Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC and the fictitious BIPPA

MDC and the fictitious BIPPA
By: By Prof Jonathan Moyo, MP
Posted: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 7:54 am

ON Wednesday last week, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s office attempted but failed to cause a political storm through an ill-informed statement issued by Minister Gorden Moyo charging that Cde George Charamba, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity should be disciplined by GPA principals for allegedly undermining the Prime Minister’s authority over a non-existent Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement between Zimbabwe and South Korea.

There are three reasons why the attempted political storm failed.

First, it is not easy to generate a political storm over something that does not exist, as there is no procedurally and legally signed BIPPA between Zimbabwe and South Korea.

Second, the Prime Minister’s office needs to learn one or two things about timing when it comes to news-making because by Wednesday last week, Zimbabweans and South Koreans were, along with the rest of the world, already preoccupied with the start of the 2010 Soccer World Cup finals south of the Limpopo and could not be bothered with an alleged storm over a fictitious BIPPA.

Third, and most important, the attempted political storm was doomed to fail because it was based on the following four MDC-T falsehoods:

- The persistent and hopeless MDC-T lie that Prime Minister Tsvangirai is the head of the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe;

- The ridiculous MDC-T presumption, which is of course false, that the very same architects, supporters and beneficiaries of the illegal and evil Western economic sanctions against Zimbabwe which have hurt ordinary people the most can also be the champions of direct foreign investment through instruments such as the purported BIPPA between Zimbabwe and South Korea;

- The MDC-T nonsense, which is worse than a falsehood, that a Cabinet minister can use a power of attorney to delegate his or her powers and functions to another Cabinet minister; and;

- The naive MDC-T belief, which falsely assumes that politicians, particularly the so-called GPA principals, have the constitutional power to discipline civil servants.

An examination of each of these falsehoods should show beyond any doubt why Minister Gorden Moyo’s outburst against Charamba was exactly the kind of political rubbish that has come to be expected from him. Here’s why.

For all the propaganda battering our country gets from its detractors whose main gripe is that they do not want to see the legacy of our liberation struggle taking permanent root, the fact remains that Zimbabwe has one of the most professional bureaucracies, including the army and police, you can get around the world. This is why our bureaucrats and officers are among the most sought-after by the international community.

A major reason for this is the well entrenched administrative practice in our bureaucracy which distinguishes between politics and administration such that our civil servants, including permanent secretaries, are employed and only disciplined not by politicians but by the Public Service Commission which is an independent, professional and constitutional body not run by politicians.

Gorden Moyo’s outburst that Charamba should be disciplined by politicians, one wonders by what means short of a public flogging, belies not only his ignorance of Zimbabwe’s system of governance but also exposes the MDC-T’s lie about its alleged commitment to good governance which more than anything else requires a clear separation between politics and administration.

Charamba is an administrator and not a politician and yet the unacceptable threats of jungle discipline against him are coming from dangerous politicians in the Prime Minister’s office with vested interests in Tsvangirai’s blundering. Surely, that cannot be an example of good governance.

Parenthetically, it is infantile for the Prime Minister’s office to imagine that referring Charamba to the so-called political principals as defined in the GPA is a big deal.

We are a constitutional democracy and we do not want to become a country of GPA or ABC political principals. More than that, we in Zanu-PF know our political principals by their names and led by President Robert Mugabe they include Vice Presidents Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo among others we have known for years.

Otherwise, on the matter at hand, the public record will show that one the MDC-T’s GPA afterthoughts is its political dislike and personal hatred of Charamba as permanent secretary in the media, information and publicity ministry. Gorden Moyo’s outburst had more to do with that than a non-existent BIPPA.

Indeed, if Charamba had a case to answer over the BIPPA issue, the competent authority to handle the matter would be the PSC but Gorden Moyo’s outburst did not even suggest that he knows there’s something called the PSC although he mumbled some mumbo jumbo about "ethics of the civil service" in his claim that Charamba was "unethical" when clarified the true position about the alleged BIPPA between Zimbabwe and South Korea. The clear but absurd implication was that it is unethical to correct Tsvangirai.

One thing should be very clear. While politicians can prevaricate or even lie for all they want, civil servants have a professional duty to tell things as they are. As things stand, what Charamba said about the alleged BIPPA between Zimbabwe and South Korea, which he had a duty to clarify as the permanent secretary responsible for information, is the factual, administrative and lawful position.

To call that position "unethical" or "irrational" as have done the Prime Minister’s office and its unthinking media hacks is hogwash.

The South Koreans and serious prospective investors understand that something unprocedural and illegal cannot be ethical or rational.

Then there is the claim by Gorden Moyo that the alleged BIPPA between Zimbabwe and South Korea, which was unprocedurally and illegally signed by the Minister of Science and Technology, Heneri Dzinotyiwei, is valid because the minister responsible for signing BIPPAs, Elton Mangoma who is in charge of Economic Planning and Investment, "officially" gave Dzinotyiwei "a power of attorney".

Now this is pathetic. Does the Prime Minister’s office really expect to be taken seriously by asserting that a Cabinet minister can delegate his or her powers and functions to another minister by dint of some power of attorney of all things? That is the stuff of banana republics or parallel governments.

For the record, it should be known and understood that in Zimbabwe the executive functions and powers of Cabinet ministers are assigned to ministers by the Head of State and Government and the Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and through Acts of Parliament and that is President Mugabe.

When there is a temporary need to reassign the powers and functions of a particular minister to another, it is done by the President, not some power of attorney, through a notice in the Government Gazette.

As such, if Minister Dzinotyiwei had lawful authority to sign a BIPPA with South Korea on behalf of the Republic of Zimbabwe as claimed by the Prime Minister’s office through Gorden Moyo, then it should produce or point to the relevant Government Gazette with the relevant notice. That would settle the matter but such a notice is as non-existent as the alleged BIPPA!

Then there is the amazing claim, touted by MDC-T media hacks, that the alleged BIPPA is an example of Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s efforts to bring foreign direct investment to our country. Well, one needs to sit down to deal with this one because it is breathtakingly ridiculous.

For the avoidance of doubt nobody is opposed to having foreign direct investment through whatever channel including any effort by Prime Minister Tsvangirai as long as that is done lawfully through the transparent and accountable systems of the State.

But we now know that the MDC-T does not believe in transparency and accountability, which it treats as relevant only where Tsvangirai is personally involved.

For example this has come through the MDC-T’s opposition to the Marange diamond mining activities of Mbada and Canadile despite the fact that the two companies are in lawful partnership with ZMDC who are lawful owners of the mining rights in the Marange diamond fields.

The MDC-T’s perverted view of transparency is akin to that of a naughty pastor who solemnises a couple’s marriage during the day only to show up in their bedroom at night demanding that they consummate the marriage with him watching it all in the name of transparency.

If Tsvangirai wants to bring investment to Zimbabwe, which would be most welcome, he should do so openly, procedurally and lawfully in the letter and spirit of good governance and he must allow the various arms of government outside his office, such as media, information and publicity, to do their work without poking his nose in their business.

That is the simple but important point which some overzealous MDC-T media hacks have conveniently missed in their apparent desperation to market their tired copy to the dwindling MDC-T constituency.

But there is also a more fundamental point here. It is very difficult if not impossible for any fair minded person to believe the notion that those like Prime Minister Tsvangirai who are architects or supporters or beneficiaries of the prevailing evil and illegal Western economic sanctions can also be champions of direct foreign investment in our country through BIPPAs or whatever channel. Surely, that is a contradiction.

If Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his office truly want foreign direct investment in Zimbabwe then the first and major thing they must do is to unequivocally and persistently seek the removal of the evil and illegal Western economic sanctions before pursuing any BIPPA, especially with Western aligned countries such as South Korea.

Even fools must know that the reason why we do not have foreign direct investment from Western countries and their allies at the moment is not because we do not have BIPPAs with countries such as South Korea but because we have evil and illegal economic sanctions.

Anyone who does not understand this will never ever understand anything.

Finally, the Prime Minister’s office and indeed the MDC-T and its founders and funders must appreciate that the real reason behind the failed furore over the false Zimbabwe-South Korea BIPPA is too apparent to hide.

The issue is not about the alleged BIPPA and it is not about Charamba either but about Tsvangirai’s long standing yet hopeless effort since February 13, 2009 to pose as the head of the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Despite the fact that everyone, including all MDC-T cabinet ministers and indeed Tsvangirai himself, knows that Zimbabwe’s Head of State and Government and the Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces is President Mugabe, there has been a continuous and thus relentless propaganda campaign to present Tsvangirai as the head of government in Zimbabwe when there’s no factual, legal, constitutional or even GPA basis for that.

The mess over the alleged Zimbabwe-South Korea BIPPA is nothing but an outrageous propaganda stunt. We are now supposed to think that, as the alleged head of government Tsvangirai went to South Korea to secure foreign direct investment from that country to help recover our economy when we all know that he actually went there to receive a dubious honorary degree with no national meaning or purpose beyond his personal interest.

The message to Tsvangirai, his founders and funders, cronies and media hacks should now be very clear: for the sake of all of us, the MDC-T’s propaganda that Tsvangirai is the head of government has gone too far and enough should be enough such that the time has now come for Tsvangirai to get real outside propaganda games.

Charamba is doing a sterling job for his country as a professional, Tsvangirai and Gorden Moyo should do theirs as politicians.

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This article is reproduced from The Herald newspaper.

Labels: BIPPA, GEORGE CHARAMBA, GORDEN MOYO, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, SOUTH KOREA

posted by MrK @ 1:32 PM