday to finalise primary elections
candidates’ list,
although the central committee failed to meet as expected
yesterday to deal
with the issue.
Tsvangirai and Ncube met leaders of the other political
parties outside the
coalition government on Tuesday to brief them and their
constituencies about
Sadc’s Maputo summit outcome.
The Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) also met on Monday
to deal
with election-related issues in a week dominated by elections
discussions in
private and public spheres.
Sadc also recommended that three Sadc
representatives should join Jomic
immediately and attend all its meetings as
part of their task to monitor
implementation of agreed reforms as Zimbabwe
moves towards elections, among
other issues including media and security
reforms.
The country remains on the brink as coalition partners continue
to haggle
over reforms and processes leading to general elections ahead of
the expiry
of parliament’s five-year term next weekend.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
AS
Zimbabwe marches towards general elections, political issues continue to
dominate public debate at the expense of other critical matters,
particularly social service delivery which has been relegated to the
backburner while citizens suffer the consequences.
Report by Herbert
Moyo
A research paper done by the United Kingdom Department for
International
Development on approaches to improving the delivery of social
services in
difficult environments shows there are various types of
situations within
which states try to fulfil the needs of
citizens.
These include environments in which there is political will,
but weak
capacity to deliver. In this situation, states may be challenged in
their
mobilisation of resources for service delivery due to any or several
of the
following: lack of basic fiscal and monetary building blocks;
challenges to
the state’s ability to create and maintain institutions and
the presence of
unstable or weak but legitimate institutions with a
commitment to service
delivery.
However, despite these weaknesses,
such states are considered responsive to
service delivery. Malawi and Zambia
could be seen as examples of high
willingness, but low capacity.
Some
countries emerging from conflict may be a subset of this category where
the
international community seeks to support and strengthen nascent
governments.
Examples include Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Democratic
Republic of Congo
(although in some cases, the legitimacy of the governments
remain contested,
which affects the way in which the international community
can
engage).
There are governments which have low political will, but
potentially high
capacity to deliver.
In this type are states that
may be strong in terms of administrative
capacity and institutional
presence, but they are unresponsive to the needs
of the poor, either because
of politics, as in the case of Zimbabwe and
possibly Nigeria, for instance,
or because a real or perceived external
threat diverts the use of resources
for other aims that do not tackle
service delivery and poverty reduction as
in North Korea.
There are also cases of low political will and low
capacity to deliver. This
type of state may suffer from lack of
international recognition or a
contested territory, limited administrative
capacity for policy development
and implementation, and is seen as
unresponsive to the needs of certain
groups, including the
poor.
Southern Sudan, Somalia, and possibly Nepal are often considered as
cases in
point. Infrastructure has been destroyed, there is mass
displacement of
people, levels of insecurity are high and the government is
contested, thus
little or no service delivery.
There are also states
with strong political will and capacity to deliver.
These states have strong
state presence and territory control, some degree
of competence in fiscal
and monetary policy or a strong administrative
capacity and public
institutions that are fairly committed to development.
They are good
partners for poverty reduction, but may have structural risk
factors for
state weakness that warrant specific attention.
The research identified
Zimbabwe as a state with potentially high capacity
to deliver social
services, but low political will.
As a result of the preponderance of
politics, debate in Zimbabwe has of late
largely focused on political
reforms that have to be implemented before
elections to the detriment of
other equally important issues that impact on
service delivery and general
improvement of ordinary people’s lives.
While politicians haggle over
elections, parties and their leaders spend so
much time, energy and
resources to ensure these political reforms, but no
one is talking about
service delivery.
No attention is being paid at improving service
delivery in sectors such as
health, education, housing, water and sanitation
as well as job-creation
which would uplift the lives of millions of ordinary
Zimbabweans who have
been hardest hit by the economic meltdown and political
crisis mainly
between 2000 and 2009.
As a result, ordinary people
continue to wallow in poverty and poor service
delivery, with unemployment
remaining well over 80%, according to many
credible estimates.
Not
surprisingly, the media has been awash with stories of human suffering
ranging from the plight of Ziscosteel workers in Redcliff, who have gone for
years unpaid, to urban residents in Harare and Bulawayo who go for months
without water or electricity.
While there have been considerable
improvements in the education sector,
which was at a virtual standstill in
2008 with teacher strikes, unmarked
examination papers and shortages of
textbooks, the same cannot be said of
other sectors of social service
delivery and the economy.
As reported in this paper last month,
Ziscosteel workers’ poverty and misery
is fuelled by the continued closure
of the steel-making plant despite the
fact that the cash-strapped government
found an investor in Essar from India
which agreed to pump US$750 million
into the company.
However, the deal has not been consummated due to
haggling over iron ore
deposits and the shareholding structure of New Zim
Minerals, formerly Buchwa
Iron Ore Mining Company, a subsidiary of
Ziscosteel.
Politicians occasionally mention service
delivery.
Addressing the MDC-T Midlands north provincial leadership at
Torwood Hall in
Kwekwe recently, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the
coalition
government had put the people first by responding to the issues of
education, health and water.
“If one takes a balance sheet, one will
see that the MDC in government
addressed a lot of critical issues that were
bedevilling the nation, and it
managed to bring about positive changes such
as food on the table, good
health delivery, improvement in education and
commitment in stabilising the
economy though other social indicators that
have been negative,” he said.
Tsvangirai’s claims would fail to find
takers among the struggling poor.
According to Habakkuk Trust executive
director Dumisani Nkomo, “people are
still sleeping on floors in Zimbabwe’s
main referral hospitals in addition
to being required to bring their own
medication and bed linen”.
“This is what happens when politicians just
make pronouncements in the media
without dealing with the real issues,” said
Nkomo. “You cannot just say
services will be provided for free as some of
them claim without working out
who will pay for the costs. If patients are
going to access free services at
hospitals, then the costs must be absorbed
by either government or donors,
but clearly in this case, there is no one
absorbing the costs, hence the
failure to implement what has been
promised.”
While political reforms to facilitate credible elections
continue to take
centre-stage, there is still no end in sight to the water
woes in Bulawayo
and Harare, among other cities.
Writing in a recent
book titled Zimbabwe: Mired in Transition, Norbert
Musekiwa makes an
interesting observation that following the 2008 elections,
the results of
local council elections were largely unchallenged by all the
parties,
implying councils are currently governed by representatives that
were
democratically elected.
“Accordingly, local authorities should provide spaces
that nurture
democratic transition,” wrote Musekiwa.
But instead of
doing that and providing essential services, they have become
a haven of
corruption and self-aggrandisement.
Political commentator Takura
Zhangazha said there was no “grand national
vision” that speaks to the needs
of the people.
“There seems to be no particular persuasive belief in
ideas,” said
Zhangazha. “For all their statements, conferences or rallies,
the leaders of
political parties, including those that are not in the
inclusive government,
have failed to raise the national discourse to
organically and
democratically engage levels on issues affecting the lives
of our citizens.”
The Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association, which
has dedicated itself
to championing the rights of ordinary people in the
face of exploitation by
government and big businesses, said there is lack of
transparency in
government’s activities and hence no accountability in
resource exploitation
and service delivery from resultant state
revenues.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
THE three-year
investigation by the parliamentary portfolio committee on
Mines and Energy
on the diamond mining industry in Zimbabwe has unearthed
shocking
revelations with Mines minister Obert Mpofu, conceding the industry
is run
like “a mafia” globally.
Elias Mambo/Herbert Moyo
The report of
the findings presented in parliament last Wednesday has opened
a can of
worms with disclosures of irregularities that have dogged the
industry since
the discovery of diamonds in Chiadzwa.
According to the report, during
one of its committee meetings, Mpofu
“conceded that globally, the diamond
industry is run like a mafia, with very
few ‘clean’
individuals”.
“Since the inception of formalised mining in Chiadzwa, the
committee
observed that the sector has been dogged by issues of transparency
and
accountability in the production, marketing, fiscal contributions and
general administration,” reads part of the report.
The report
highlights alleged abuse of office by Mpofu, militarisation of
the Marange
diamond fields, leakages of diamonds and fraudulent partnering
processes as
some of the problems bedevilling the sector.
“A lot of land in Chiadzwa
is still under the protection of the army and
inadequate studies have been
conducted to ascertain the presence of the
diamonds. The committee observed
that de-militarisation of Chiadzwa is going
to take a long time and it was
important that it is done in phases so as to
reduce any negative perceptions
about Chiadzwa,” states the report.
Subsequent investigations by local
and international watchdogs have often
raised concerns about the army’s
complicity in the plunder of diamonds as
well as human rights violations —
charges which the Zanu PF side of
government has denied on several
occasions.
The army involvement in Chiadzwa has for years been raised as
a major area
of concern, so much so that the demilitarisation of the diamond
fields was
listed as a key requirement before the country was allowed to
resume
international trade.
The committee also exposed how the board
members were unilaterally appointed
by Mpofu.
Mpofu is cited as
having acted outside his mandate and unilaterally
appointed the board of
directors of the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC), a move
which has seen the state enterprise being manned
by individuals with a
conflict of interest.
Obey Chimuka, Ashton Ndlovu and Cougan Matanhire,
for instance, are some of
the appointees who are listed in the report as
having a conflict of
interest.
“Chimuka used to be a board member of
Marange Resources and yet he owned a
company which traded in diamonds.
Matanhire was a board member of Canadile
Miners and yet he had links with
Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe
(MMCZ), while the chairman of
Mbada Diamonds was listed in the due diligence
report of ZMDC as a
shareholder of Liparm, which is part of Reclaim Group,
but later crosses the
floor, from being on the side of the investor to
represent the interests of
government,” the report states.
However, the committee observed that if
the ZMDC board had been allowed to
perform its legal mandate, such kinds of
conflicts may have been avoided.
The investigations also opened a
Pandora’s Box on how companies to partner
ZMDC were chosen without cabinet
endorsement.
“The committee observed with dismay that the (Mines)
minister and his
officials did not want to disclose who selected the joint
venture partners,
Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners.
“They created
the impression that the selection process was done by an
unknown person or
body and this is clearly unacceptable,” reads the report.
“The selection
of Reclaim and Core Mining to enter into joint venture
partnerships with
ZMDC was not done in accordance with any known precedents,
procedures or
with reference to any legislation in the country.”
Also exposed was how
the former ZMDC board chairperson, Gloria Mawarire,
tried to mislead the
committee into believing that the choice of the two
investors was made
through a cabinet decision.
The report also states that “the failure to
get information on the process
used to select the two initial investors was
highly frustrating and could
not motivate the committee to seek further
information on how the rest of
the other investors, namely, Anjin and
Diamond Mining Company were selected
or how future investors would be
selected.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
THE Ministry
of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs has blamed
insufficient funding
from Treasury for its failure to complete
investigations into the abuse of
Constituency Development Funds (CDF) by
legislators from Zanu PF and the two
MDC formations.
Report by Herbert Moyo
In an interview with the
Zimbabwe Independent on Wednesday, the ministry’s
permanent secretary,
Virginia Mabhiza, refuted claims by MDC-T spokesperson
Douglas Mwonzora that
MPs from his party are innocent.
“We had hoped to finish the audits of
all constituencies, but the problem we
are experiencing is that we have not
been getting sufficient funding from
Treasury,” said Mabhiza.
Mabhiza
indicated earlier this year that her ministry required US$120 000 to
complete the audits.
She said Mwonzora’s claims that his party had
not abused the CDF were
misplaced as investigations had so far revealed “20
extreme cases where
legislators from all political parties had completely
failed to account for
the funds they had received from
Treasury”.
“Let him speak just for himself and not for everyone in his
party because
our investigations have shown that there are rotten apples in
all the
parties,” said Mabhiza.
Mwonzora told this paper last week
that his party had carried out its own
investigations which cleared all its
legislators of any wrong-doing.
“We have not found any evidence of abuse
of the CDF although we noted that
some legislators simply failed to follow
the proper procedures on their
return forms,” said Mwonzora.
“If
anything, the (Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs) ministry should
shoulder the blame for failing to train the MPs on correct accounting
procedures.”
However, Mabhiza said her ministry had done its part
through the provision
of basic training procedures to assist the MPs and
their personal
assistants.
The CDF was introduced to assist MPs fund
development projects in their
constituencies. Last year, each legislator was
allocated US$50 000 under the
fund.
The fund has, however, created
controversy after some MPs failed to account
for their allocations, forcing
the ministry to conduct an audit.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
CONSTITUTIONAL and
Parliamentary Affairs minister, Eric Matinenga, has
revealed that he
contemplated resigning from the coalition government twice
over issues
related to his ministerial mandate and “unacceptable” politics
inside his
MDC-T party.
Report by Paidamoyo Muzulu
Matinenga will quit active
politics when the coalition government’s term
comes to an end making him the
first minister to resign from politics after
serving just one-term in
office.
Matinenga said he was dissuaded from resigning by his wife who
argued that
he had a national duty to serve until the end of his term
despite his
misgivings.
“I am disappointed but I don’t regret it,”
Matinenga said. “There were two
occasions when I decided to resign. The
first was in the early stages of the
coalition government and the second was
much later. However, on both
occasions I had a serious discussion with my
wife who advised me to just
hang in there.”
He added: “One of the
reasons was in relation to my mandate as a minister
and the second was the
unacceptable politics in my party (MDC-T).”
He, however, refused to shed
more details saying he could only do that once
he was out of government
after the next polls widely expected in August.
Matinenga said he will
return to law practice at the Advocates’ Chambers and
dismissed the
perception that politics pays saying he is leaving a poorer
man.
“For
the first time I had to enter into a payment plan for my son’s fees at
Peterhouse. I then went on to borrow US$50 000 from local banks for him to
study drama at a United States university,” Matinenga said.
He also
revealed that he had to sell three of his personal vehicles two
double
pick-up trucks and a Fiat UNO to raise funds for his family’s upkeep
as he
spent a lot of time in court soon after the 2008 polls.
Matinenga was
arrested on May 31, 2008 on allegations of inciting public
violence and
released on June 5, 2008 following a successful application to
have his
arrest and detention declared unlawful.
However, barely 48 hours later,
Matinenga was re-arrested on June 7 on the
same charges. He was eventually
acquitted in May 2009.
Matinenga said most politicians get into politics
without a clear plan of
what they want to achieve.
“I don’t think
people make plans; they just muddle through. We need to
introduce a clear
succession plan in our politics and constituencies.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in
News
SOME MPs, chiefs and civil servants are taking advantage of the
ongoing
30-day mandatory mobile voter registration exercise to make a quick
buck by
hiring out their vehicles for US$75 per day.
Report by Brian
Chitemba
This is despite the fact that many of the vehicles are likely to
develop
various faults given the poor state of the country’s roads and
rugged
terrain.
The mobile voter registration started on June 10 and
is expected to end on
July 9, after which those who hired out their vehicles
will be paid US$2
250. According to sources at the Central Mechanical
Equipment Department
(CMED), there was a stampede at the parastatal’s depots
countrywide as
scores of legislators, government workers and individuals
scrambled to
ensure their vehicles were hired.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec), which received US$20 million from
Treasury for the
exercise, will pay for use of the vehicles hired through
CMED.
“A lot
of people, including top government officials, jostled to hire out
their
trucks because they will make a quick buck in just 30 days given that
most
workers earn less than US$500 per month,” said a CMED official.
“We had
to do it on a first-come-first-serve basis given that some wanted to
muscle
their way to register their vehicles for the voter registration.”
The
official added that payment will only be made after the registration
exercise ends next month.
MPs and chiefs have been hiring out their
vehicles for government exercises.
During the constitution-making
process, legislators and traditional leaders
also made a killing after Copac
paid US$80 a day and 40 cents per kilometre
per vehicle. The outreach lasted
85 days.
Some MPs then were accused of hiring out vehicles loaned to them
by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe under a vehicle ownership scheme.The cars
were
later withdrawn from the exercise by CMED.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in
News
FINANCE minister Tendai Biti told parliament on Wednesday that
Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede was frustrating the 30-day intensive voter
registration despite Treasury releasing US$20 million for the exercise set
to end on July 9.
Hazel Ndebele/ Paidamoyo Muzulu
Biti was
responding to a question from Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya of the
MDC-T who
wanted to know why the voter registration process faced problems
after
Treasury had released funds for the project.
“There should be a 30-day
voter registration in every ward after we raised
the money by hook and crook
to fund this exercise,” Biti said. “What
disturbs us is we are reading in
the papers that the Registrar-General
Tobaiwa Mudede is not carrying out his
duties as agreed by cabinet.
“It is unfortunate that I don’t have powers
to supervise Mudede in his
duties except that I should only raise money as
the minister responsible for
state programmes.”
Voter registration
remains one of the sticking political issues among the
coalition government
partners as the country readies itself for
make-or-break elections which are
now likely to be held in August.
Voter registration has been chaotic
countrywide with many potential voters
failing to register since the
exercise started last week.
Hundreds of people have been turned away for
various reasons, particularly
for having insufficient particulars, such as
birth certificates, identity
documents and proof of residence, which are
required to register.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson
Justice Rita Makarau conceded
that the mobile voter registration exercise
was riddled with problems but
promised that they would be addressed as the
exercise progresses.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in News
A HIGH-POWERED United
Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) technical
team is expected in
Victoria Falls next week for final inspection of
preparations ahead of the
general assembly to be co-hosted by Zimbabwe and
Zambia in
August.
Report by Taurai Mangudhla
The team will assess the two
countries’ preparedness exactly eight weeks
before the general assembly
kicks off in the resort towns of Victoria Falls
and Livingstone from August
24 to 29.
Tourism minister Walter Mzembi said the four-member team will
be led by
UNWTO relations and services executive director Zoltan
Somogyi.
Mzembi said the visit has no bearing on the two nations’ status
as co-hosts,
as they were officially endorsed as the official co-hosts by
the executive
council of the UNWTO at its 95th executive council meeting in
Serbia last
month.
“This is the final technical visit before the
general assembly takes place
and I must clarify that no inspection will take
place,” Mzembi said.
But according to a programme for the visit, the team
will inspect the
venues, meeting rooms and offices in both countries.
If
elections are held on August 14 in Zimbabwe as is being proposed after
the
Sadc summit in Maputo, the UNWTO conference will be held 10 days after
the
polls.
“The general assembly is already ours and that won’t change, but
the visit
is just to fine-tune,” said Mzembi.
Zambia’s Tourism
minister Sylvia Masebo said the elections will not affect
the successful
hosting of the conference because the planning has already
been
done.
The technical team’s visit comes as government is yet to release
money to
fund preparations amid reports that Botswana and South Africa are
now on
stand-by if Zimbabwe and Zambia fail to pull it off.
But
Mzembi said his ministry has received tremendous support from the
private
sector.
Zimbabwe requires about US$11 million for the event.
A
visit to the site of the opening ceremony will be carried out on the
Zimbabwean side, while another would be made to the site of the closing
ceremony on the Zambian side.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in
Business
ECONOMIC experts have predicted a further decline in Zimbabwe’s
inflation
rate as the country’s economy slows down and local prices track
the
declining value of the South African rand, resulting in generally
decreasing
local prices.
CLIVE MPHAMBELA
Latest inflation
figures released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency
(Zimstat) show
that the year-on-year inflation rate (annual percentage
change) for the
month of May 2013 as measured by the all items Consumer
Price Index (CPI)
dipped 0,29 to 2,20% from the April 2013 rate of 2,49%.
However, while
prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an
average of 2,20
percentage points between May 2012 and May 2013, the
month-on -month
statistics show that prices are actually falling.
The month-on-month
inflation rate in May 2013 was -0,21% which was 0,14%
lower than the April
2013 rate of -0,07%.
According to Zimstat, this implies that prices as
measured by the all items
CPI decreased at an average rate of 0,21% from
April 2013 to May 2013.
The month-on-month inflation rate is given by the
percentage change in the
index of the relevant month of the current year
compared to the index of the
previous month in the current year.
The
month-on-month food and non alcoholic beverages inflation stood
at -0,28% in
May 2013, shedding 0,16 percentage points on the April 2013
rate of 0,44%.
The month-on-month non-food inflation stood at -0,17%,
shedding 0,32% on the
April 2013 rate of 0,11%.
The CPI for the month ending May 2013 stood at
100,94 compared to 101,15 in
April 2013 and 98,77 in May
2012.
Zimbabwe’s inflation rate has continued to trend downwards in the
last year
with the benchmark CPI remaining on a sustained downward trend.
Latest
figures for May show that annual inflation has slowed further to 2,2%
from
2,9% in Feb, 2,76% in March and 2,41% in April.
Invictus Capital
Zimbabwe MD, Ritesh Anand, told businessdigest that the
sharp decline in
economic activity was due to the biting liquidity pressures
on the economy
which was also contributing to the slowdown in inflation.
“It is
difficult to estimate the extent of the slowdown but most corporates
are
experiencing a sharp decline in sales revenues for the first half of the
year. The lack of liquidity is expected to get worse as we head towards
elections leading to a further decline in economic activity which is likely
to drive inflation lower. This is reflected in the significant decline in
bank deposits from US$4,4 billion to about US$3,7 billion end of May 2013,
which generally implies a sharp fall in the money supply base of the
country,” Anand said.
He said the recent fall of the SA rand from
circa 8,5 in Jan 2013 to 9,9
versus the US dollar has a deflationary impact
on domestic prices in
Zimbabwe given the bulk of our imports come from
SA.
Unfortunately, Zim retailers have been reluctant to pass on the
benefits of
the lower costs to consumers.
While there is a lag
effect, Anand said he still expected inflation to
continue on a decline
given the rand’s continued slide and retailers cutting
prices of imported
goods.
Anand said on the whole, Zimbabwe desperately needed to create an
enabling
environment and restore confidence in the economy.
“After
four years of growth the economy is showing signs of weakness driven
by a
lack of investor confidence. Peaceful and credible elections will go a
long
way in restoring confidence in the economy and economic growth.
Zimbabwe is
well positioned to benefit from the growing interest in Africa
and could be
among the fastest growing markets in the region,” he said.
Independent
economic analyst, Brains Muchemwa, said more than a third of
Zimbabwe’s
inflation was explained by the US$/rand exchange rate,
considering that
South Africa was Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner on
tradeable
goods.
“The depreciation of the SA rand over the past few months has
filtered in to
dampen the domestic US$ prices of goods in Zimbabwe and as
such we have been
witnessing the slow-down in the CPI,” Muchemwa
said.
Muchemwa however said some of the imports coming into the country
were
non-CPI goods such as cars and machinery and as such, these would not
have
an immediate effect on the CPI.
With effect from January 2013,
Zimstat has been publishing the new CPI with
new weights and a new
classification in accordance with international
guidelines.
The use
of a new classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose
(COICOP)
resulted in the creation of a new classification which resulted in
coming up
with 83 classes, 41 groups and 12 divisions while in the old
classification
there were 68 subgroups and 12 major groups. The number of
items in the CPI
basket has also been increased from 428 to 495.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Business
ZIMBABWE’S courts
are flooded with commercial lawsuits, particularly
defaults on loans and
credit arrangements as the country suffers the impact
of tight
liquidity.
Report by Taurai Mangudhla
Well placed officials at the
High Court of Zimbabwe, who spoke to
businessdigest on condition of
anonymity, said banks have been filing an
increasing number of lawsuits
against their clients to recover unpaid loans.
“In fact, the largest
number of commercial lawsuits coming to the courts now
are from banks
chasing their money from defaulting clients, followed by
tenants and
landlords fighting over unpaid rentals,” a source said.
Last week,
Interfin Financial Services Limited (Interfin) and its wholly
owned banking
subsidiary Interfin Bank Limited (IBL) said loan repayments by
borrowers
have remained very slow due to the large number of loan recovery
cases in
the courts and the tight liquidity conditions prevailing in the
economy.
Interfin said to date, 213 summons valued at US$80 million
had been issued
against its defaulting clients as the bank tries to enforce
and quickly
recover what it is owed.
However, Interfin is not the
only bank reported to have sought the
assistance of the courts to enforce
provisions of its loan agreements.
Businessdigest has reported
extensively on AfrAsia Kingdom Bank, which is
battling to recover more than
US$20 million in loans made to Valley
Technologies. Like other banks,
Kingdom Bank has resorted to the courts for
relief, resulting in the bank
executing on security held over the loan.
A top banker, who cannot be
named for professional reasons, confirmed the
latest
developments.
“Yes, it is the reality of the situation on the ground.
Banks have a
fiduciary responsibility to recover money owed and will take
all steps
necessary to do so, and the courts are the banks last logical
resort,” the
banker said.
“Unfortunately litigation by its nature is
taking long, because of the huge
backlog of cases that are at the
courts.”
Sources at the High Court said the whole system is bursting at
the seams
with banks enforcing collection.
Recently, there has been
an upsurge in judgements against defaulting clients
and sales in execution
by the master of the High Court, particularly of
fixed property, which would
have been pledged as security are increasing.
Attachments of moveable assets
such as computers, machinery and motor
vehicles have also been on the
rise.
Although Finance minister Tendai Biti recently said the banking
sector was
sound, analysts fear that the rising number of loan foreclosures
are a sign
that things are not rosy.
Economic analyst John Robertson
said the economy was generally suffering
from a liquidity crunch which has
resulted from a hostile business
environment.
“We have policies like
indigenisation that have made it difficult for people
to bring money into
the country,” he said.
Robertson said banks were in trouble after lending to
clients who are
struggling to pay
because of a general economic
meltdown.
He said: “Everyone is not paying their loans on time and even
banks are not
clearing transactions on time and we have a log jam of
transactions. We have
had these delays in the past, but it appears we are
building to a bigger
problem.”
Robertson said despite the challenges,
banks still have a responsibility to
stimulate economic activity through
lending hence the need to come up with
cautious lending procedures in the
absence of a fully-fledged credit bureau.
Earlier this year, the High
Court ordered the sale of some of former
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
(ZSE)-listed drug producer, Caps, to pay an
unspecified amount of money owed
to CBZ Bank.
The attached properties include the company’s factory in
Harare’s Southerton
industrial area.
ZSE-listed mining group RioZim
Ltd is yet to clear about US$45 million owed
to five financial institutions
while a consortium of banks had to take over
management of Lobels Bread to
recover their funds after the bread maker
succumbed to a myriad of
challenges.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
VOTER
registration is the general process used by governments to ensure that
those
who vote in an election are legally eligible and that they cast their
ballot
in the correct location and only do so once.
Candid Comment with
Dingilizwe Ntuli
To register as a voter in Zimbabwe, one has to be a
citizen, be 18 years and
above by the next election and a resident of the
constituency you intend to
vote in.
Although voter registration is
meant to be an effortless process, events on
the ground show
otherwise.
Registering to vote in Zimbabwe is extremely
cumbersome due to bureaucratic
hurdles seemingly aimed at disenfranchising
voters in suspected MDC
strongholds.
The voters’ roll remains in a
shambles and efforts to clean it up were
previously thwarted by the
Registrar-General (RG)’s Office and this has
largely contributed to the
present chaotic mobile voter registration
exercise which has seen thousands
being turned away under unclear
circumstances.
In addition to the
shambolic voters’ roll and slow registration process, the
prevailing
political squabbles on the proclamation of an election dates has
further
stalled and possibly derailed a plan by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission
(Zec) to boost the voters’ roll by registering new eligible
voters during
the ongoing compulsory 30-day voter registration exercise.
The exercise,
which kicked off on June 10, has now been reduced to a two-day
exercise per
ward after President Robert Mugabe bypassed parliament to
unilaterally
proclaim an elections date using presidential powers of decree
to illegally
and unconstitutionally amend electoral laws.
Mugabe declared July 31 as
the poll date saying he was abiding by the
Constitutional Court ruling that
said polls must now be held as they were
supposed to before the expiry of
parliament on June 29.
If Mugabe’s proclamation been allowed to stand,
voter registration will
continue after June 28, the date set for the
Nomination Court to sit. This
would mean people who register after June 28
will not participate in
nominating candidates to contest in the general
elections nor would they
have been eligible for nomination as candidates
themselves.
A slew of voting restrictions championed by Zanu PF have also
thrown in
roadblocks to voter registration.
Burdensome paperwork
requirements that impose additional hurdles to voter
registration have
effectively blocked people from registering.
Prospective voters are asked to
provide identity documents or other
documentation verifying their
citizenship.
They also must produce proof of residence in the form of
utility bills or
affidavits from landlords and headmen, in the event that
one is a lodger or
resides in the rural areas respectively.
Zanu PF
has aggressively backed such efforts in the past few elections as
being
necessary to thwart voter fraud although the MDC formations and civil
society say they are attempts to keep migrant citizens from voting and
manipulate the outcome.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
WHEN Zimbabwe’s
Constitutional Court (Concourt) ruled that President Robert
Mugabe should
proclaim the dates of the general elections by July 31 in
order to avoid
further violations of the constitution, there were and still
are bitter
disputes over the judges’ interpretation of the law.
Opinion by Pedzisayi
Ruhanya
My contention is not to address legal matters, but to analyse and
interpret
the unintended political consequences of these developments in the
context
of the robust Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc)
communiqué during
its summit last weekend in Maputo, Mozambique, where,
among other things,
Mugabe was urged to approach the court to vary the
ruling.
The decision by Sadc to ask Mugabe and his coalition partners to
postpone
the election dates by at least two weeks and to return to
parliament to pass
the amendments to the Electoral Act which he had made by
decree through the
Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act could be
pointers to the
regional body’s growing impatience with Zanu PF’s resistance
to agreed
democratic reforms in preparation for free and fair
elections.
Firstly, the urgency with which Mugabe embraced the decision
of the court
and his purported attempts to position himself as an adherent
to the rule of
law made his critics believe what was happening was a clear
case of judicial
subversion under the cloak of legality given his glaring
disregard of the
same during his 33-year authoritarian rule.
Mugabe and
Zanu PF have a long history of undermining the rule of law and
ignoring
court orders, dating back to the 1980s during the Gukurahundi
massacres and
illegal detentions of PF Zapu supporters under the cover of
the state of
emergency.
Besides, Mugabe also pardoned convicted Zanu PF-aligned
political criminals,
while failing to protect the independence of the courts
and safety of
lawyers. This also happened during the Patrick Kombayi
shooting case and
more recently during the 2008 electoral
violence.
Prior to that, between 2000 and 2009, “undesirable” judges were
removed,
lawyers attacked and court rulings ignored with
impunity.
Against this backdrop, it is a monumental legal and political
fallacy for
Mugabe and his allies, among them hired intellectuals and blind
supporters,
to claim that his main interest in implementing the Concourt
order is to
uphold the rule of law. His history is clear: he is a past
master of
selective application of the law and ignoring court
orders.
So that is why Zimbabweans and regional leaders do not believe
his charade
that he is more concerned about constitutionalism and the rule
of law, and
not the politics behind that.
The Sadc communiqué and the
consequent humiliation of Mugabe in Maputo over
this issue have a lot of
ramifications for both himself as a presidential
candidate and the raging
internal strife in his deeply divided Zanu PF
mainly in the context of the
party’s raging succession politics.
Those in Zanu PF, who were not
consulted in the plot by party hardliners
associated with a certain faction
to involve the Concourt into the matrix of
political manoeuvres aimed at
dribbling past Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Industry and Commerce
minister Welshman Ncube while resolving
internal succession matters, as well
as making decisions in the
determination of electoral processes, especially
the setting of the
elections dates, are now digesting and interpreting the
outcome of the
summit.
One of the unintended consequences of the
Maputo summit is that Zanu PF
hardliners have invited unnecessary scrutiny
on themselves.
The factional fights associated with Zanu PF could be
nasty and
destabilising ahead of elections, and these battles have now spilt
into the
courts. Although they thought they were going to outmanoeuvre their
rivals
inside and outside Zanu PF, the hardliners clearly invited trouble
for both
Mugabe and their party.
While they thought they have finally
found a key strategy, it will not
escape the attention of Zanu PF hardliners
and that of their opponents that
their actions have weakened and humiliated
Mugabe, while giving Tsvangirai
and Ncube some momentum which they appeared
to have lost in the wake of the
controversial Concourt ruling. Many now see
them as law-abiding victims of a
choreographed political strategy to subvert
the democratic process under the
guise of legality.
The resultant
commotion and infighting within Zanu PF could be dominating
the corridors
power ahead of elections.
The political chicanery associated with
Mugabe’s brazen and hardline
political strategists to railroad the country
into sham elections, whose
outcome would inevitably be disputed, has now
been exposed and in the
process put Sadc and the international community on
high alert amid
unfolding attempts to manipulate and influence the electoral
processes and
outcomes.
Further, the call by Sadc to deploy its
observers immediately also means
that there could be little room for Zanu PF
to organise and unleash
state-sponsored violence and intimidation on the
scale of June 2008.
Most critically, the deployment of Sadc observers
during the ongoing
co-ordinated disenfranchisement of voters under the voter
registration
exercise, which is being manipulated by officers from the
Registrar-General’s
Office, will expose the glaring cocktail of Zanu PF’s
attempts to deny
thousands of citizens, especially those previously regarded
as aliens and
urban residents, their constitutional and democratic right to
vote in the
upcoming elections.
The historic and tough decision by
Sadc compelling the coalition government
to have its officials seconded to
the Joint Monitoring and Implementation
Committee (Jomic) to sit and
participate in meetings and not merely observe
the proceedings or receive
reports as demanded by Zanu PF hardliners means
that in the coming
elections, Sadc will contribute substantively to the
decision-making
processes. This will make their input on the electoral
processes and
outcomes more solid than before.
In this context, Sadc’s observation of
Zimbabwe’s imminent elections could
be decisive in creating an environment
for credible, free, fair and
legitimate elections. It is also indicative of
the resolve by the regional
bloc not to tolerate any more of Mugabe and his
party’s willful defiance of
the Sadc principles and guidelines governing the
conduct of democratic
elections to which Zimbabwe is a state
party.
Most significantly, Sadc’s confrontation with the military’s
partisan role
in political and electoral processes in Zimbabwe is critical.
The regional
body has addressed the elephant in the room and hit the nail on
its head
when it called for their non-interference in civilian political
processes.
Attendant to this was the call to amend repressive laws such
as the Public
Order and Security Act and the Access to Informantion and
Protection of
Privacy Act, some of the most lethal Zanu PF weapons mainly
during
elections.
These laws, together with a plethora of other
repressive legislation, hugely
impinge on citizens and opposition parties’
civil and political liberties at
all times, including during elections
period. These laws and the security
apparatus have been used by the Zanu PF
regime to rig the process and
influence electoral outcomes.
Zanu PF’s
political hardliners did not see this coming as they concentrated
on using
the courts to achieve their political agendas.
But by their very
misguided activities, they have unwittingly cornered
Mugabe and the party
before elections. The collateral damage is going to be
huge. Equally so, the
political harvest made by MDC parties and associated
democratic forces are
critical, especially if they start galvanising and
mobilising their
supporters using this momentum gained in Maputo.
Their message should be
simple: Sadc is behind democratic processes leading
to elections in this
country and let’s go en masse to vote for change.
Some of the reforms
captured in the Sadc communiqué may have been forgotten
had the hardliners
in Zanu PF not mischievously approached the courts by
proxy and misled
Mugabe to unilaterally announce election dates and make
amendments to the
Electoral Act by decree when parliament is still active.
What is now
clear is that the misguided court application and the consequent
foolhardy
advice to Mugabe have produced unintended consequences which
largely benefit
the democratic processes in Zimbabwe and critically those
who were supposed
to be outfoxed: Tsvangirai and Ncube.
With each passing day, it is
becoming clear that Tsvangirai and Ncube are
finding more common political
ground not because of their manoeuvres, but
because of events triggered by
the mistakes of mainly by Zanu PF hardliners.
Tsvangirai and Ncube, as
shown by events in Maputo, are getting closer by
political default and may
soon both realise they seriously have a lot to
gain by forming a coalition
to tackle Mugabe and Zanu PF in the interests of
Zimbabweans, not personal
glory.
After the Concourt ruling, the MDC formations and other parties
found
themselves calling for an urgent meeting where they agreed to mount a
united
resistance front against what they believe was an unreasonable
judgment
which they thought was politically motivated.
The result of
that was the apparent division of labour between Tsvangirai
and Ncube in
Maputo in which the former dealt with political issues exposing
the plot
behind all this, while Ncube used his sharp legal mind to tear to
pieces the
contrived legal case.
Should the MDC formations continue to unite around the
critical national
democratic interest, it may not be too late to realise
that an electoral
pact to dislodge Zanu PF in the next polls is a viable
option.
Given all this, it is clear the Zanu PF hardliners’ ill-advised
actions,
which were meant to address internal and external issues, have
produced
unintended consequences.
Ruhanya is director of Zimbabwe
Democracy Institute.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
RECENT political
events in Zimbabwe have proved the wisdom of the adage: “If
you sup with the
devil, you must use a long spoon”.
Report by Qhubani Moyo
As
others would say: “If you kiss a crook, count your teeth
afterwards.”
This aptly sums what Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai forgot
to do during
the coalition government’s tenure in his dealings with
President Robert
Mugabe. Quite clearly, Tsvangirai supped with a short spoon
and this
explains why he is now in this quandary.
This is the side of
the story that seems to be ignored by many about the
current electoral chaos
and how Tsvangirai played a complicit role in its
creation. The prevailing
electoral disarray was long coming and many with
foresight warned about
this, but the premier seemed too relaxed in the
palace and began to eat with
a short spoon with Mugabe.
The long and short of it is that the unholy
alliance that Tsvangirai had
created with Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara is now coming
back to haunt him. What should be understood
by all citizens is that if
Tsvangirai, from the very onset, had refused to
play ball with Mugabe and
Mutambara and concentrated on working with
progressive forces and pushing
for reforms, things would be very different
now.
However, Tsvangirai, out of arrogance and blind hostility to Ncube,
chose to
fight from the same corner with Mugabe, not realising the president
had a
grand plan of resisting being surrounded by leaders of democratic
forces and
keeping Mutambara close to deploy him when the need
arises.
Interestingly, the principals’ forum, according to Mugabe in one
of his
recent interviews, is where the state is being run and statecraft
practiced.
So it would have been in Tsvangirai’s interest, as many said at
the time,
for him to have supported Ncube’s inclusion to ensure they push
for reforms
and preparations for free and fair elections, something which
Mutambara was
not going to do as he is working with Mugabe as shown by
recent events.
While many will ignore this angle of the debate, it is
important to be
placed on public record so that the citizenry will have a
clear
understanding of why certain things are happening now and how events
are
likely to pan out going forward.
Of course, what is more
important now is to ensure that Tsvangirai and Ncube
pull in the same
direction to ensure this country holds free and fair
elections, but the
background to where the plot was lost is also critical if
the way forward is
to be correctly defined.
Even when the Sadc leaders last year in August
resolved that Ncube must be
part of the principals’ forum, Tsvangirai came
back and collaborated with
Mugabe and Mutambara to evade implementing the
resolution by separating
principals and political leaders, effectively
defying the regional bloc’s
decision.
Although Tsvangirai might have
been right in arguing that he will not fight
Ncube’s political battles, he
missed the whole strategic argument around the
issue, which was that his
partnership and cooperation with him would have
yielded better results in
terms of pushing for conditions for peaceful and
credible
elections.
For it is clear the premier’s collusion with Mugabe and
Mutambara during
their meetings as principals has not helped anything
besides eroding most of
the gains made by the democratic forces in the past
decade.
I have no doubt that Tsvangirai wanted to use the principals’
forum to
create an environment conducive to free and fair elections, but he
lacked
the strategic thinking and tactical manoeuvres needed to outflank
Mugabe who
was assisted by Mutambara, initially in a subtle way but now
openly.
By accepting Mugabe’s deception that he was going to embrace free
and fair
elections and that whoever loses must accept defeat, Tsvangirai set
himself
for trouble big time. The premier also lost it when he started
defending
Mugabe, especially during his overseas jaunts, claiming he wanted
to leave a
good legacy and suggesting he was now a changed man. Tsvangirai
even went to
the extent of suggesting at some point Mugabe was also being
misunderstood.
No doubt Tsvangirai’s strategy — a naïve one, it must be
said — was to
placate Mugabe in the vain hope that he would feel less
threatened by a
possible MDC-T victory and leave power peacefully. This poor
thinking was
further reflected by statements by other senior MDC-T leaders
who
scandalously gushed about Mugabe’s purported wisdom and
vision.
This was before Tsvangirai later claimed Mugabe had agreed to
rein in and
withdraw security forces reportedly deployed around the country
in
preparation for elections.
Later, the prime minister accepted and
subsequently defended the appointment
of Jacob Mudenda as the chairperson of
the Human Rights Commission after
Professor Regis Austin was frustrated into
resignation. Mudenda was at the
time a Zanu PF politburo member with a
questionable history on human rights
and for that reason Tsvangirai should
have rejected his appointment.
The same can be said on the appointment of
former Zanu PF non-constituency
MP, Justice Rita Makarau, as chairperson of
the Zimbabwe Election Commission
(Zec) after the frustration of retired
judge Simpson Mutambanengwe.
As if that was not bad enough, Tsvangirai
publicly defended the Zec
secretariat which had in 2008 spent five weeks
refusing to release the
results of the first round of the presidential
election which the premier
had won. In other words, Tsvangirai was defending
the very same people who
denied him victory in 2008.
It is public
knowledge the secretariat of the electoral management body is
composed of
dubious characters who have roots in the partisan security
organs of the
state and have participated actively in Zanu PF’s electoral
machinations.
Of course, Tsvangirai made a U-turn when the public,
including his own party
officials and supporters, refused to buy into his
ill-advised position that
the Zec secretariat has no problem, but some other
unnamed forces behind it.
These are just some of the many blunders the
premier committed during the
inclusive government. Everybody in the
coalition government, including
Ncube, made mistakes, but the premier’s
bungling was too glaring and is now
costing him.
The idea is not to
undermine Tsvangirai or prove he has poor judgment, but
rather to emphasise
the need for him to work with other democratic forces,
not huddle in the
same corner with dictators only to later find himself
thoroughly exposed and
going back to base to look for his natural allies.
This brings me to the
crux of the matter. After the Sadc summit in Maputo
last weekend and the
great work done by democratic forces working together
again, it is important
that Zimbabwean parties should find common ground and
work collectively for
free and fair elections.
Even if it’s controversial and perhaps difficult
to defend, the
Constitutional Court ruling must be implemented as far as
possible, that is,
in a way which allows flexible compliance and the holding
of free and fair
elections.
If the ruling itself acknowledges the
impossibility of having elections on
June 29 and, hence the July 31 dates,
it must by the same token be possible
to extend it further within the limits
of what is realistic and practical.
This can be done again to allow for
resource mobilisation and smooth
conclusion of the voter registration and
implementation of reforms as well
as dealing with the role of the security
forces in politics and elections.
And most importantly, there is a need
to ensure that the chaotic voter
registration exercise is put back on track
to allow all eligible Zimbabweans
get a chance to register as voters. When
all is said and done, Zimbabweans
can then go for free and fair elections
which will allow the country to move
forward.
Moyo is the director of
policy and research in the MDC led by Professor
Welshman Ncube. He is also
candidate for MP in Insiza North constituency. —
mdcpolicyguru@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
THERE is
strange irony that currently pervades Zimbabwean politics,
particularly on
the part of that combative element in Zanu PF.
Opinion by Ibbo
Mandaza
On one hand, there are the complaints of what the latter
considers to be
gross breach of Zimbabwe’s sovereignty, not least when Sadc
appears to be
questioning the decision of the highest court in the
land.
So, even as all parties to the Zimbabwean problem had to assemble
before
last weekend’s Sadc summit in Maputo, such impatience was almost
palpable
and the murmurs so audible: “Why doesn’t Sadc and its facilitator
(South
African President Jacob) Zuma leave us alone?”
On the other
hand, there is evidence — from the process that culminated in
the Global
Political Agreement (GPA)/Government of National Unity (GNU) in
2008, to the
present conjuncture in which Sadc and its facilitator might be
redeeming
Zimbabwe from yet another crisis, this time a constitutional one —
that,
without such institutionalised attention as the regional body has had
to
afford this country ever since the disputed presidential election of
2002,
Zimbabwe would long ago have been another Somalia.
Yet, even last
Saturday’s Maputo summit itself could be proof that, without
such timely
intervention as was the case previously at the Sadc troika
meeting of March
31 2011, President Robert Mugabe would find himself unable
to manage that
rogue element within his party as I wrote then, following
that Livingstone
meeting:
“So, it is this little Fifth Column — made up of no more than
five or seven
persons — that has claimed and assumed a most disproportionate
space in the
body politic of Zimbabwe. And as long as no one within the Zanu
PF
establishment has stood up to it publicly, the Fifth Column appears to be
the state itself, writ large and indispensable.
“In reality, however,
this is a downright reckless and dangerous lot which,
in the not-so-distant
future, is bound to be shipwrecked as the majority of
Zimbabweans, tired and
impatient with the dangerous pranks of a few
malcontents, lend their support
to the emerging convergence across both Zanu
PF and the MDCs.”
This
is what I wrote on an article headlined The Sadc Troika on Zimbabwe:
Against
the Arrogant Disdain, Impunity and Reckless Rhetoric in Harare,
April 4
2011.
I was wrong then to have concluded that it would be a matter of
weeks or
months before the march of national convergence would put paid to
the
machinations of the Fifth Column in our midst. On the contrary, it is
this
national convergence — expressing itself around the GPA/GNU process in
the
first instance, the institution of the principals as the main agency
through
which, inter alia, the constitution-making process finally
succeeded, and
the prospects of a peaceful and credible election — that now
stands as a
real threat to the Fifth Column for whom a permanent crisis
situation has
become its raison d’être.
This explains why earlier
elections were always part of its agenda; to take
everyone by surprise and
have an outcome according to a pre-conceived
template. And what about the
programme of political destabilisation ever
since the new constitution
became law, and in pursuit of early elections at
any cost?
Is it only
a rumour that the Jealousy Mawarire application was part of the
plot by this
clique of troublemakers?
Likewise, the unceremonious manner in which the
proclamation was put
together last week, fast-tracked to pre-empt and
preclude parliament and
provisions of the new constitution, behind the backs
of not only cabinet,
but even the Zanu PF politburo itself?
And right
on the eve of the Sadc summit, postponed a week earlier at
Zimbabwe’s
request, almost as if to afford the architects of chaos an
opportunity to
wreck even the Maputo meeting itself?
So it was that the Maputo summit
arrested the rot, at least for a day or two
since, because, almost
incredibly so, the decision of Sadc was being
threatened by Tuesday evening
by a later withdrawn application to the
Constitutional Court (Concourt)
filed by the Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa which was at variance, in
its import, to the objectives of the
Sadc communiqué.
The communiqué
was quite explicit that it would be the Government of
Zimbabwe — that is to
say the inclusive government — that would go back to
the Concourt and plead
for an extension; and Mugabe concurred by stating
that Chinamasa would
thereby represent the government in undertaking that
task.
Needless
to add that such an approach, if professionally and competently
done, would
almost certainly guarantee that the Concourt would accede to the
request for
an extension of the date of the general elections beyond July
31.
So,
quite clearly, in doing precisely the opposite — that is by excluding
the
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara
and
Professor Welshman Ncube as respondents to his application to the
Concourt,
Chinamasa’s initial intention was to ensure that such an extension
would not
be granted.
Obviously, Chinamasa’s actions could not have been prompted
by government as
a whole nor had it been canvassed in cabinet earlier in the
day. That is why
principals met over the issue on Wednesday.
So was
it an attempt at anarchy on the part of the chaos faction?
If the letter and
spirit of the Maputo summit is any guideline to the way
forward in the
Zimbabwean political process, we have to remain firm in our
objective of
ensuring that national convergence remains the dominant agency.
Quite
apart from its communiqué, whose main import will no doubt prevail in
the
days ahead and yield the extension of the deadline for holding the
elections
beyond July 31, the summit also adopted the report of the Sadc
facilitator
and its recommendations on media reforms, Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee, rule of law, deployment of Sadc observers and
elections fate.
Besides, there is no contradiction at all between
these recommendations
which were adopted by the summit (inclusive of
Zimbabwe itself) on the one
hand, and, on the other, the constitutional
provision that general elections
can be held up to four months after the
dissolution of parliament on June 29
despite the Concourt’s ruling which
interpreted the law otherwise.
Surely, all progressive Zimbabweans would
welcome as much time as possible
to ensure all who qualify to vote are
registered as voters, the voters’
register is inspected to the satisfaction
of the citizenry and free, fair
and credible elections
guaranteed.
The claim that a flawed election is better than no election
at all is, of
course, both nonsensical and a travesty of
democracy.
Likewise, there are those who want elections yesterday at any
cost and
without regard to the basic tenets of democracy and
constitutionalism. We
have reason to be suspicious of their motives; and we
must continue to
resist this in the name of National Convergence, Economic
Recovery and a
Peaceful Transition in Zimbabwe.
Therefore, it is
imperative that the political leadership — including Mugabe
himself —
remains firm and focused in the face of those who are seeking to
wreck the
roadmap that Zimbabwe has been walking over the last four years.
It
requires a sterner stand on the part of the quiet majority in Zanu PF
itself, especially the presidency therein; more so, the courage and
conviction to confront the rogue element within.
This is particularly
so in the weeks and months ahead. Otherwise, it is
almost certain that there
will be another Sadc summit on Zimbabwe before
long, for the merchants of
chaos have clearly gone for broke. There is no
guessing what might be their
next move.
Mandaza is a Zimbabwean academic, author and publisher. He is
currently the
convenor of the Sapes Trust’s Policy Dialogue Forum. — Ibbo@sapes.org.zw
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
Last
Saturday, the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) held an
extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe in Maputo.
Opinion by Simukai
Tinhu
The main issue discussed was the July 31 election date set under
the pretext
of complying with the Constitutional Court (Concourt)’s ruling
that
elections must be held by the end of July. The opposition and
pro–democracy
forces cried foul, and accused President Robert Mugabe of
subverting the
constitution.
At the end of the summit, the Sadc
executive secretary, Tomaz Salomao,
briefed reporters of its outcome: “The
summit acknowledged the ruling of the
Constitutional Court on the election
date and it will be respected.”
He added: “What the summit recommended
was, in recognising that there was
need for more time, that the government
of Zimbabwe engages the
Constitutional Court to ask for more time beyond the
deadline of July 31.”
MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti had summarised
the summit deliberations
to his supporters through his Facebook
page.
In his summation, which departs from that of Sadc’s official
communiqué,
Biti wrote: “Government, through the Ministry of Justice is
ordered and
directed to make an application to the Constitutional Court
following
consultations by all political parties, seeking to move the date
of the
election from the 30th July 2013.”
The wording and substance
of Biti’s summation is problematic. Not only does
the MDC-T
secretary-general superimpose the words “ordered” and “directed”,
but he
fails to mention that the regional body acknowledged the ruling of
the
Concourt on the July 31 election date and therefore cannot be
overturned.
This would be tantamount to interference into the
internal affairs of
another country. Thus Sadc made a recommendation, and
not a directive, as
was implied in Biti’s summation.
The
recommendation is also not binding. In other words, it is up to the
government, (through the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs) to make an
application and seek an extension. The misleading wording by Biti can be
forgiven as being a show for his party’s followers.
But
unfortunately, this statement, which conflicts with the Sadc’s version
of
the outcome, has sent opposition supporters into celebrations,
interpreting
this outcome as a victory for the opposition and pro-democracy
forces.
Is the outcome of the Sadc summit a cause for celebration,
and can we call
it a victory for the opposition? Several scenarios might now
unfold: First,
it appears that the regional body has urged, and not directed
the opposition
forces and Zanu PF to consult each other on the need to
approach the
Concourt and request that elections be delayed.
Mugabe,
through his Justice ministry, might seek recourse to the Concourt if
he is
sufficiently convinced that there is need for an extension.
The Justice
ministry cannot apply to the courts on the basis that the
president acted
unconstitutionally. Sadc has made it clear that they
acknowledge and respect
the original outcome of the Concourt, but most
probably on the basis that it
is impractical to have elections on July 31.
If Mugabe states that he is
unconvinced by the arguments for an extension,
Sadc has no mechanism or
legal mandate to coerce Mugabe to approach the
courts.
However, it
appears that Mugabe has conceded on this issue. Speaking in
Maputo just
after the summit, he told reporters that: “It is a happy outcome
for
Zimbabwe … the final decision was that perhaps we should appeal to the
court
to examine the reasons for the arguments that have been made by others
for
giving people a little longer time. Our Ministry of Justice is going to
do
that (to appeal to the court) and the decision of the court then will be
binding on us. But if the court says okay go beyond July 31st by a week or
two, I hope it will satisfy the others (opposition) who want a little more
time.”
However, according to Lovemore Madhuku, the head of the
National
Constitutional Assembly, an omnipotent organisation when it comes
to
constitutional matters in Zimbabwe, the government has no legal basis or
“jurisprudence in approaching the Constitutional Court seeking an
extension”.
It should, however, be recognised that Mugabe has successfully
sought delays
of local elections on three previous occasions.
If
Mugabe does indeed seek an extension, the Concourt might dismiss the
application for different reasons. It is important to note that it is the
same judges who were subject to abuse and ridicule by the opposition who are
now being asked to review (and overturn) their ruling following the
intervention of Sadc on behalf of the opposition.
Madhuku also added
that if the courts accept the application, this will
effectively make Sadc
heads of state a de facto higher court, in the process
creating a precedent
where future litigations will approach Sadc.
Another Zimbabwean legal
expert, Terence Hussein, added that Mugabe might
genuinely apply for an
extension, but the Concourt might question the
government approaching it to
seek an extension over an order that it has
complied with. Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, whose ministry is tasked with
making the application, has also
stated that there is no guarantee that the
courts will allow for a
delay.
If it turns out the Concourt dismisses the application, then what
will be
the opposition’s next course of action be? Will they accept the
decision, or
seek Sadc’s intervention once more? Sadc does not have legal
power in a
member state to reverse court decisions — its executive secretary
also
stated in his briefing to the press that the court ruling will be
respected.
Secondly, Sadc’s recommendation is asking the state to seek an
extension
beyond July 31 by at least two weeks. It would be a surprise if
Mugabe
requests an extension beyond two weeks considering his party wants
the
elections to be held sooner rather than latter.
Indeed, he told
reporters that he will seek an extension of only “one or two
weeks”.It is
therefore inconceivable that reforms that could not be made in
four years
will be carried out within the two weeks.
Chinamasa, the Zanu PF
strategist, has stated that he would only implement
what the parties have
agreed on. He added that “if we do not agree, then
there is nothing to
implement; until we agree on a particular reform, then
there is nothing to
reform … As Zanu PF, we are contesting the idea that
there is any need for
reforms …”.
Such intransigence clearly indicates that reforms are
unlikely to take place
at all, let alone within the two-week extension
period. The question is what
the opposition forces would do? Appeal, once
again, to Sadc or boycott the
elections?
Thirdly, and most seriously,
which for some reason the opposition appear to
have ignored, is that the
current parliament expires on June 29. By
declaring July 31 as the election
date, Mugabe argues that he is trying to
limit individual exercise of power
by ensuring that all three branches of
government (the judiciary,
legislature and executive) exist at the same
time.
After June 29,
there will only be the judiciary (the same court derided by
the opposition)
and the executive led by Mugabe. The life of parliament can
only be lawfully
extended during times of war or when a state of emergency
has been declared,
two scenarios that are not currently relevant. Giving
Mugabe the chance to
rule by decree might be something that the opposition
lives to
regret.
Zanu PF is regrouping, strategising and even preparing for the
United
Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly that they hope to
co-host with Zambia in August. The opposition is celebrating even when there
appears to be little to celebrate.
But Zanu PF is a tough party to
deal with. It would be more advisable for
the opposition to task itself with
more important issues such as
campaigning, encouraging its supporters to
register as voters and attempting
to forge an alliance, if they are to stand
a better chance of unseating
Mugabe and his party.
Tinhu is a
political analyst based in London.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
Thank goodness for
Botswana’s President Ian Khama. He is a breath of fresh
air.
By The
Muck Raker
Every time Zanu PF puffs itself up into a big bubble of
self-importance, he
comes along and bursts it.
He was at it again in
Maputo last weekend. While President Robert Mugabe was
reportedly keeping
other heads of state waiting while he had a tête-à-tête
with Namibia’s
President, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Khama, a retired general
close to Zanu PF
leaders, took the opportunity to comment on Zimbabwe’s
securocrats.
He asked why people were still talking endlessly about a
“bush war” that
ended 33 years ago.
It is easy to answer that. Mugabe
is able to project himself as the
authentic voice of African nationalism. It
may not be a valid claim 33 years
after Independence, but it makes him feel
good.
Mugabe went on and on about history before Khama came in.
“Khama
asked why people were still talking about a bush war that ended 33
years
ago,” an observer said. “He pointed out that when the liberation war
was
fought it was not against the MDCs.”
Such nostalgic rhetoric was
misplaced, the observer said, reflecting a
general sentiment back
home.
Securocrats
MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti reported
after the meeting that the
summit had “underscored the obligation of our
security chiefs to respect the
constitution and issued a statement complying
with Article 208 of the new
constitution which speaks to the neutrality of
our security forces, that
they cannot be active members of any political
party and that they will
respect, salute and obey any legitimate
constitutional order”.
Not exactly what the Herald has been telling us in
its damage control
exercise!
Poor King Arthur
Observers in
Maputo were full of praise for the man from Wales. He dazzled
the meeting
with his magisterial command of the issues. When the MDC-T
officials emerged
they were generous in their praise. And poor King Arthur
was confined to the
leader pages of the local Izvestia, which sadly nobody
reads!
Chirruping recruits
Meanwhile, we were shocked to see
police recruits openly declaring their
allegiance to Mugabe. They wished him
a “resounding success” in the
forthcoming elections.
“We celebrate
your life and leadership as you are the practical definition
of a
revolutionary cadre,” they chirruped. “Your call for Pan-Africanism
should
invigorate other African leaders to be united and support each
other
…”
This was a far cry from Maputo where heads of state demonstrated
impatience
with Mugabe’s blandishments. And are any of those present at
Morris Depot
aware of how many votes the Zanu PF-supported PAC got in the
1994 South
African election? It was the smallest amount for any
party.
There followed a funny little drama, we were told, in which two
fighters
wearing British and US outfits engaged in combat with a third party
purporting to be Mugabe. He put up a spirited fight before a sympathiser,
Russia, came in to assist and vanquish the Westerners. After the victory
“children” were served with milk representing the milk and honey of Mugabe’s
rule. No, seriously!
Ushers wore Zanu PF regalia. Observers say that
senior officers could be
seen waving their fists in the air as the recruits
pledged their allegiance
to their commander.
Readers’
feedback
The newly launched Southern Eye has been carrying an interesting
range of
letters in its feedback column.
On Monday a correspondent
made the obvious point in response to a story
titled Hell for gays if Zanu
PF wins. This followed Zanu PF’s promise of new
persecutions if it wins the
election.
The correspondent said: “Mugabe should concentrate more on
uplifting
Zimbabweans suffering from the harsh economic conditions which he
and his
party gave rise to and deal with the massive corruption in the
Zimbabwean
economy.”
This is all true, but we shouldn’t forget just
how much Zanu PF and its
allies among the Biblical bigots just love
persecuting people.
Dysfunctional party
The Sunday Mail carried a
story last weekend about a snake handler who had
passed his skill down
through the generations. His father was a snake
handler as was his
grandfather. His experience had made him the local expert
on the reptiles,
the story said. He was confident his understudies would be
successful.
“I know that they will do well,” he said. “Abraham is a
natural leader while
Amos is a fearless handler who can tackle and subdue
the most aggressive of
snakes.”
How interesting. Here is a family
that has put in place a succession plan; a
simple family that has taken
steps to secure its future. But what do we have
at the national level? A
dysfunctional political party that can’t even take
the first tentative steps
towards passing on the baton.
However, let’s be fair. We do know of some
snakes in the grass which carry a
particularly lethal poison, but do not
belong to the same family.
Trojan horses
We were interested to see
a picture in the Sunday Mail of Zimpapers group
chief executive Justin
Mutasa chatting with Dr Nyaradzo Mtizira at the
launch of his book, The
Regime Change Agenda — Focus on Zimbabwe, authored
by the Botswana-based
medical practitioner.
The book focuses on the country’s socio-economic
revolution and the West’s
“rabid attempt to protect its interests in
resource-rich Zimbabwe through
local Trojan horses”.
Strange, we
haven’t heard of the doctor or his interest in regime change.
And we thought
the Trojan horse was Greek! He seems to have come out of the
election
woodwork.
Here is another expatriate who prefers the comfortable life
abroad to the
growing dereliction at home wrought by his friends in Zanu PF.
We wonder if
he knows Reason who just can’t tear himself away from
Australia!
Perennial losers
Did we hear Mugabe saying some years
ago he would not appoint as ministers
individuals who had not been elected
to parliament? Well, he said it again,
if Muckraker heard right, just the
other day. That would be a good question
to ask the president at a press
conference: “Do you recall the undertaking
you made …?”
Some of the
perennial losers that have expressed an interest in taking part
in the
election,” Southern Eye reports, “are Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Absolom
Sikhosana
and Joseph Tshuma.”
Our question is: how many times are they allowed to
lose and still be taken
seriously? Sikhanyiso: that one’s for you.
A
note to Huni
And a note to our friend Munyaradzi Huni. If Sir Ketumile
Masire carried a
knighthood, then his wife would be Lady Masire and not Mrs
Masire. And while
it is good to see Botswana and Zimbabwe getting on so
well, have we
forgotten so quickly how fraught relations were when
Tsvangirai was staying
in Gaborone in 2008? And then wasn’t there something
about a transmitter
relay station at Fransistown? Has that gone
away?
While it is not the function of journalists to stir things up, they
shouldn’t
at least be so naïve. We are sure our Botswana expert Cde Caesar
agrees with
us on this!
Ankomah’s naïvety
Another example of
naïvety was evident from Baffour Ankomah, editor of New
African, a
mouthpiece for Mugabe. Andrew Young, the magazine reported, “had
confirmed
the White House’s official remorse to President Mugabe admitting
that the US
had been wrong in supporting Britain in the dispute with Britain
over land
reform”.
Really? It is true that Young has in the past adopted a pro-Zanu
PF position
in his dealing with the Zimbabwe authorities. But it is
extremely doubtful
that he would have expressed the White House’s “official
remorse”. In fact,
we have a pretty good idea where that came from. The same
official who
facilitated Young’s visit.
Matter of fact
Last
week we carried a snippet claiming the Hartley Platinum Mine road just
outside Chegutu cost US$15 million to construct. The acting chair of
Zimplats Holdings Ltd, the Zimplats parent company, said he would like to
set the record straight “for the benefit of numerous faithful readers of the
popular Muckraker column”.
The Ngezi-Mhondoro highway is in fact 77km
long and the cost was US$19
million in 2001, he said. We stand
corrected.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
Many
economic commentators, without political affiliations, and interest in
politics other than regard to the socio-economic impacts of political
developments have frequently voiced concerns over the negative consequences
of the prevailing Zimbabwean economic environment.
Column by Eric
Bloch
They welcomed the creation of the Government of National Unity
(GNU)
thinking that it would trigger a more stable, and less confrontational
political environment.
Recognising that the primary cause of the
deteriorating economic environment
that had characterised Zimbabwe since
1997 had largely been politics, with
consequential intense poverty and
hardships, they welcomed the GNU as a
potential trigger to comprehensive and
much-needed economic recovery.
First and foremost the source of
anticipation of meaningful economic
recovery was the agreement between
political parties for the formation of
the GNU which they thought would
include major political and economic
reforms.
And, when the GNU came
into being, some of those anticipations proved to be
well-founded, for in
contrast to the economy continuing to decline as it has
been for a decade,
it finally recorded some upturn, and hyperinflation was
halted. Although
deflation was not realised, and therefore the cost of
living for Zimbabwe’s
residents continued to be high, inflation become the
lowest prevailing
anywhere on the African continent.
The much needed Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) began to flow into the
economy to a fairly considerable
extent, especially so in respect to the
mining sector, resulting in
significant employment creation, enhanced export
earnings, and other diverse
economic benefits.
Instead of the economy continuing to decline
year-on-year, some growth was
achieved, as evidenced by the slight increases
in the Gross Domestic
Product.
Tragically, however, the apparent
political unity and resultant economic
benefits proved to be shortlived.
Progressively the political divide became
more pronounced as tensions
resurged due almost entirely to the resistance
of the president and many in
his party’s hierarchy to implement reforms
prescribed in the Global
Political Agreement (GPA), with only some of the
agreed issues being
adopted.
Restructuring of the state’s security sector to preclude
political
interference, introduction of reforms on the media, and other
agreed issues
were not pursued, and with increasing intensity the GNU became
divided and
dysfunctional.
Among the many adverse consequences of the
intensifying disunity, a major
one was the collapse of investor confidence
which had generated meaningful
FDI and associated economic benefits. As a
result, FDI has progressively
declined over the last two years, especially
so in the current year,
hindering economic recovery.
International
lines of credit to commerce and industry and loan fundings to
the money
market have almost dried up. Morale of the economically oppressed
populace
has plunged, innumerable industrial, commercial and other economic
enterprises have collapsed or considerably downsized, while unemployment has
increased and more Zimbabweans are confronted with hardships and
poverty.
There were however hopes Zimbabwe would conduct credible
elections to ensure
progress.
However, despite the demands that
elections be held, it is necessary to have
transparent voter registration
process, good administration and conduct of
the elections , and accurate
results.
With all this in mind, there was widespread dismay when the
Constitutional
Court (Concourt) determined that elections be held not later
than July 31, a
date a month later than the president had wished the polls
to be held.
But it was widely considered impossible to have proper
completion of voter
registration, production and inspection of voters’
rolls, nomination of
candidates and other preparations within seven
weeks.
Moreover, two of the Constitutional Court’s nine judges, many
advocates and
other legal experts were convinced that the majority of the
court’s judges
misdirected themselves in their ruling, plunging the country
into a new
crisis.
The almost endless saga between the parties to the
GNU, with pronounced
wrangling and associated threats, and the rigid
resistance of the president
and his party to address the outstanding issues
of the GPA has proved to be
an immense impediment to economic recovery which
had marginally improved
during the four years of the GNU.
The
confidence of potential FDI sources which had developed since the GNU
came
into being has now almost dissipated, with inflows being exceptionally
minimal.
Concurrently, the money market continues to be greatly
illiquid, with very
little funding available to meet the needs for working
capital and other
important needs.
Given all this, free and fair
elections must be held soon to create a stable
and peaceful environment for
economic recovery.
If this political stalemate with recurrent disregard
for democracy, freedom
of voters, and vituperative interactions between the
political parties
continues, then the barriers to economic recovery erected
in 2013 will not
be breached, and instead the economy will be on renewed
decline, and
national destitution will persist.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
Last week quite a
timely event happened.
Zimbabwe Independent Editorial
After a
decade-long impasse, Zimbabwe’s cabinet finally submitted to an
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Staff Monitored Programme (SMP) after
recently approving it.
While an SMP remains an informal and flexible
instrument for dialogue
between the IMF staff and a member country on its
economic policies, it is
not a formal re-engagement with the IMF executive
directorate.
Under the SMP a country’s economic reform targets, policies
and programmes
are monitored by a nominated team of IMF staff for an agreed
period.
Past discussions towards an SMP between Zimbabwe and the IMF had
been held
back by two issues; the timely reporting of data and the
much-debated
problem of ghost workers in the civil service.
There
have been conflicting statements concerning the issue of ghost workers
in
government, but either way it would appear the air has been cleared and
the
IMF team is here until the end of this year.
This re-engagement with the
IMF, albeit at SMP level, is a step in the right
direction and should pave
the way for the normalisation of relations between
Zimbabwe and the
IMF.
This is crucial for economic recovery as a normal relationship with
the IMF
will also act as a positive signal to other potential multilateral
and
bilateral lenders, as well as investors. Currently estimated at US$11
billion, the non-payment and accumulation of arrears on Zimbabwe’s external
debt have been cited as a major reason for the IMF cutting off the country
from accessing financial resources, not really sanctions as often claimed by
Zanu PF.
Zimbabwe’s balance of payment constraints have been a
challenge and a normal
relationship with the IMF will play a role in helping
the country over this
debt burden and investor confidence.
So far the
country has developed a reasonable track record of maintaining
macro-economic stability through containing inflation, implementing fiscal
reforms and putting together a comprehensive and credible arrears clearance
strategy as part of the medium-term plan, but this needs to be supported by
key development partners.
Financial sector reforms, broadening access
to financial services, and the
restructuring and recapitalisation of the
Reserve Bank will remain elusive
without deeper measures of commitment from
the government.
Another key hurdle is Zimbabwe’s bloated civil service,
which is gobbling up
to 75% of fiscal revenues, crowding out growth
opportunities offered by
investment in social and economic
infrastructure.
The civil service must be overhauled and aligned with the
requirements of
sound financial management, not political
patronage.
This would shake out inefficiencies brought about by
infiltration of civil
service structures by politically driven patronage
networks.
Finance minister Tendai Biti recently said it was unfair that a
mere 2% of
the population was gobbling up 76% of the national fiscal space
in wages.
Some excess fat and redundant deadwood must definitely go. That
will only be
possible if this first step taken by cabinet last week is built
upon to lead
the country back into the community of nations and
progress.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
June 21, 2013 in Opinion
AS
election-related applications from various quarters, some of them
engineered
by deceptive politicos and dark arts practitioners, flood the
Constitutional
Court (Concourt) in the aftershock of its controversial
ruling ordering
general elections by July 31, judges must be more reflective
and cautious in
handling politically-sensitive cases.
Editor’s Memo with Dumisani
Muleya
Since the Jealousy Mawarire application and the subsequent
contentious
Concourt ruling, there has been a number of applications from
citizens
demanding protection of the court in relation to their suffrage,
electoral
processes and election dates.
Although Mawarire insists he
initiated his application amid continued claims
it was motivated by a
political hidden hand, a developing combination of
events and the wider
political conjuncture shows Zanu PF, which has always
been demanding
elections since 2011 without adequate reforms, is celebrating
the
outcome.
Zanu PF leaders, from President Robert Mugabe, ministers and
politburo
members as well as their lawyers, have all been falling over each
other to
defend it, suggesting they had a vested political interest although
the
issue has now spawned a messy situation before the
elections.
Mugabe has been uncharacteristically co-operative on the
issue, which is
unusual given his regime’s record of flouting the rule of
law, court orders
and selective application of the law, leaving people
asking: “What is really
going on here?” Mugabe still hasn’t implemented the
Supreme Court order on
by-elections issued last year as he has been asking
for endless reprieve,
but is very keen to enforce this one.
This is
not the behaviour of a leader interested in the rule of law and to
avoid
rule by decree — never mind his resort to emergency powers last week
when
parliament is still active — as it has been widely claimed by his
loyalists,
but a clear Machiavellian attempt to stampede the nation into
elections on
his own terms without reforms and properly following
constitutional and
legal procedures.
Of course, the Zanu PF faction of rabble-rousers
pushing for elections has
many other reasons for devising this
plot.
Some of them include Mugabe’s age and health issues, succession
puzzle and
managing events within and outside the party as they seek to
define a
post-Mugabe era, something already shown by the national
constitutional
arrangements they insisted on and their growing anxiety about
the polls
outcome ahead of Zanu PF’s elective congress next year.
In
other words, this is all about politics, hence such skullduggery by Zanu
PF
hardliners who are trying to catch everybody by surprise by radicalising
the
political dynamic to create new conditions for survival before
elections.
However, there have been so many unintended consequences
of their actions
and Zanu PF’s Fifth Columnists now face a jeopardy of being
shipwrecked by
events which they have inadvertently
triggered.
Against this background, judges must be careful in handling
the cases
flooding the Concourt considering the real dangers inherent in
them — not
because of their own actions alone, but also events around us and
the risk
of them being viewed as politicians in the courtroom.
Recent
comments by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Igor
Judge
(his surname), that judges must not stray into politics are apt in
this
regard: “Judges have to be careful to remember that we are enforcing
the
law. As to that, we have no choice. We enforce the law as we find it to
be.
“I think we have to be careful to remember that we cannot
administer the
responsibilities which others have. I think there is
occasionally a danger
of an overlap between us deciding what the law is and
saying what it is, and
then making a judgment
accordingly.
“Occasionally — and I suppose it is inevitable — there is an
overlap where
what we are doing, or the orders that we make, actually impact
on the
administration for which others are responsible. We have to be
careful to
make sure that we stay within our proper function.”
Need
we say more?
