http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Hendricks
Chizhanje Thursday 25 June 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe's Supreme
Court today begins hearing a constitutional
challenge filed by prominent
human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko to
determine a series of violations
of her constitutional rights at the hands
of state security
agents.
Lawyers want a permanent stay of criminal proceedings against
Mukoko whose
trial for plotting to unseat President Robert Mugabe's previous
administration was scheduled for early next month, on the grounds that she
is a complainant in a case of kidnapping and abduction.
Mukoko, a
former staffer at the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation and now
director of human rights organisation Zimbabwe Peace
Project (ZPP), and some
members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC
party are charged with
attempting to recruit people for military training in
neighbouring Botswana
to overthrow Mugabe.
Mukoko was abducted from her Norton home by state
security agents in
December 2008 and held incommunicado at various secret
locations where her
lawyers say she was tortured.
The proceedings in
the Supreme Court follow the granting of an application
filed by human
rights lawyers early this year seeking a referral of Mukoko's
case to the
Supreme Court by a Harare Magistrate.
If convicted she faces the death
penalty, in a case that has potential to
scuttle Zimbabwe's unity government
between Mugabe and MDC party leader
Tsvangirai.
Western governments
and international rights groups have been calling for
Zimbabwe's inclusive
government to carry out comprehensive political,
economic and justice
reforms without delay to uphold human rights and the
rule of law before they
provide financial support and lift sanctions on
Mugabe and his inner circle.
- ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Cuthbert Nzou Thursday
25 June 2009
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has "fairly
managed to contain people's
desire for change" by agreeing a unity
government with long time rival
Morgan Tsvangirai but without giving away
much, Zimbabwe's student movement
has said.
The Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINSAU) said it remained skeptical
about the unity
government that came into power last February, citing
continuing human
rights violations, harassment of rights defenders,
journalists and
legislators of Tsvangirai's MDC party as examples that the
new
administration was having little impact on the ground.
ZINASU, an
umbrella union for students in the country, criticised an
exercise to write
a new constitution launched on Wednesday, saying it was
controlled by
politicians because parliamentarians were leading the process.
"We remain
skeptical of this unity government. It will achieve nothing but
distract
Zimbabweans from their struggle to achieve democracy and create a
better
society," ZINASU said in resolutions adopted by its general council
at a
meeting held on June 20 and made available yesterday.
"One might be
tempted to argue that ZANU PF (Mugabe's party) has fairly
managed to contain
the people's desire for change," the student body said.
The union said
the MDC had failed to pressure ZANU PF to adhere to all the
provisions of
the power-sharing agreement and said repressive state security
and media
laws remained on the statute books and were being used to jail
members of
Tsvangirai's party and journalists.
It said a constitutional reform drive
launched across the country yesterday
would only help create an illusion of
a "people driven" constitution making
process but politicians would control
the process.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and National
Constitutional Assembly
political pressure group have also criticised the
new constitutional reform
process on similar grounds that it would subjugate
the wishes of citizens to
those of the three main political parties that are
represented in
Parliament.
ZINASU also bemoaned what it termed lack
of access to quality education by
the majority of learners in the country
due mainly to the cost structure in
place in most schools and
institutions.
"Students who can not afford (fees and other costs) are, in
many cases,
quarantined and excluded from learning," it said.
The
coalition government is seen as offering Zimbabwe the best opportunity
in a
decade to restore stability and end a devastating economic and
humanitarian
crisis that had seen the once prosperous country suffer rampant
inflation,
acute food shortages affecting more than half of the country's
population,
record unemployment and deepening poverty.
But reluctance by Western
donor governments to give financial support to the
Harare administration
could hamper its effectiveness. Western countries
insist they want to see
more reforms including a new and democratic
constitution before they can
give support.
Under the power-sharing agreement signed by Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who heads a smaller
MDC faction, a new
constitution should be in place within about 18 months
after which new
elections will be called. - ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
25
June 2009
By The
Zimbabwean
Five Student Leaders appeared in court in Bulawayo today
facing charges of
"participating in an unlawful gathering with an intention
to cause public
violence, bigotry and breach to peace, This is according to
chapter 37
(1)(a) of the Criminal Law and Codification Act. The charges
arose from a
demonstration organized by the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) on the
11th of November 2008.
The five are ZINASU
Treasurer General Sheunesu Nyoni, Brian Mtisi, Samson
Nxumalo, Melusi
Hlabano and Archieford Mudzengi.Ms Nqobile Ndlovu from the
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights representing the students arguing that the
court in
question must agree with the application that the case must be
referred to
the Supreme Court or be thrown away. She was citing a Supreme
Court ruling
three weeks ago in the case of Jenni Williams and Magodonga
Mahlangu vs.
Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. The
justification is
that Section 37(1) (a) of the Codification Act was declared
to be
unconstitutional because it takes away the same rights to freedom of
assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of association guaranteed in
Section 24.1 of the constitution.
Meanwhile Dr Lovemore Madhuku,the
the national chairperson of NCA attended
the court session but did not
testify as witness because of the new twist to
the case. The five will
appear in court on the 15th of July.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
22
June 2009
By Joel
Mhizha
HARARE - Human rights lawyers representing eight nationals from
the
Democratic Republic of Congo, who have been in remand prison for the
past
four months for disrupting the course of justice, have described the
reluctance to grant bail and deliberate delay in finalising the case as
tantamount to xenophobia.
Harare magistrate, Achy Ochiunga, has
ordered a new prosecutor to cover the
case after the court heard that Andrew
Mutsiwa, who was prosecuting from the
initial stage, resigned last week
Friday.
"This is gross incompetence on the part of the state, and it's
equivalent to
xenophobia given the fact that these foreign nationals were
denied bail
under unclear circumstances," said the lawyers in an interview
after the
court session. The case has been postponed to June
26.
Allegations are that the eight threatened Kudakwashe Ndudzo with
unspecified
action to stop her supplying information to the police who were
investigating a case of child abuse perpetrated by Sarah Bady.
Bady,
a Congolese national, has since been convicted and is serving a
five-year
jail term at Chikurubi Prison.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
22
June 2009
By Joel
Mhizha
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Republic Police Support Unit continuously
gets
directives from Zanu (PF) hardliners to beat and detain anyone
suspected to
be planning a demonstration without investigating the cause of
such
gatherings, said a top police official.
"Orders to beat up
anybody opposing Zanu (PF) are still coming from the
police top officials
who are not happy with the current political set-up.
"We are instructed
to harass civilians who happen to stage demos without
finding out the
reasons and basis for such actions. What we know as police
is that we can
only apply force to violent demonstrations, not small
law-abiding civilians
organizing their social meetings. The directives are
so barbaric and we have
told junior officers not to follow them," said the
senior policeman, who
requested anonymity for fear of victimization.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
23
June 2009
By The
Zimbabwean
MUTARE - Two of the five security agents facing allegations of
robbing a
suspected diamond dealer of US$17 580 have skipped the country.
The trial of
the five enforcement agents failed to kick off at Mutare
Magistrate court
last week after the two absconded the court session. A
warrant of arrest has
been issued for them.
The court
did not name the two accused, but sources told The Zimbabwean that
Kudzanai
Kuudzadombo (30) from the Central Intelligence Office in Mutare
fled to
South Africa while Simbarashe Mashayamombe fled to Mozambique.
The other
three accused who were attached to Operation Hakudzokwi in
Chiadzwa, Marange
are Bramwell Gengezha (31) of Changazi Support Unit base
in Birchenough
Bridge, Taka Gutsa (27) and Bernard Magaisa (41) - all army
intelligence
officers based in Masvingo.
In a state case led by prosecutor Jane-Rose
Matsikidze it is alleged that on
May 15 2009 Trust Mazonde, who is the
complainant, and Naison Dhlakama, a
Mozambican national, went to Chiadzwa
diamond fields with the intention of
buying some diamonds.
They went to
Itayi Kayisa's homestead and asked him to go and purchase the
precious gems
at Mashukashuka Business Centre.
While at the business centre, Kayisa was
approached by the five security
agents who accused him of dealing in
diamonds and harbouring foreign
currency dealers at his
homestead.
"Kayisa was ordered to drive them (the five) to his homestead
in his Toyota
truck. When they arrived at the homestead, everyone was
ordered to lie down
with their stomachs before assaulting everyone with
logs. They started
demanding diamonds and some cash. One of the security
officers then
brandished a service pistol at Mazonde's cheek," said
Matsikidze.
Fearing for his life, the court was told that Mazonde succumbed
to the
frightening security officers. He took US$13 500 from his pocket and
handed
it to one of the accused persons.
"Kayisa was forced to drive
back at Mashukashuka business centre to get more
money. Mazonde and Dhlakama
were told to disappear from the area. The
following day Mazonde reported the
matter to the police leading to the
arrest of the five," said
Matsikidze.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
23
June 2009
By The Zimbabwean
MUTARE
- Zimbabwe's popular musician Hosiah Chipanga has said he fears for
his life
after receiving threats from unknown callers over his latest album
Hero
Shoko (The Message) that has since been banned from the state airwaves.
(Pictured: Hosiah Chipanga)
In an interview with
The Zimbabwean this week Chipanga said: "This is a
mafia type of
blacklisting my latest album. I have talked to Webster Shamhu
(Minister of
Media, Information and Publicity) and he referred me to
Happison
Muchechetere (ZBC Chief Executive Officer). Muchechetere then
professed
ignorance on the banning of the album. He summoned Allan Chiweshe
(the head
of all radio stations). Chiweshe also professed ignorance and told
me that
my album was not banned. But, I have realized that they cannot admit
that
the album has been banned or disclose that they have been given orders
to
make sure that the album cannot be played on the airwaves," said
Chipanga.
The popular lyricist, famous for his hard-hitting
socio-economic commentary,
said he has since gathered that some top Zanu
(PF) chefs and war veterans
were responsible for banning the album.
A
presenter from Radio Zimbabwe, who requested anonymity for fear of
reprisals, said: "We have been told not to play the album." "I have tried to
make noise about my album, but they have told me to shut my mouth up. I am
now spreading the message through live shows and other private media. They
are now working on ways to block me to sing to the people on live shows,"
said Chipanga.
"I am now going to some embassies to seek political asylum
because I fear
for my safety."
He there was no point in Zanu (PF)
talking about reconciliation when people
are denied freedom of expression.
"Singing is my job so when they tell me to
shut up then I am rendered
jobless," said Chipanga.
http://www.voanews.com
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
24 June
2009
As Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wraps up a
three-week
re-engagement and fund-raising tour of Western capitals, the
European Union
has established a troika or working group to engage Harare
and normalize
relations between Zimbabwe and the EU.
But political
analysts warn that tensions between Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement
For Democratic
Change and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF could hinder
that
process.
The EU troika includes the Swedish and Czech ambassadors to
Zimbabwe along
with the European Union's representative in Harare. The
Zimbabwean
government will be represented by top officials from the foreign
and finance
ministries, among others.
Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC formation
this week said it is lodging a complaint with
the Southern African
Development Community, a guarantor of the power-sharing
arrangement, that
ZANU-PF is mounting a crackdown on its members in
violation of the global
political agreement.
The power-sharing partners also differ on how a new
constitution should be
drafted. There is already discord between the
government and civic groups on
the revision process.
President Mugabe
told the ZANU-PF central committee on Wednesday that the
new constitution
must be "guided" by the so-called Kariba compromise
constitutional draft
written by MDC and ZANU-PF party officials aboard a
houseboat in the Zambezi
River town in 2007.
Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Mr.
Mugabe's remarks reflected
"wishful thinking" as to how the country's basic
document should be
modified.
Mr. Mugabe also urged Mr. Tsvangirai to
demand of his Western interlocutors
that they lift the sanctions imposed on
him and his inner circle for the
better part of a decade.
Mr.
Tsvangirai was in Paris on Wednesday for the final stop in his
diplomatic
voyage. He was scheduled to meet with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy on
Thursday.
Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube of the MDC
formation led by
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that normalization of relations
with the European
Union is a priority.
Political analyst
Pedzisayi Ruhanya said reforms in Harare - not talks with
the EU - are most
needed to return Zimbabwe to the community of nations.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=18772
June 25, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
THE financially-troubled National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) says it will
embark on a programme aimed at raising public awareness
on what it described
as dangers of a parliamentary-driven constitutional
reform process.NCA
chairperson, Lovemore Madhuku said there had been a
change in programming
from what they had set themselves to do as the NCA
after Parliament
announced the roll-out of its own consultative
programmes.
The NCA, instead, announced it would also embark on parallel
constitutional
consultative meetings in which it sought to come up with its
own draft
constitution.
However, donors reportedly pulled out after
the announcement of the parallel
process, with most of them joining the
funding of the parliament-driven
process.
This however, left Madhuku
and his NCA smarting from financial problems that
have seen the organization
shelving the plans for a parallel process.
Madhuku, told The Zimbabwe
Times in an interview Thursday, the NCA would now
concentrate on educating
the masses on the dangers and pitfalls of the
current constitution-making
process.
"We have decided we will not be part and parcel of the entire
process of
consulting the people parallel to the one Parliament is embarking
on,"
Madhuku said.
"We have, instead decided to embark on a process
that seeks to educate the
people the weaknesses, dangers, and other pitfalls
associated with the
current constitutional consultation process."
He
added that at the moment, there was agreement amongst NCA and other
forces
that the current process could not have been the best for Zimbabwe.
He said
despite that agreement, the NCA and its allies were convinced the
process
could still produce a flawed outcome.
"What we have set ourselves to do
is that we will educate the people on
these pitfalls so that when they take
part in that flawed process, they are
clear on what they are putting
themselves into," said Madhuku.
He revealed that after the process by
parliament has been concluded, the NCA
would "bounce back into activity as
Zimbabwe proceeds to produce a draft
constitution which will eventually be
the basis of the country's new
constitution.
He said: "After they
have managed to deal with their consultations, we will
be very active once
again as we seek to help Zimbabweans realize the
weaknesses of that draft
constitution.
"For now, we are saying let them go ahead with their
process and let us see
whether that will bring about the desired changes
that Zimbabweans want."
The NCA position follows the roll-out of the
parliamentary process which is
expected to gobble up about US$36 million in
outreach programmes.
http://www.alertnet.org/
25 Jun 2009 08:56:21 GMT
Source:
Reuters
ROME, June 25 (Reuters) -Zimbabwe's agricultural production is
estimated to
have risen significantly this year but many people still face
serious
problems finding basic foods, the United Nations said on
Thursday.
"High food insecurity persists in Zimbabwe in spite of
improvements in
agricultural production and a more liberal import policy
this year," said
the report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation
and World Food
Programme.
http://www.voanews.com
By Sandra Nyaira and Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
24 June 2009
Though Zimbabwe Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's told investors in London
this week that foreigners
should be allowed to hold majority stakes in
mining enterprises, some
observers question whether President Robert Mugabe
is likely to accept this
reform.
The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act signed into law
15 months
ago by Mr. Mugabe says Zimbabweans may assume 51% stakes in
foreign-owned
companies. Although the law does not specify which companies
are subject to
such a transfer of ownership, the legislation was aimed in
particular at the
country's mining sector.
Economist Prosper
Chitambara of the Labor and Economic Development Research
Institute told
reporter Sandra Nyaira of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe he does
not think Mr.
Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party will agree to repealing or
revising the act
whatever the potential benefits in terms of increased
foreign direct
investment in the sector.
Elsewhere, Economic Planning Minister Elton
Mangoma told investors in London
that Harare has no plans to re-introduce
the Zimbabwe dollar and will
continue with the current monetary regimen of
hard currencies such as the
U.S dollar, aiming to bolster investor
confidence.
Economist Callisto Jokonya told VOA reporter Jonga Kandemiiri
he supports
the continued circulation of the U.S dollar, the South African
rand and
other hard currencies.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Mufaro
Gunduza Thursday 25 June 2009
OPINION: It is true
that between 1980 and 1990 Zimbabwe witnessed an
unprecedented golden leap
in skills development largely because of the
Marxist aspirations of a
developmental state, ideals whose success relied
heavily on vigorous mass
literacy campaigns.
It was expedient for the new government to double if
not triple the number
of school teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers,
artisans and technicians
among other critical areas.
The collapse of
the Soviet Union to whom we were greatly affiliated and
append-aged created
new realities on the ground. Such a radical grand plan
had to be revised if
it was to be sustainable.
Moreso, as a country we had produced enough
teachers and emphasis had to be
placed elsewhere.
The country had
dumped the socialist outfit in 1990 in favour of the free
market system (the
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme), which is the
basis of capitalist
state. What we had painfully and passionately put
together in terms of the
national skills vision was unfortunately no longer
sustainable.
Also
the interface between socio-economic realities and national curricula
was
waning and a yawning gap became apparent.
The challenge then was: should
we bury our heads in the sands of time and
wish that this set up would
correct itself somehow or should we re-orient
our national skills vision and
redesign the foundations of the new fully
fledged capitalist economic order
which was yearning for cutting-edge
entrepreneurial drive as its Trojan
horse.
Surprisingly intellectuals were still riding on the crest and
entrapments of
the euphoria of independence. The communist injection which
they had
received at independence had proved to be quite an
overdose.
They were engaged in useless moral debates about the sanity of
socialism and
the unrighteousness of capitalism.
At a curriculum
level universities and associated colleges were in some kind
of limbo and
they adopted a wait and see attitude.
This is the moment when the role of
the African intelligentsia as a
curriculum developer, planner and change
agent was severely tested and found
wanting.
It became clear that the
African intellectual was like the proverbial owl
with fake horns. He was a
comprador knowledge lackey.
He was used to the culture of being
baby-seated by his erstwhile colonial
professors. He was a willing perpetual
infant with infantilised habits. He
lacked creativity and innovation. He was
imprisoned in an academic
penitentiary with a straight jacket mindset and
pigeon-holed thinking
patterns, an outfit which was to warm to discard in
favor of un-chartered
terrain.
In fact he was a chameleon caught up
between the cobweb of lack of
confidence and the hesitancy to revamp the
national curriculum.
Universities are knowledge dispensing institutions.
They are barracudas of
new insights, research and transformation. Because of
the educational
massification tendencies of the 80s and 90s universities
were compelled to
admit more numbers.
This scenario overwhelmed the
black comprador intellectual. Previously, they
had literally boot-licked
their way to these positions because the system
had been oppressive.
Surprisingly they started meting the same blockade on
upcoming black
intellectuals of the "free-born" outfit.
The balkanisation of university
departments by the comprador intellectual
elites became entrenched. The new
young black intellectual was considered to
be the "uninitiated" or a member
of those "with milk not yet dry on their
lips".
Academic posts would
go vacant for years even though there were qualified
personnel from the
departmental threshing floors being churned out every
year.
The
comprador elite felt threatened by the very products that were coming
from
their academic assembly lines. It is true that the partridge loves peas
but
not the ones that go into the pot with it. The partridge syndrome became
endemic.
Departments and faculties were being run as personal or
family spaza shops
where certain unscrupulous intellectual demi-gods
possessed a magisterial
final say over matters of staff
recruitment.
They behaved like bird chichidodo in Ayi Kwei Armah's The
Beautiful Ones Are
Not Yet Born. It makes public pronouncements about its
hatred of human
excrement yet it feeds on the maggots or worms that breed
from that very
excrement.
They caused the first wave of brain drain
among academics in the country.
The first crop of skills flight in
Zimbabwean universities was influenced by
the tsunamic frustration meted out
on them rather than economic push and
pull factors.
There are several
cases or instances whereby some academics who were fed up
with this type of
patronage quit the entire academic enterprise altogether
and sought fresh
careers in the non-academic spheres of life.
People who would attain
master's degrees would literally fossilise in their
uncomfortable positions
as teaching assistants half their careers yet
elsewhere in the world if one
had a master's degree he/she would
automatically qualify as a
lecturer.
Doctorates were mystified and fetishised as the preserve of
these
self-imposed intellectual extremists. The processes and procedures to
acquire these qualifications were shrouded in arduous terminology and
presented as impregnable fortresses.
This was meant to burn the crap
out of the uninitiated candidates. Several
candidates surrendered their
studies midway in despair and disdain.
This intellectual
confidence-breaking practice styled along the lines of the
"Berlin wall"
mentality to academia took many shapes and forms. Such wicked
rites of
passage robbed the learning process of the enthusiasm and
excitement of
discovering new ideas.
It is common knowledge that the knowledge making
enterprise has more to
offer than the accumulation of grey hairs. In this
instance it propelled
academics into a state of derangement in the form of
nutty-professors.
It hatched academics of the parochial category and
researchers of the
narrow-minded scope outfit who were taught to discover
the foundations of
the earth in a grain of sand: an exercise in
futility!
Today these academics of the skewed mentality type are many.
They still bear
visible signs and symptoms of intellectual torture as if
thought processes
are painful per se.
Creativity was stifled,
research enthusiasm dampened, confidence levels
dented and enmities created
for life.
It is my humble submission that if the education system in
Zimbabwe is to be
revitalised, academics and curriculum planners have to
check themselves 360
degrees before pointing fingers at others.
They
need to look themselves inside-out and outside-in if to dissect and
trace
where the rain began to beat us for when one wants to trace the root
of
murder he has to go to the village and look for the blacksmith who made
the
machete!
Mufaro Gunduza is a Professor of Business Ethics and Strategic
Leadership.
He has taught at Zimbabwe Open University, University of
Zimbabwe, Walter
Sisulu University and UNISA. He is currently developing and
establishing
multimedia articulated blended learning platforms at Mount
Carmel University
Without Walls. He can be contacted on mgunduza@yahoo.co.uk -- ZimOnline
The current world is
characterized by global inequalities, discrimination,
coercion and
brutality. These attributes are always morally wrong for they
show no
respect for persons. Since the moral responsibility of the state is
to its
people, an opportunity to draft a constitution in this environment
can
present an opportunity to embody ethical or moral laws into public laws
and
policies. The strength of embodiment of moral laws lies in the notion
that
universal laws play themselves out in different venues and demands on
place
and agents, while ultimate moral principles have long been regarded as
inviolate across people. Their applicability remains impartial, universal
and constant in time and place.
The legitimacy of the
constitutional process and the constitution itself is
measured by the degree
to which the process is participatory, open,
democratic, socially (William
2006). The open participatory notion is
enshrined in the moral principle of
respect for persons and respect for
autonomy. Autonomy and respect for
autonomy are terms loosely associated
with several ideas, such as privacy,
free choice, etc (Beauchamp 1997:
185-208). It, as the ability and freedom
to make the choices that shape our
lives, is quite crucial in giving to each
life its own special and peculiar
value (Harris 1995: 11). In Kantian terms,
human beings have "an intrinsic
worth, that is, dignity," which makes them
valuable "above all price"
(Rachels 1987: 130) and hence the need to treat
them as ends in themselves.
In some constitutional making processes,
constitutional compromise was
dictated by the mutual dependence of the
political parties (Burnham 1997).
This seems to be going against the moral
principle of self-determination as
claims should be made to liberty,
individual autonomy and justice in
reaching compromise as these principles
are timeless.
Enshrined as basic tenets of ethics are various
rights accorded to humans
like the right to freedom to participate or not to
participate in research,
the right not to be harmed, deceived, or exploited,
and the right to be
treated with dignity and fairness. It is prudent that
The Constitutional
Commissions (CC) should serve as a third party that has
the mandate to
review and minimize conflict of interests, just like Research
Ethics
Committees (RECs). Through what they do and what they do not do, the
CC can
act as a moral authority to structure the moral and legislative
environment.
However, the quality and efficiency of constitutional making
may be
fundamentally a function of the expertise constituting the respective
commission, among others. It is plausible that difficulties could emerge if
the CC lacks expertise within its membership in the respective fields of
inquiry, leading to lack of full examination of certain sections. One of the
functions of the CC includes research and expert consultation, during which
the Commissioners will research and consult with relevant experts on
constitutional options for the Constitution. However, certain areas could be
negated where such competence and expertise lack. Preponderance of a people
in similar expertise could affect the commission's function. How members are
appointed onto the CC will determine the expertise that exists in these
commissions. The political appointment of members to a CC poses some
challenges which could impact on its integrity, independence and efficiency.
It could also negate the multidisciplinary and multi-sector framework that
is vital for good CC functioning.
In Afghanistan, the
Constitutional Commission consisted of approximately 30
commissioners
appointed by the President, where the President also appointed
the Chair of
the Commission from among the commissioners. This poses as a
problem as the
commissioners would be vulnerable to political manipulation.
These have
grave consequences both in terms of erosion public trust in
governmental
activities and morality of the country.
In conclusion the
constitutional making process is an ethical process where
the CC serves as a
moral authority that structures the moral and legislative
environment. Their
ethical oversight of the consultation processes serves a
public affirmation
to the government's commitment to respecting of persons
and morality of the
country as a whole. The CC should be balanced and
commissioners should have
no conflict of interests so as to maintain the
integrity, independence and
efficiency of the commission. Bioethicists are
usually underrepresented in
these commissions and should take their place in
moulding the morality of
the nation.
Dr. R. Chawana
(Medical Practitioner
and Bioethicist)
University of the Witwatersrand
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
Dear Friends
There has been a religious
foundation on the Southwark site where the
present Cathedral stands for over
a thousand years. I wonder if, in all
those centuries, there have been many
scenes that matched in sheer drama
what happened there on Saturday June
20th.
Southwark Cathedral has strong ties with Zimbabwe and the Bishop of
Southwark is himself clearly in sympathy with the Movement for Democratic
Change and has links to many parishes in Zimbabwe. There was thus no reason
for him to think that Saturday's address by the Prime Minister would be any
other than a joyful occasion. Zimbabweans had travelled from all over the UK
to be present to hear Morgan Tsvangirai address them. The vast cathedral was
crowded with over a thousand Zimbabweans. I was one of them and what follows
is my personal reaction to the tumultuous scene we witnessed.
After
two weeks of travel to various capitals and being feted by Heads of
State,
including President Obama of the US., Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in
London.
Perhaps the Zimbabwean Prime Minister was a touch complacent about
the
welcome he would receive from his own compatriots but whatever the
reason he
was certainly ill-prepared for what happened. It started so well;
he entered
the Cathedral to a warm welcome from the huge crowd. There was no
doubt at
all that we all loved him and wished him well. So what happened,
where did
it all go wrong? There had been press reports all week that the
Prime
Minister was going to urge the people to go back to Zimbabwe. Indeed
on that
very Saturday, the UK Independent carried a whole page headed 'Come
home,
Tsvangirai tells ex-pats. Prime Minister comes to London with message
for
the Zimbabwean diaspora.' I read it on the train going into London; we
knew
in advance what he was going to say and they were almost his first
words as
he stood in the pulpit of this ancient church. That was Morgan
Tsvangiral's
biggest mistake. He totally failed to gauge the mood of his
audience and he
failed to understand the strength of feeling among his
compatriots, many of
whom had lost everything and been brutalised and
tortured by the Mugabe
regime. By the time he was telling the audience that
'peace and stability
prevailed in Zimbabwe,' that schools and hospital were
open again and that
there were goods in the shops, Morgan Tsvangirai had
completely lost his
audience. He was hit by a wave of highly vocal anger and
he stood apparently
bemused by what he was hearing. Instead of raising his
voice and reasserting
his authority he simply left the pulpit; that was the
very worst thing he
could have done. When he returned some minutes later, he
made things even
worse by asking in a rather aggrieved way, 'Did I say start
packing now? No,
I said you should be thinking about going home.' As if we
don't think about
that all the time, the audience muttered angrily. The
questions from the
floor, apart from being very badly organised, were direct
and to the point.
'What is there for us to go back to while Mugabe is still
there?' And that
was the focal point for the crowd's anger; a huge shout
went up, 'Mugabe
Out, Mugabe Out' but of course, Tsvangirai couldn't respond
to that. After
all, he sits in partnership with the same man who has given
and is still
giving the orders to continue the oppression of all dissenting
voices. The
'change' we all long for has not come about and the original MDC
slogan,
'Chinga' has become no more than an ironical comment on the path the
MDC has
taken.
Utterly sickened by it all, I walked out of the cathedral only to
find
hundreds of people already outside. Intensely angry and profoundly
disappointed, they sang out their fury at the Prime Minister's message. I
spoke to lots of people and I heard nothing but intense disappointment: 'The
struggle continues' was the message from everyone I spoke to. What should
have been an occasion for renewed hope and belief in the future had turned
into a miserable fiasco. One woman, shaking with anger, said "I was raped,
my children were beaten and traumatised and Morgan Tsvangirai tells me to go
back, go back to what?" she demanded.
I was no longer in the
cathedral when Tendai Biti attempted to speak but I
understand he was
drowned out and the meeting ended with the MDC team being
led out of the
cathedral by the clerics. It was all over, at least an hour
earlier than
expected. There are many possible explanations for the
ignominious failure
of the Prime Minister to make his case. While I
understand the choice of
Southwark Cathedral as a 'neutral' venue, the
setting itself did not make
for a suitable meeting place. All the chairs had
been removed so the crowd
were standing for a long time; the PM was late
arriving; the sound system
was so poor that much of the input was
practically inaudible; there was no
obvious chairman to control the meeting
and the question and answer session
was consequently chaotic. My own
impression, however, is that Morgan
Tsvangiri himself was not prepared. I
had the distinct feeling that he had
given little thought to what he was
going to say. Perhaps, after weeks of
international adulation he just could
not believe that his harshest critics
would be his own countrymen and women?
Yes, there may have been
trouble-makers in the audience but if there were,
they were tapping into the
very real anger of the crowd. Whatever the
reason, Saturday June 20th was a
disaster for Morgan Tsvangirai and the
media, who were present in force in
the Cathedral, were not slow to pick up
the story. For Zimbabweans in the
diaspora their Prime Minister himself had
given the British authorities the
perfect reason to send them home. Why
should the British Home Office allow
them to stay here when the Zimbabwean
Prime Minister tells his own people
that there is 'peace and stability' in
Zimbabwe? Just the day before the
Prime Minister made that nonsensical
claim, the Woza women were savagely
beaten by the police and the violent
farm invasions were continuing but the
Prime Minister made no mention of
those unpleasant truths.
As they
left the Cathedral, people were asking why could Morgan Tsvangirai
not just
have told them the truth; that things were not yet right at home
but that
he and his fellow MDC ministers were working hard to rectify the
situation?
Instead, he was assuring them all was well. He forgets that all
of us in the
diaspora are in regular communication with families and friends
back home.
We understand very well the reality on the ground. He also
forgets that
without the hard-earned cash contributions from Zimbabweans in
the diaspora,
thousands of families at home might never have survived. Yet,
still, he
tells us to Go home. Go home to what? To a country where there is,
on Tendai
Biti's own admission, 94% unemployment and NGO's are feeding an
estimated 5
million people, expected to rise to 7 million next year. It was
all utterly
incomprehensible and has left Zimbabweans in the UK diaspora
stunned and
bereft of hope. Instead of an honest and realistic assessment of
the
situation, the truth was distorted and the man we trusted, the man who
was
our hero has shown himself no more honest than any other
politician.
Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF will be laughing all the way to the
ballot box.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka Pauline Henson
author of Going
Home and Countdown, political detective stories set in
Zimbabwe and
available on Amazon and Lulu.com.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=18800
June 25, 2009
Geoffrey
Nyarota
OF late I detect an unfortunate tendency among some readers of
The Zimbabwe
Times, especially those who were opposition supporters when the
Movement for
democratic Change (MDC) was still the nation's official
opposition party.
They will rush to lash out fiercely at fellow readers
as well as the Editor,
should they have the temerity to articulate any
sentiment viewed as being
critical, however mildly, of the MDC in general or
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, in particular.
Their favourite
stratagem is to instantly brand both the Editor and such
readers as
supporters of Zanu-PF or lovers of President Mugabe. An observer
would be
excused if he reached the conclusion that such MDC zealots were
placed in a
freezer around August, 2008, only to be defrosted last week,
during the
Prime Ministers tour of Washington DC and European capitals.
The Prime
Minister is currently faced with an increasingly daunting
challenges and
thankless tasks. It would be a miracle if he were not to make
the odd error
of judgement. On reflection, the Prime Minister's visit to the
United States
and the ferocious defence by the party faithful thereafter of
all of his
actions, both there and in Europe thereafter, remind me of the
story of Rip
van Winkle.
The fascinating story of Rip is set in the years before and
after the
American Revolution during the last half of the 18th Century. A
villager of
Dutch descent, Rip Van Winkle, lived in a nice village at the
foot of New
York's Catskill Mountains. He was a quiet and amiable man, whose
his home
and farm suffered from his lazy neglect.
One day he wandered
up the mountains to escape his nagging wife. Up in the
mountains he
encountered strangely dressed men and proceeded to partake in
the liquor
they offered.
He settled down under a shady tree as he succumbed to the
soporific effect
of the portent brew. Rip woke up 20 years thereafter and
returned to his
village, only to discover that his wife had died. He was
informed that his
close friends had died in a war or moved
elsewhere.
Rip van Winkle got into trouble when he proclaimed that he was
a loyal
subject of King George III, not knowing that the American
Revolutionary War
had taken place and the reign of the king had been
consigned to the annals
of the young nation's history.
Over the past
two weeks the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe has travelled the
length and breath
of Europe and astounded us all by heaping praise on
President Mugabe.
Presumably that is the price that we are all now forced to
pay for our folly
in meekly accepting without question or protest the
government of national
unity which was thrust upon us by Messrs Robert
Gabriel Mugabe (85), Morgan
Richard Tsvangirai (57) and Arthur Guseni Oliver
Mutambara (born May 25
1966) in September 2008.
An opinion piece crafted by Jonathan Steele, a
columnist in The Guardian of
London is illuminating.
The article in
question appears on this page under the headline: "PM
preaches
reconciliation with Mugabe."
"I am not a Mandela," Steele quotes Prime
Minister Tsvangirai as saying
poignantly and rather incongruously as he
urged British ministers and media
interviewers to drop what the journalist
described as their fixation with
seeing Robert Mugabe punished.
"Well
said, Morgan," Steele intoned in his article. "It's a tough and
unpopular
line to take, but there is no better way."
Well, like the Prime Minister,
I am no Mandela either, I will hasten to
point out kindly to readers who
will brook no criticism of the MDC, however
mild, or of Prime Minister
Tsvangirai. In fact, I have a vivid recollection
of being excoriated by
readers in these columns before the March elections
when I made a similar
proposal. I suppose their ranks were inflated by many
in the MDC as well as
in the British political and media establishments when
I made what must have
sounded like a sell-put suggestion.
In the original article published in
The Financial Gazette under the
headline "Proposal for a 'win-win' solution
to Zimbabwe's current", I
proposed that the time may have arrived for the
MDC to consider cutting some
form of deal with Mugabe so that he would
relinquish his control on power,
such deal being in the interests of
national development.
"Essentially, they (the people of Zimbabwe) would
be requested to choose
between holding Mugabe permanently hostage in State
House to the continuing
detriment of the nation while hoping to inflict
punishment on him one day;
or releasing him on some irrevocable guarantee of
immunity so that we can
get on with the momentous task of rebuilding our
nation and rehabilitating
our wrecked economy," I argued.
The article
was published on June 1, 2006.
A few weeks earlier the MDC leader,
Tsvangirai and his party's then new
secretary general Tendai Biti, had
visited London.
Biti had been quoted by Reuters news agency as having
disclosed that the MDC
had accepted in principle a proposal to grant to
Mugabe immunity from
prosecution for human rights violations, if that would
help to save the
nation from further catastrophe.
In my article I
made reference to another article, one published back in
May, 2005, in the
respected British newspaper The Times. In this article
revered Africanist,
Richard Dowden postulated: "There is a chance of an
internal deal that may
involve immunity for past crimes. Zimbabwe may be one
of the places where
justice has to be delayed - perhaps until the next
world - for the sake of
peace."
The Prime Minister during his current tour abroad has presented
himself as
one prepared to extend the hand of reconciliation to President
Mugabe. His
predicament is that there is no guarantee that the President
will seize that
hand firmly in his grip, while giving and undertaking in
return to deliver
on various outstanding issues in terms of the much
maligned GPA.
A good take-off point for such delivery would be those
issues whose delivery
requires no financial investment; liberation of the
media environment, for
instance.
Meanwhile to those who feel betrayed
when The Zimbabwe Times castigates the
MDC, in our nation's new political
dispensation, any professional newspaper
has, of necessity, to be watchdog
over both Zanu-PF and the MDC - a tough
assignment that. The MDC is no
longer the opposition. It is now an intrinsic
part of the government of
Zimbabwe, notwithstanding that it is now
effectively confusing the public by
publishing its own government newspaper
to challenge the other government
newspapers.
More importantly, the MDC has moved to centre stage of
political activity
and governance, while Zanu-PF has effectively retreated
to the sidelines,
with some of its functionaries becoming virtually dormant.
It is those who
are active who are bound to make mistakes that invite
censure.
By the way, I have a burning wish that our colleagues in the
British press
would appreciate that the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe is not an
Englishman
and can, therefore, not officially be referred to as plain
Morgan. His name
is Morgan Tsvangirai (57) or Tsvangirai. Strangely, they
don't refer to
British Premier, Gordon Brown (58), as plain
Gordon.
Just one year between the two cannot make such a world of
difference.