Maravi

Zimbabwe: there's need to get the facts right!

Zimbabwe: there's need to get the facts right!
By Editor
Mon 23 Nov. 2009, 04:02 CAT

For now there's no sensible alternative to a unity government in Zimbabwe. The problems and challenges facing that country cannot be solved without unity among all the key political forces in that country.

Therefore the resumption of government duties by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his team of MDC ministers in the inclusive government of Zimbabwe after a three-week boycott is a necessity.

This is a very important step not only for progress in efforts aimed at rebuilding the country's economy shattered over the last decade, but also to allow this transitional structure called the inclusive government to meet the important time frame of re-writing the constitution that will usher free and fair elections in 2011.

We note with some degree of sadness, however, that the two principal parties in the inclusive government - ZANU-PF and MDC - have not yet resolved their stand-off but have been given 15 to 30 days in which to do so by SADC. Whether or not they will meet this deadline and resolve their issues for the sake of progress, we don't know.

Our major concern has been the substance of the issues that have widened the chasm between these principal partners of this inclusive government. When the MDC disengaged from their marriage of convenience with ZANU-PF, they presented a catalogue of issues that caused their protest.

Chief among them was that President Robert Mugabe has not yet appointed the five provincial governors from the MDC and that the appointments of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr Gideon Gono and that of the Attorney General Johannes Tomana have to be revoked. The MDC also argued that President Mugabe was failing to swear in Roy Bennett, whom Tsvangirai has appointed to take over as deputy agriculture minister in the inclusive government, and that MDC legislators were targets of selective application of the law.

There were other sundry issues regarding the "unilateral changing" of some ministerial mandates by ZANU-PF, the "hate-speech" in the public media, the slow rate of movement in reforming the media environment and the constitution, as well as the land audit.

These are the issues that the MDC put forward to justify their staying away from cabinet meetings and the council of ministers meetings for 21 days.

But there's need to get the real facts right.

To us, these do not seem to be the real issues that should warrant the breakdown of the inclusive government, which has so far brought hope in hearts of many suffering Zimbabweans.

The major problem in Zimbabwe, in our opinion, which even caused the inclusive government to be established has been what we can call the flaws in the supreme law that have over the years made it impossible for the country to hold free and fair elections. This has been the major issue, and following the events of last year's violent run-off election which forced Tsvangirai to pull out of the race, it was decided that a transitional structure be created to deal with this issue, to amend the constitution within a specified period of time and lay ground for fresh free and fair elections.

MDC has always complained that all the elections they have sought to challenge ZANU-PF have not been free and fair and the reason for the establishment of the inclusive government, which is a time-bound transitional authority, was to create a transitional authority that will last up to 36 months to remove these unfair conditions that have caused "slanted" elections by crafting a new constitution that will allow a level playing field.

This should be the utmost preoccupation of the MDC in the inclusive government: to see to it that by 2011, a new constitution is in place to pave way for the holding of a free and fair election that they have been crying for.

Already, the constitution review process is underway and we would think the MDC should pre-occupy itself with the finest details of this new constitution, not whether Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana are still holding their positions.

Already certain reforms towards sanitising the political environment are underway. New commissions, namely, the Zimbabwe Media Commission, the Independent Electoral Commission, The Human Rights Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission are being crafted by both ZANU-PF and MDC. The speed at which this is happening may be undesirably slow, but there is undeniably some movement. We would think these are the reforms on which the MDC should apply their energies.

While we accept that ZANU-PF may not have entirely upheld the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to the letter, MDC has also acted in a manner that does not inspire confidence through their ability to rise above their narrow power interests to tackle the many problems afflicting the country.

These issues over which the MDC had disengaged from the coalition are not the real issues. As opposition leader Dr Simba Makoni rightly observes, these are issues of "jobs for the boys and girls" and not policies that can deliver real change for Zimbabweans. People want stable and permanent jobs, economic development, repair of dilapidated infrastructure, food, functioning health and education systems and social support networks.

The people want their respect and dignity back. We have said before that people are now more concerned with bread and butter issues and are of the opinion that the inclusive government has thus far delivered. They are not so concerned about how Tsvangirai is relating with President Mugabe in it. It is quite evident that most Zimbabweans do not want to relive the suffering they endured in the past decade, especially the past two years, when the economy almost ground to a halt. They went for days on end without money or food and bore the brunt of political violence. They want to move forward.

Since MDC went into government, they have not put forward policy initiatives aimed at pulling the country out of the crisis. Most of the positive developments that have happened have been by the default reason of dollarisation which began illegally in October and was legalised by the ZANU-PF government when the then acting Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa presented the 2009 budget in late January, just two weeks before the inclusive government was established.

While people want economic stability and development to prevail, the focus unfortunately among ZANU-PF and MDC has been who has much power over whom; who has the command and control of what unit. The parties have been jostling over positions in this structure that is not even permanent.

And because MDC has always been preaching change, people expect MDC to demonstrate that they can govern the country and facilitate prosperity through policies that are different from those of ZANU-PF. This can only show people that they are a serious party. We are afraid this is not happening.

Unless MDC can show the people that these issues that caused them to disengage from the government are so critical, then their action will be difficult to justify to the people of Zimbabwe.

Unless they can show us that Gono and Tomana will impede the crafting of the new constitution, then their action will always be questionable. Yes, On January 27, SADC said that the issue of the appointment of Gono and Tomana should be considered by the inclusive government. But no one can dispute the fact that these appointments were made legally, and that was before the inclusive government was formed. This is a true fact.

Once the contractual terms of Gono and Tomana came to an end towards the end of last year, President Mugabe had a legal obligation to appoint the required successors. Surely, there was no way there would have been a vacuum regarding these very important positions while ZANU-PF and MDC dragged their feet over agreeing who should control the Ministry of Home Affairs. Remember that the issue of control of the Ministry of Home Affairs was one that made the establishment of the inclusive government drag on from September 2008 to February 2009. Several sessions of talks were held without agreement and there was no sign of an agreement on the horizon.

There was no requirement that the President should consult private citizens, even if these were leaders of political parties about the appointments. In fact, the GPA does not even mention the two positions in question. But because these had become the MDC's concern, the SADC summit of January 27 recommended that once the inclusive government was formed, consultations with regard to senior government positions would take place among the parties in government regardless of the constitutional provisions empowering the President to make the relevant appointments.

SADC accordingly said that the Reserve Bank and Attorney-General appointments should be considered by the inclusive government. This was because it recognised the fact that these appointments could not be made conditional to negotiation by political parties. Since the formation of the inclusive government, new appointments of ambassadors and permanent secretaries have been negotiated through the inclusive government and appointments from both parties have been made. These are bare facts that are being ignored even by many analysts.

It is generally accepted that any improvements in the prevailing conditions in Zimbabwe solely depend on how well the inclusive government is functioning. Only when the inclusive is functioning well will there be jobs created for people and will there be an attraction of investments to stimulate economic growth.

Both parties must show that they are committed to this end. MDC must show their commitment to the success of the inclusive government. Crucially, ZANU-PF must also show that they are a party that can be entrusted with honouring agreements and declarations. Pulling out of this government will not help matters because none of the political parties can successfully run the government on their own at the moment.

We await a review of the resolution of this impasse between ZANU-PF and MDC in two weeks’ time by South African President Jacob Zuma. We don't know what the outcome will be but MDC insiders tell us that if SADC fails to end the deadlock the party would start to prepare for fresh elections under the auspices of the SADC itself, the African Union, and the United Nations "because there is no government without the GPA".

In our opinion, it will be easy to call for these elections but we are certain that the historical problem of the lack of conditions for a free and fair election will prevail, and we all know what the result of such an election might turn out to be. It will be such a big gamble by the MDC and if it goes against them, they face certain doom. The inclusive government is the best chance MDC has to turn things round.

Labels: GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, MDC, NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT, SANCTIONS, ZANU-PF, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 4:42 AM