Maravi

Civil society asks Tsvangirai to withdraw from unity talks

Civil society asks Tsvangirai to withdraw from unity talks
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Wednesday August 20, 2008 [04:00]

ZIMBABWE’S civil society organisations have urged Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of the unity government talks, saying it is obvious that President Robert Mugabe will not give him powers to be the executive leader. The National Constitution Assembly (NCA), a coalition of 43 civil society organisations, said the failure of a breakthrough in the talks was evidennce that President Robert Mugabe was unwilling to relinquish some of his executive powers.

NCA leader Lovemore Madhuku said Tsvangirai should report to the Zimbabwean people that the talks had failed, and reorganise a united front with civil society, students, churches and labour groups.

"If he wants to run the country, he must get back to what has always been the way forward. He must put pressure here and build a force here that pushes Mugabe out. So he should pull out of the talks," said Madhuku, who is also a constitutional law expert and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe on Sunday said he would not concede more than what he had already offered in the negotiations.

Last week, Tsvangirai walked out of talks with President Mugabe arguing that the incumbent was unwilling to relinquish any real power.

The political rivals then shifted the venue of their talks to the SADC summit in South Africa but that meeting was also unsuccessful in breaking the impasse.
Madhuku said President Mugabe was not the sort of person who would compromise and that SADC was not a body that would force him to.

However, the SADC organ on politics, defence and security at the just-ended summit in Johannesburg gave a go-ahead for Parliament to convene.
Section 62 of the Laws of Zimbabwe stipulates that the country should not be governed without a Parliament for more than 180 days.

The SADC organ's statement has been viewed by the MDC as an attempt by the regional body to pressure the MDC into signing a deal, as convening Parliament without consensus would be breaching the Memorandum of Understanding by the parties that was signed on July 21.

However, political analyst John Jumbe said President Mugabe was free to convene Parliament because the MoU could not override the law.

"We are well past the legal deadline for Parliament to convene. Legally, the MoU does not override the constitution. It is merely a contract between the political parties, which cannot contradict the supreme law of the land. On the other hand, a Parliament convened late will not on that account be an illegal Parliament," Jumbe said.
He said the late convening of Parliament had caused the government to violate the law with regard to appropriation of its expenditure.

"The last Appropriation Act was passed by Parliament in December 2007. In view of current inflation, an Appropriation (Supplementary) Act is now overdue, which presumably means that ministries are being allocated supplementary funds not voted by Parliament," said Jumbe. "There is a constitutional provision allowing this for a limited period as long as any such expenditure is submitted to Parliament for confirmation by an Appropriation Act and is accounted for in accordance with that Act. This provision assumes no more that 180 days between parliaments, which means the principle of a government having to get expenditure approved by Parliament is now being violated."

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEGOTIATIONS, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 5:17 AM