Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC out of touch with supporters – Madhuku

MDC out of touch with supporters – Madhuku
Floyd Nkomo
Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:47:00 +0000
UNCONVINCED: Dr Lovemore Madhuku

THE current leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change party led by Morgan Tsvangirai is desperate to go into the partnership deal with Zanu PF and has lost touch with the feelings of their own members, according to constitutional lawyer and Chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly of Zimbabwe, Dr. Lovemore Madhuku.

“The current MDC leadership is desperate to go into the partnership deal but not the people,” said Madhuku to SW Radio referring to the Global Power-Sharing Agreement signed by the two MDC formations and the ruling Zanu PF party. “MDC is out of touch with the feelings of their own members,” he continued.

Madhuku added that the leadership of the MDC signed a deal with Zanu PF on September 15 without having thought it through and are now desperately trying to justify signing that deal to their supporters.

With reference to the MDC’s current demands including the control of the Home Affairs Ministry and the sharing of Provincial Governor positions, Madhuku said that the MDC leadership is pushing for a few more concessions which will help them save face as people will be led to believe that they (the MDC) achieved something.

He said that the MDC party is “praying that Mugabe makes a few more concessions and they will be seen to have achieved something” from that deal. “This is an afterthought,” said Madhuku.

He criticised demands by the MDC that a full Sadc summit be convened arguing that the expanded summit will not help break the current deadlock. He said Sadc, as a regional body in which Zimbabwe is a member, cannot force the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) to adopt a particular approach or to sign any deal, adding that the regional body can only make recommendations to the GOZ..

“Sadc would not have power to force (President) Mugabe to do anything. It only makes recommendations. Those recommendations will not bind the parties.”

Madhuku dismissed the suggestion that Sadc could pressurise President Mugabe into making further concessions to the MDC party arguing that the number of Zanu PF “friends” in the regional organisation increases as the number of countries discussing the Zimbabwean situation increases. He said the number of African leaders supporting President Mugabe further increases at the African Union level.

“(President) Mugabe has more friends in a full Sadc summit, and even more in the African Union,” said Madhuku implying that the MDC might have made a serious miscalculation in calling for an Extraordinary Summit of the whole Sadc group, rather than trying to find a resolution at the Troika (the Organ on Politics, Security and Defence) level.

Earlier in the week, Madhuku told Reuters that "the greater pressure will be on Tsvangirai because many Sadc leaders believe that Mugabe has already climbed down low enough."

Madhuku dismissed the suggestion that the United Nations will be able to pressure President Mugabe to cede the Home Affairs Ministry to the MDC arguing that the question of allocation of ministries will not be entertained at that diplomatic level, where more pressing issues are discussed. Issues threatening international (and/or regional) peace and security are discussed at the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council stages and the issues of the allocation of ministries are best handled at the national level.

According to Madhuku, the dispute over one ministry is not a threat to international or regional peace and security.

“The new dispute is over the allocation of ministries, not that he (President Mugabe) doesn’t want to work with the Opposition,” said Madhuku adding that “appealing to the UN General Assembly or the Security Council in this instance will not help.”

To these bodies “the dispute looks too small now.”

“The Security Council will not be able to do anything as they are bound by the principle of non-interference” in the domestic affairs of a member nation.

Madhuku says he does not see President Mugabe making any further concessions and thinks a new deal is unlikely to be signed. “I can foresee a situation where a new round of negotiations will take place which will see a new set of elections” for Zimbabwe.

In a separate interview with AFP news agency, Madhuku said that his organisation was “not very hopeful” that a power-sharing arrangement will be agreed by the principals, President Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara of the smaller MDC faction.

He said both MDC and Zanu PF “have been changing goal-posts and one wonders why they signed the agreement.”

Madhuku sees the different positions of President Mugabe and Tsvangirai as indicators of their irreconcilable differences and their inability to work together in an all-inclusive Government.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of Sadc, Tomaz Salamao said he was positive an agreement between the two Zimbabwean leaders would be reached and that a Plan B was irrelevant. Salamao’s sentiments are in line with the sentiments expressed by Sadc leaders in a communiqué issued after Monday’s Troika summit in Harare calling for President Mugabe and Tsvangirai to engage in talks to break the impasse.

Labels: LOVEMORE MADHUKU, MDC, NEGOTIATIONS

posted by MrK @ 12:01 AM