Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T creating chaos for survival

MDC-T creating chaos for survival
By: Professor Jonathan Moyo, MP
Posted: Sunday, November 21, 2010 3:14 am

AS PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai continues to characteristically fumble from one political blunder to another since his infamous October 7 letters whose recklessness precipitated the uneasy expectation of an early general election, it is notable that the same irresponsibility which defined his notorious letters is yet again defining how he and his embattled MDC are recklessly dealing with the ongoing constitution-making process, some opportunistic calls for devolution made in Matabeleland during the Copac outreach and the Mawere saga which played out in Parliament last week in ways that are most unhelpful.

These three topical issues are important to highlight in order to show the destructive extent to which Tsvangirai and his MDC are prepared to take their recklessness for the apparent purpose of creating confusion to corrupt national policy processes and to render State institutions, such as Parliament and the courts, utterly dysfunctional ahead of the next general election.

This point needs some elaboration. The record will show that ever since its foreign founding and funding in 1999, the dubious political success of Tsvangirai’s MDC at the polls has always been synonymous with and only possible through chaos as borne out by what happened in the 2000 and 2008 general elections. When Zimbabwe is doing well Tsvangirai’s MDC does badly, but when Zimbabwe is doing badly the MDC-T does well. What this means is that what is good for Zimbabwe is not good for the MDC-T and the opposite is also true.

It is against this backdrop that the MDC-T is only and only an election-based party with no capacity to govern or to do anything useful in between elections. As such, the MDC-T’s only election strategy is to be destructive by, for example, heightening political tension in the country which attracts negative international media coverage and generally promoting dysfunctional politics whose aim is to dispirit and disenchant Zimbabweans by doing and saying destabilising things that leave them alarmed and despondent.

Tsvangirai’s infamous October 7 letters are key to the understanding of the MDC-T’s destructive election strategy in that they are the foundation and framework of the dysfunctional politics that the MDC-T is pursuing.

Indeed, the hooligan behaviour of MDC-T Senators is directly linked to the October 7 letter which Tsvangirai wrote to the President of the Senate unlawfully declaring that he does not recognise 10 provincial governors who are Senators by virtue of their office. What this means is not only that Tsvangirai is the chief culprit behind the mayhem bedevilling the Senate, but also that the illegal attempt to make the Senate and therefore Parliament dysfunctional is actually a central part of the MDC-T’s destructive election strategy.

The MDC-T’s poisonous ingredients of that destructive election strategy are also fully at play in the manner how Tsvangirai and his beleaguered party are irresponsibly dealing with the ongoing constitution-making process, the Mawere saga in Parliament and calls for devolution in Matabele-land.

Take the constitution-making process. The Copac outreach has exposed the MDC-T beyond description as a totally useless party in between elections with no mobilisation capacity. Fair-minded observers who have closely followed the ongoing constitution-making process under Copac, and who are aware that Tsvangirai and his MDC insisted on having the Copac outreach, have been astounded not just by the impotence of the MDC-T in between elections but also by the party’s deceit to cover up its incapacity outside elections.

While it is the MDC-T which insisted on having Copac to gather the views of Zimbabweans on the kind of constitution they want for themselves and posterity, despite the fact that already there’s a Kariba draft constitution which reflects the national consensus developed over the last 10 years, it is Zanu-PF which used its grassroots structures, leadership and governance capacity in between the elections to determine the outcome of the Copac outreach in a big way.

As things stand, and there’s nobody who does not know this, more than 80 percent of the views gathered during the Copac outreach reflect Zanu-PF principles, views and positions on key constitutional matters, many of which are now enshrined in the current Constitution through amendments over the years. Therefore whether Zimbabwe adopts a new constitution based on the Copac outreach or retains the current Constitution presents no challenge of any kind to Zanu-PF: If it’s heads in the referendum next year Zanu-PF will win and if it’s tails the MDC-T will lose!

It is perhaps the realisation of this unassailable fact that has prompted Tsvangirai to unashamedly declare that the Copac exercise is transitional or temporary and that his MDC-T will undertake a permanent exercise alone allegedly when it gets into power alone.

If this is not classic deceit, nothing is. Somebody should tell Tsvangirai that constitution-making is always about producing a permanent product while the only process which is temporary is the GPA, which is now approaching midnight.

The proposition that the MDC-T will ever get into power alone is a pie in the sky. In fact, there’s little chance that the MDC-T will ever share power after the expiry of the GPA government. In any event, the undeniable fact that the MDC-T tenure in the coalition Government has been managed by American intelligence through Usaid and British intelligence through DFID and Adam Smith International means the same organisations and their operatives would shape any constitution-making exercise done by the MDC-T alone and there’s no way Zimbabweans would accept that treachery.

Otherwise Tsvangirai demanded Copac and he got it and President Robert Mugabe sought to determine the outcome of Copac through the input of the people under Zanu-PF and he got it. Tsvangirai got Copac's form and President Mugabe got its substance.

Parenthetically, this undoubtedly good news for Zanu-PF needs to be seen, heard and analysed through rational eyes, ears and minds. There is no reason whatsoever for thinking or concluding that the fact that over 80 percent of the views gathered by Copac reflect Zanu-PF positions on a new constitution means that the people’s party would win a general election by the same margin if it were held today.

That is far from reality, not least because the difference between a general election and an outreach programme is like that of day and night. The comrades who have sought to justify an early election on the basis of the outcome of the Copac outreach are either naive or mischievous or dangerously ignorant.

If there’s an early election, with all the foreseen and unforeseen challenges it would throw up, Zanu-PF would without doubt need a robust mobilisation strategy which is radically different from what it used during the Copac outreach. Notwithstanding this necessary and critical caution, what is clear and indubitable is that the Zanu-PF election strategy would be, as it has always been, people-centred in defence of our sovereignty and national resources through indigenisation and economic empowerment with the youth at the centre of it all.

Tsvangirai’s deceit over the constitution-making process in general has also reared its ugly head on a specific and controversial submission on devolution that emerged during the Copac outreach in Matabeleland.

Since his infamous October 7 letters which have left him as the damaged political goods that he now is, Tsvangirai has been frequenting Matabeleland where he has not been missing an opportunity to sing the devolution blues with a desperate, discordant and lonely voice.

It is not surprising that Tsvangirai is frequenting Matabeleland as the MDC-T’s previous election significance has come from the protest vote it has received from that region.

Signs of trouble engulfing that vote started showing with Tsvangirai’s controversial nominations for the Cabinet in February 2009 whose import was to undermine and marginalise his party’s Matabeleland base which he further weakened by his equally controversial reshuffle of MDC-T ministers a few months ago in which Tsvangirai favoured his kitchen cabinet and village boys.

There’s now a clear and well-founded view that Tsvangirai sees the electorate in Matabeleland as mere cannon fodder in his quest for power whose objective has nothing to do with the genuine interests or concerns of the people of Matabeleland.

When Sekai Holland shocked the nation by scandalously claiming that the roots of political violence in Zimbabwe today are allegedly in the legacy of the Mthwakazi King Mzilikazi, Tsvangirai failed to discipline her despite ubiquitous calls on him to do just that. The impression that is now reality in Matabeleland is that Tsvangirai is disrespectful and contemptuous of the region.

Tsvangirai’s latest display of that disrespect and contempt is his shameless call for devolution only when he is in Matabeleland. That is very insulting in the extreme. If devolution is a constitutional or national issue as Tsvangirai would want the people of Matabeleland to believe, why does he talk about it only when he is in that region, especially in Bulawayo? Why does he not talk about devolution in Harare, Buhera, Gutu or Bikita? Is he trying to drive and corner the people of Matabeleland into destructive isolation for his own political sake?

A cursory examination of the experience of constitutional democracies around the world readily shows that devolution is not a constitutional issue but an administrative matter of local government along with decentralisation.

Indeed, devolution and decentralisation of power are done in response to specific developments or circumstances. Ask anybody who knows anything of value about the evolution of local governance in Zimbabwe and they will tell you that the last 30 years of our independence have seen a combination of devolution and decentralisation of power to provinces, districts and traditional chiefs whose detail would fill volumes of books.

For the avoidance of doubt, it is a total waste of time for anybody to use devolution as a synonym, shorthand or camouflage for federalism. As a tried and tested tool for local government across the world, devolution cannot yield federalism. In fact, even a federal state engages in both devolution and decentralisation from time to time.

The point, which Tsvangirai should know as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, is that our Constitution permits and has permitted devolution and decentralisation of power. So what devolution of power is Tsvangirai talking about in Matabeleland and only as a Matabeleland thing? Is Tsvangirai trying to incite the people of Matabeleland into seeking federalism under the guise of devolution when he is not prepared to incite the people of Buhera, Gutu and Bikita into the same nonsense?

Is this not a clear and intolerable example of the MDC-T’s pursuit of dysfunctional national politics designed to incite national tension, alarm and despondency as part of its destructive election strategy? Whatever it is, it stinks and the people of Matabeleland are tired of being used and abused by the likes of Tsvangirai who speak in forked tongues to incite communities. Enough is enough.

Finally, there is the Mawere saga which played out in Parliament last week in dreadful ways with the dirty hands of the MDC-T all over the place.

Because the Mawere issue is pending in the courts, with Mutumwa Mawere having taken it there on appeal, it is better and indeed right to say between little and nothing about it. However, silence cannot be rational response to what transpired in Parliament last week.

It is a matter of the public record that the MDC-T, mainly through the same Sekai Holland of the anti-Mzilikazi fame, has sought to turn the Mawere saga into a weapon against Zanu-PF in the mistaken belief that the issue can feed into factionalism within the party. Against this background, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how or why the Mawere issue found itself in Parliament last week.

This fact alone is not a problem because Parliament is there for the people and to canvass and explore all issues it deems relevant.

But it is also true that Parliament conducts its business under the Constitution of Zimbabwe whose interpretation can only be done by the courts and in accordance with its own standing orders. In this connection, Standing Order Number 62(d) clearly states that “No member shall while speaking to a question . . . refer to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending”. This Order is found on Page 41 of the House of Assembly Standing Orders published by Parliament in 2005.

Given that it is common cause that there are a number of judicial decisions that are pending in the High Court and Supreme Court, and in view of the clear provisions of Standing Order Number 62(d) whose interpretation and understanding do not require the assistance of a lawyer, why did the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development conduct a hearing or gather evidence which got Honourable Members to refer to a matter on which several judicial decisions are pending?

The fact that such a hearing took place undermines constitutional and institutional stability and shows that dangerous personal and political interests are at play.

What makes this bad situation worse is that the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, whose legal advice to stop the Portfolio Committee hearing on the Mawere saga fell on deaf ears, was last Wednesday ordered by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Honourable Nomalanga Khumalo, not to refer to the same Mawere matter which had been gratuitously entertained by the said committee on grounds that referring to the matter violated the House of Assembly Standing Order Number 62(d).

What is going on here? Why did the Clerk of Parliament, Austin Zvoma, take a position that is contrary to the ruling by the Deputy Speaker? Are we to believe that House of Assembly Standing Order 62(d) applies only to debate in the floor of the House and not to proceedings of the House's Portfolio Committees? If so, does that mean Portfolio Committees are not made up of Members of the House? And more to the point, is the Mawere saga now part of the destructive arsenal connected to the growing possibility of an early general election? And is the clear and present confusion, taken together with the illegal MDC-T stand-off in Parliament, a well-co-ordinated MDC-T election strategy? What does Mawere hope to achieve from Parliament which he cannot get from the courts and what do those who are entertaining him through the gallery in Parliament hope to achieve for him given that they know that judicial decisions on the contentious matters are pending in the courts?

Cool heads are desperately needed here. Whatever brief or sympathy anybody might feel for Mawere, the fact is that his saga is before the courts and the law must be allowed to run its course. In any event, if there is anybody who really believes that Mawere ever had on his own the wherewithal to lawfully acquire the so-called SMM empire, then that person needs to have their head examined by a competent psychiatrist.

Meanwhile, it is now very clear that Tsvangirai and his embattled MDC are dealing with the ongoing constitution-making process, the calls for devolution made in Matabeleland during the Copac outreach and the Mawere saga in destructive ways that seek to create confusion to damage national policy processes and to render State institutions, such as Parliament and the courts, completely dysfunctional ahead of the next general election.
This is because, as a foreign-founded and funded election-based party with no capacity to do anything meaningful or useful in between elections, the MDC-T believes it cannot win any election outside a dysfunctional environment littered with the kind of chaos it is creating in Parliament and in Matabeleland.

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This article was reproduced from The Sunday Mail.

Labels: COPAC, JONATHAN MOYO, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 8:22 AM