Political temperatures rising as Constitutional reforms get underway

Lone ranger Prof Jonathan Moyo, Dictator President Mugabe and Kariba draft sidekicks Patrick Chinamasa, Prof Welshman Ncube and at the top Premier Tsvangirai together with the People Driven draft proponents Dr Lovemore Madhuku and Adv Eric Matinenga

The Constitution reform objective is emerging as the single most critical national agenda on the table of the coalition government.

Daggers are drawn by various interest groups seeking to assert themselves on the initiative and they will claim casualties.

Emotions are running high as they should in exercises of the importance that a Constitution is in a functioning democracy.

In politics a Constitution is a written statement outlining the basic laws or principles by which a country or organization is governed or alternatively a document or statute outlining the basic laws or principles by which a country or organization is governed.

From the definition above it is evident that the way countries are governed is a function of the manner in which they are constituted.

That is why Constitution making is a highly charged political process. Any entry in the country’s Constitution becomes a final measuring standard of the acceptability or otherwise of a behaviour or action by an individual within the borders of a State.

Because of this supremacy that Constitutional clauses have over any other set of rules, regulations and policies employed in moderating human political, social and economic interaction, anyone who gets caught up in the Constitution making process would want to ensure that the supreme law will guarantee the best of everything for him/herself at the individual and group level.

The reason why there is not scientific model of constitution making process is because the demand for supreme regulation of human conduct is informed by the desire to control unsavoury historical developments in the country by proactively imposing authority limits for the country’s leadership when confronted with similar and or variable challenges threatening the country’s welfare.

Clearly such monumental task cannot be entrusted to an individual or any homogeneous grouping of individuals with sectarian interests to protect without such individuals or groups taking advantage to guarantee protection of their narrow interests against interests of others.

Ownership of the Constitution making process must thus be internalised in individual citizens who must come together around the initiative to input their feelings about how they want the country to be governed.

To do so there is need for a champion to rise up among them and coordinate the
inputs and draft them in legal language that will be useful for the judiciary to determine disputes arising from perceived or real variations on expressed rules governing interaction and transactions between subscribers to the Constitution and their descendants.

In our country the Zanu PF government of 1995-2000 was pushed into leading a Constitutional reform process by demands from within and outside its structures which felt the successive Zanu PF governments had negated their mandates by relying on a 1979 Lancaster House constitution that had been rendered irrelevant by developments in the country’s political-economic and social management after the country attained political independence from the British imperialists.

Sadly Zanu PF used its political muscle to circumvent and suppress national views contrary to those held by the party and invited intense opposition from political competitors and a disenchanted Civil Society which felt Zanu PF had mutilated their submissions in the final draft.

When Zanu PF sought ratification of the draft in a referendum in 2000 the electorate was urged to reject ratification of the draft by the opposition MDC and NCA Civil Society organisation.

The draft failed to gain majority public support and the government was embarrassingly left stuck with a Constitution it had condemned as dysfunctional by crafting and seeking endorsement of the 2000 draft.

It was clear the electorate wanted a replacement Constitution but they did not just want a replacement that the governing elite preferred but one that they personally crafted and submitted to the government for adoption and not vice versa.

The lessons from the rejection of the 2000 daft that appear to have been beyond the comprehension of some politicians in the current government are in a nutshell that;

 Zimbabweans will only ratify a revised constitution that regulates the concerns they want regulated and not what the government wants regulated;
 The Champion of Constitutional reforms must be trustworthy and honest executing his mandate;
 The data collection mechanism must be open and transparent and reach out to as wide a cross section of Zimbabweans to input their ideas without fear or undue influence;
 Any attempts to smuggle power entrenching clauses for specific sectarian groups or powerful individuals will be quickly exposed by voluntary Zimbabwean brains within and outside the country who have keen interest in the process and its outputs;
 Individual political affiliations come a distant second to self preservation concerns in the process and its outputs and unlike in other political initiatives Zimbabweans will ratify the Constitution purely on its outputs and not necessarily on its political correctness to the desires of the government of the day.
 Most Zimbabweans want a Constitution that will be useful for managing expediency as well as the posterity and will reject clauses targeted at managing personalities as opposed to institutional conduct.

The integrity of some people currently slugging it out to emerge as undisputed Constitutional reform champions is so soiled that their interventions cause the greatest apprehension and mistrust in the process.

These include but not exclusively President Mugabe, Dr Lovemore Madhuku (NCA), Senator Patrick Chinamasa (Minister of Justice) Senator Welshman Ncube(Minister of Industry and Commerce) Professor Jonathan Moyo (MP)Dr Olivia Muchena (Minister of Women’s Affairsand Caesar Zvayi (Herald Assistant Editor).

Not that Zimbabweans deny the right of these people or those of their ilk to actively participate in the Constitution reform process but rather that they involve themselves at the same level as other Zimbabweans outside of the officially announced champions of the process.

Dr Madhuku’s demands that the process must be people driven resonates with those of the majority of Zimbabweans conscious about the process and able to project its consequences.

Unfortunately there is approximately 1:10 such people in the country’s populace and no more than 1: 20 willingness among this group of people to slag it out in the political turf of constitution making. Coupled with the crippling financial backing that group can attract to fund efforts to mobilise the populace against a coalition of the three parties holding all but one of legislative seats in the country, it is too much to expect that his position will prevail if push comes to shove with the politicians.

But fortunately for him Dr Madhuku’s position appears to have the sympathy of the most popular of the three political parties in the coalition government and the Parliamentary Constitutional Select Committee which he is publicly undermining by posturing as if his Civic organisation has a special mandate to champion the process.

The country is indebted to Dr Madhuku and his NCA for aligning with the MDC to champion the defeat of the 2000 attempt by Zanu PF to impose a Constitution that was crafted to entrench Zanu PF power as opposed to regulating the exercise of power by elected leaders.

Sadly though, but not anything for him and his organisation to regret, despite evidence that the championship of the process has relocated to Parliament at the expense of the NCA, the process appears to be largely travelling the route he and the NCA would have followed.

Professor Jonathan Moyo who anchored the publicity campaign for the failed 2000 draft would want us to believe that there is a scientific approach to Constitution making which the current process has negated.

He has been at the forefront of slamming the assignment of Parliamentary Select Committee to champion the process and its restricted terms of reference that restrict it to market the Kariba draft and ensure it is adopted as the country’s next substantive constitution without variation.

His gripe with the Parliament facilitation of the process is simply a case of sour grapes as he has not been appointed as one of the 25 members to champion the process.

His concern about the process being narrowed down to adoption of the Kariba draft is widely shared but is baseless as it is motivated by fears that because the view has the President’s support it will prevail against the wishes of the majority.

In the president’s corner is his reliable foot soldiers and hardliners led by Patrick Chinamasa and Dr Olivia Muchena supported by blind Zanu PF followers driven by propagandist Caesar Zvayi at the Herald and many others in State media.

The blind and dangerous Zanu PF foot soldiers are being rallied behind adoption of the Kariba draft on false allegations that the country does not have the funds to carryout extensive outreach programmes to collect input for the new constitution because-you guessed it right- of the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the Western imperialists.

Industry and Commerce Minister Professor Welshman Ncube widely held as the driver of the MDC-M faction led by Professor Mutambara is at loggerheads with his party President on the process as he has thrown his weight behind President Mugabe’s insistence on the Kariba draft while the party President appears amenable to a wider consultative process.

The real reason behind President Mugabe’s demand that the Kariba draft be the sole reference point for the Parliamentary select committee in crafting the new constitution has nothing to do with sanctions and funding of the process.

It has everything to do with what will happen after the country manages to craft and legislate a new constitution.

Both President Mugabe and Professor Welshman Ncube are fully conscious of the state of affairs in their political formations. They are both in total disarray and cannot win an election that is free of violence and managed by an independent electoral commission.

Yet in terms of the GPA that legitimises the coalition government at the end of the Constitution reform exercise the coalition is constitutionally required to review its legitimacy and seek public endorsement of its continuation in office from the electorate.

Any delays in reaching that point avails time for the two formations to regroup and cease momentum from the runaway lead the MDC-T formation is accumulating from its involvement in the coalition government.

The reality though is that it will need some miraculous intervention for the MDC-T to lose its support as nothing the other two parties has done so far seems to be working in their favour.

That is why it is so important for President Mugabe to team up with Professor Ncube in throwing obstacles into the smooth conclusion of the constitution reform process by making outrageous demands that the process must be limited to adopting a Kariba draft that the electorate has had no direct input into its formulation or crafting.

There are arguments that the reason why President Mugabe prefers the Kariba draft is because it retains a Presidency with unfettered draconian powers that he has abused for the benefit of his party in the past three decades.

While it is true that the Kariba draft creates a utopian Presidency, the point is missed that he is not guaranteed the post if the same draft allows for free and fair elections which it does not.

It fails to do so in that it permits the sitting President to appoint and direct the functions of the electoral Commission and all other National commissions as well as it empowers him to rule by decree.

This is only in issue because President Mugabe is the current occupant of the position and can use it as he has done in the past to entrench the Zanu PF hegemony.

That is why it is imperative that the nation must come together and oppose his attempt to set parameters that restrict the constitutional debate to a draft that the people were not consulted about when it was crafted.

President Mugabe and his supporters must be encouraged to continue relying on the Kariba draft if they believe in it but must be discouraged to force it on everyone else simply because he is the sitting President.

Equally important Professor Ncube must continue supporting the Kariba draft because he was one of the three lawyers that drafted it but he must never be allowed to team up with President Mugabe in selling the falsehood that the Kariba draft was agreed upon by the parties to be the constitution that will end the lifespan of the coalition government.

If indeed that was the case why does he not move a Kariba draft Constitutional bill in Parliament as happened with the agreement on Constitutional Amendment No 19.

The undisputed fact of the matter is that the Parties agreed on the Kariba draft with a view to use it to manage the lopsided March 2008 electoral playing field but ditched it in preference of Constitutional Amendment No 18.

When constitutional amendment No 18 resulted in the unprecedented defeat of
President Mugabe in the crucial presidential segment of the harmonised election, he then invoked his limitless powers to force through a runoff election outside prescribed limits and ordered the military to campaign for him with ruthless violence and impunity.

Now that the situation has not improved his party’s fortunes the President wants to retain the same powers he invoked in 2008 to save him from inglorious exit from power to do more of the same come the envisaged elections to end the coalition union.

Forget the rhetoric coming from the Premier’s office that he will stick with the coalition union even in the face of a threat of going down with the President. All the MDC wants is to ensure that the new constitution is adopted and legislated allowing it to have a say on who will manage the electoral process that has been its Achilles heel in ascending to power in the past.

The moment a constitution that allows the party sway in who will superintend the electoral process and who will monitor it, the coalition union will collapse under the weight of pressure for the holding of elections. Zanu PF will be defeated in such elections without recourse to manipulating the result in its favour through the National Presidency.

Every Zimbabwean has a right to be involved with the Constitution making process regardless of whether the president likes it or don’t.

If the President prefers the Kariba draft clauses he must campaign for it but not decree its adoption as that will be rejected at the referendum which will not help the country or his scattered party in any way.

There was never an agreement that the current Constitutional process would have only the Kariba draft as the source of reference for the nation in crafting their constitution as Professor Ncube, Patrick Chinamasa and President Mugabe would like us to believe.

What is evident from reading the GPA is that the Kariba draft was averred to in Article 6 for the purpose of incorporating contents of its Chapters 4 and 13, and section 121 in Constitutional Amendment No 19.

Chapter 4 of the Kariba deals with the contentious issue of Citizenship in the country and clause 121 created the Parliamentary Committee of Standing rules and orders in its current format while Chapter 13 deals with the setting up of National commissions and the procedures to be followed in manning them.

These are the issues that were agreed upon for the purposes of ensuring smooth functioning of the coalition government which were incorporated into Constitution amendment No 19 from the Kariba draft without them being re-written into the Statute.

Whether or not they will be retained in the new Constitution as they are in CA No19 must be left to the conclusions of the consultative process currently under way and if approved varied or discarded that must be the people’s prerogative.

There is nothing in the GPA binding people to accept those political tradeoffs that were adopted from the Kariba draft or any other political process past or present if they do not resonate with current public thinking and its vision of how a prosperous Zimbabwe can be secured through its constitution.

Finally it is not up to the press to lead public opinion to a position other than that which supports their needs desires and wants for now and in the future.

To suggest that because the Kariba draft retains draconian presidential powers it does not curtail Mugabe’s further attempts to regain Presidency in the envisaged two five year term limits is as bad as Mugabe suggesting that the Kariba draft must be adopted because it was agreed upon by Zanu PF and the two MDCs.

Mugabe has every right to seek re-election to the Presidency if the people accept a Constitution that does not take into account past service in the same capacity. The Kariba draft actually disqualifies those that have held the Presidency for over the envisaged 10 year two term limitation it envisages for the incumbents of the post.

The Kariba draft has this to say about disqualifications from seeking the office of President at section 81(2);

"A person is disqualified for election as President if he or she has already held office as President after the appointed day for two terms as defined in section eighty-four.”

The only question needing clarification is the meaning is the phrase “after the appointed date” which is not defined in section 84 as inferred.

This is not to say I or anyone else for that matter should support any of President Mugabe’s bidding for retention of the position but merely to highlight that it is improper to campaign for the rejection of a proposed Constitutional draft on account it does not bar past Presidents from seeking re-election that will extend their aggregate terms in office beyond the envisaged maximum 10 year period which it clearly does albeit in language needing to be made more unambiguous.

The bottom line is that the constitutional debate must never be allowed to be hijacked and privatised by anyone through reference to previous events and or private treaties between interest groups that purport to have been mandated by the people.

Anyone with such legitimate claims should be prepared to test them in the current debates and if the claim is authentic it will prevail.

That is how democracy must support principles of self governance in practical ways.

But when people like President Mugabe, Patrick Chinamasa and Professor Welshman Ncube team up to support adoption of a draft constitution they know never sought public opinions about its contents and yet their presence in leadership positions is mired in controversy having tested the popularity of their ideas by seeking election and suffered crushing defeats, their support can be reduced to arrogance that they can thumb their noses at the electorate and get away with it.

That has to be stopped and the best way to do so is to reject their call for the Kariba draft to form the exclusive basis of the country’s Constitutional reform agenda and process.

The Parliamentary Select Committee currently spearheading the process must hold steady and proceed by way of the consultation process they are pursuing at present, craft a draft there from and present it for debate to the stakeholder conferences deemed sufficient to endorse its contents as having come from the people and not the President, Government or Parliament.

That done, the draft must then be put to referendum and if passed, referred to Parliament for legislation.

The Zanu PF threat led by the President that the Party has an opportunity to derail the process in parliament will fizzle into thin air as any attempt to block a referendum passed statute will expose the opponent as the real enemy of the state a tag Zanu PF has hitherto attached to all its opponents.

That will be the sad end of a political formation that has won the country its political independence only to supplant itself as a more vicious institution than that it had dethroned.

When a President has nothing left to loot from the country

Political marriage brokered and consumated in hell between President Mugabe and Premier Tsvangiraimust deliver on its key objectives to save its SADC guarantors

Desperate moments call for desperate means to overcome the threats. So it was for the megalomaniac SADC imposed Zimbabwe President Mugabe. Tired from advanced age and battered by unrelenting restrictions on his travel and that of his closest advisors, the octogenarian president had to resort to putting the country he and his party has ravaged over the past 3 decades in the hands of a distrusted Premier whom he believes is a puppet of Western countries.

The compulsion to rely on the Premier was the final act of capitulation by a despotic ruler to the tightening screws of international sanctions on his party leadership that has put his once invincible party in total disarray.

President Mugabe informed his Party’s national Consultative Assembly meeting that he has already finalised the criteria for evaluating the performance of the Premier on his recent trip to the Western nations.

He disclosed that he would sit down and talk to Prime Minister Tsvangirai about the negative attitude of the Western countries that the Premier has been touring as part of a Presidential and Cabinet brief to lobby for the removal of economic sanctions and extension of financial assistance.

President Mugabe disclosed that because Western countries visited by PM Tsvangirai had vowed not to remove the “illegal” sanctions they imposed on Zimbabwe and Zanu PF leadership unless there is regime change if the country- as if the coalition government is not a form of regime change- he would sit down with the Premier and whip him into line.

"They wanted Zanu-PF and Mugabe to be defeated. We will not lift sanctions, they say. We will not give you money except little pieces of silver.

"Urikutoita zvako ushamwari naye kuenda kuinclusive Government? Ndizvozvatakaronga?" he said. (“Why are you befriending Mugabe in this coalition government? Was that what we agreed upon with you in the first place?”) he lamented.

In essence the meeting to review the Premier’s State visit to Western nations will be transformed into a disciplinary hearing for the Premier.

The charges the Premier will face from the President will among other things include;
The Premier’s perceived failure to convince his so called western friends, to bail out the country with uncapped monetary aid.

“Changamire, madziona shamwari dzenyu?”(“Where are your Western friends now sir?)he boasted he will open discussions with the Premier on this note.

This will be a serious allegation because President Mugabe elaborated that he had told the Premier that he had fought for the country’s freedom after coming to the conclusion that only a dead imperialist is a good one but the Premier disputed that.
The President said hitherto he had told the premier that "Colonisers can never be friends, so we turn our back on them and face the East," but the Premier would hear none of that.

By extension the President was telling his captive audience that the Premier’s trip was the litmus test for the Premier’s untested claims that he had friends in the West who could help the country recover from its economic malaise but the trip had disproved that myth.

The Premier’s dysfunctional multi-currency trading fiscal policies.
President Mugabe concocted mischievous lies when he told his audience that the MDC promised billions of dollars if the inclusive Government was formed, but nothing had materialised so far.

The truth is that the MDC said it would attract international interest and confidence in the country by winning the harmonised elections and forming a compact but accountable government that would be accountable to the electorate.

President Mugabe with the support of the military, Sadc and the AU refused to bow down after he was defeated in the critical Presidential segment of the March 2008 harmonised elections and compelled the formation of the current coalition government. The MDC was coerced into this makeshift government to salvage anything it could of its stolen victory.

That is the sole reason why we are languishing under the rule of this coalition government if the President has suffered amnesia of what happened.

"Inclusive Government yedu yakauya tese tine chitarisiro chekuti sezvo tose tichiuya mupartnership, kuchazova nerubatsiro rwunobva kumativi ose.

"Vaye vaiti kana mabatana mari ichazoduruka, asi tiri kuona kuti hapana chaduruka. Kune vanga vakatarisira kumatenzi avo arikuramba," he said.

"Kurikushaikwa mari yekubhadhara vari kusevenza, maministers acho, kana President wacho. Saka zvino inclusive Government yacho, inclusive Government yenzara?

"Ndanga ndisati ndambotambira US$100 asi pagore rino ndakatambiriswa US$100 ini. Hakuna kubuda kana cent rimwe chete."
(“The inclusive government was conceived on the hope that because of the partnership in government we would get aid from both sides (West and East. There were those that claimed that if we unite funds will pour into the country but nothing of the sort has been realised to date. There were those that expected support from their masters who have been rebuffed. There is no money to pay workers, ministers and even the President. This is therefore an inclusive government of poverty. I have never earned US$100 in my life but this is what I am being paid this year. The trip has not yielded a single cent.”)

Strange that the only leader the country has known for 3 decades would have the temerity to spew such garbage.

President Mugabe must know that the reason why he has never earned a pittance US$100 per month was because he was paying most of us no more than 50 cents per month while he paid himself and his Zanu PF cronies tens of thousands of US dollars per month.

If he refunds what he and his cronies siphoned from the country over the past 3 Decades all of us will earn nothing less than the US$500 required to sustain a family of six per month.

No government worth the name can expect its national workforce to be paid from funds donated by nations where its workers are not producing anything of value.
It is hoped the Premier will not waste the opportunity to remind the President of these realities.

As long as the President remains living with the myopic belief that the country is owed aid by the Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern countries jointly or severally the Premier must play the role of reminding that the country is owed nothing by anyone other than its nationals who have allowed him to ruin its once strong economy and accepted destitution under his rule of political repression and patronage handouts.

That the president’s Party should wake up from its deep slumber is not debatable but the fact that the President is sleep talking about it is serious cause for concern.

In his shocking dream the President sees the nation suffering more from the effects of the introduction of the multi-currency system which has helped reduce inflation and re-stocked the retail outlets his Price Wars had completely emptied within 2 months, than they suffered over the past decade with quadrillions of local currency in their satchels and car boots that could not buy them anything anywhere other than
in other neighbouring countries.

That is most alarming because the President wants to drive back the country to that dark period.

The only people realising how hard it has been for the generality of the populace to access forex with which to purchase goods from neighbouring countries are the very same people who used to be pampered with daily survival needs by the RBZ governor after stealing funds from individuals and donor accounts in exchange for their loyalty to Zanu PF.

Now that the RBZ governor he imposed on the Nation cannot buy their loyalty as there is free competition for forex, they want the President to restore worthless money printing powers to the RBZ governor so that the goods that have been bought by real currencies and are stocked in retail outlets can be bought by that trash and donated to them.

The obvious result will be the disappearance of goods from publicly licensed outlets into the private black market where access will not only be difficult but the goods will be more expensive due to scarcity and inflation will once again take root.

The Premier must urge the Nation to rise up against any such premature attempt to correct their current financial constraints and demand that only a government resultant from the electoral process and not some SADC/AU imposed compromise will have mandates to reintroduce a Zimbabwean currency.

The President will accuse the Premier that the fall back on multi currency has caused untold suffering among his rural supporter bases because they were unable to access either the American dollar or South African rand.

He will argue that this had forced rural people to trade their valuable livestock for money to buy other necessities of life as if that is a crime.

The Premier must ask the President why it is unacceptable for rural farmers to part with valuables that they posses like cereals and livestock in exchange for value owned by workers and entrepreneurs like cash and processed consumer goods.

"Hatingaite nyika yakadaro, kwete. Tirikuongorora kuzvichinja todzokera kumari yedu. Mitengo hongu ingadaro yakadzikira, asi vanhu vanosungirwa kuwana mari. Kana vasina, vanozotenga sei? (“We can’t allow the country to run like that. We are in the process of changing that monetary policy to reassert usage of our local currency. Prices of goods may have fallen but people must have money first. For if they do not have money how will they buy the cheap goods?”)

At his age we do not want to assume that the President still has to learn that money does not grow on trees where the willing can go and pick it but has to be worked for and earned.

Likewise cheap goods and services do not rain from heaven like manna did for the Israelites and have to be made, bought or learned before they can be owned.

He must never fool the nation that having local currency will automatically empower them to buy goods imported in the country by forex earners who have exported their labour and or some produce from the country.

Human rights
The President reportedly dismissed the comments of the Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan who was in the country recently to assess progress made by the coalition government to restore vandalised human rights.
"I do not know where she got her information from. She was just being hypocritical," he said.

While belittling her for meddling in the country’s internal affairs to assess its credit worthiness President Mugabe bemoans failed attempts by the state to secure funds from the same "little fellows like Irene Khan".

Why ever he chooses to approach little fellows for help baffles the mind. The President must not expect the premier to secure funds from countries where little fellows hail from and it is expected the Premier will not fail to remind him of that brutal reality.

"Hameno kuti kakabva nekupi iko kamudzimai aka, kupopotapopota ndikati ah, kakaroyiwa here? Iyo nyika yedu yangova nyika yokuti wada anongouya kutaura tsvina yakadaro?(“I do not know where this little lady came from to cause the nuisance she did. I just said to ah maybe she is bewitched? What has become of our country that has now reduced it to a free for all dumping ground for political garbage?)

"Let the people talk about the unjust measures imposed on us," lamented the President.

We can tell him that it is because of his failure to manage the country’s economy over the past 28 years he has been at the helm that the country has slid into a beggar nation and allowed the haves he believes are little meddlers have found inroads into the country’s politics

President Mugabe behaves like a spoilt brat.

Mischievous Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe planning to derail the country's Constitutional reform agenda by misrepresenting the GPA out of fear of imminent defeat in elections that will follow adoption of the new Constitution


Not that there is anything novel about President Mugabe’s psychological assessment but the surest way to judge his intentions is to get him edgy. It appears the Western nations have unanimously come to the conclusion that Mugabe can only be trusted when he says something in anger.

And nothing appears to enter his nerves by the day as does the continued banishment of his Zanu PF closed circuit freedom to travel globally by way targeted sanctions imposed on them and of course his person.


After telling the world he had despatched his Premier to Western nations that imposed the evil sanctions against his party leadership and overzealous supporters to push for the lifting of the restriction against his adherents and country alike as well as seek international aid for the state’s economic recovery programmes, the refusal by all the countries visited to consider such a move at present has extracted the real thinking within his mind.

Of course the Premier denied he was a Presidential emissary tasked to dismantle the sanctions preferring instead to tell the nation that he had Constitutional mandates as Head of the government to ensure the country revived severed relations with the international community and more specifically the Western nations.

The Premier further explained that securing aid for the country was critical but not the main reason of his forays into the Western nations.

President Mugabe has concluded that his emissary’s mission was in vain. He has looked around his team to see if there still remains anyone with a better chance of succeeding where his greatest prospect –the Premier- has floundered and concluded the best chance has slipped by long before the emissary’s report has been tabled to him.

President Mugabe decided it was time to set out the government agenda proactively.

It is not clear on what basis he still believes he has the obligation to craft government policy other than perhaps that it is the manifestation of residual work habits of a government leader for the past 3 decades forgetting that the task has been reassigned to the Premier.

And what a mess of it he made.

Constitutional reform
The Constitutional reform agenda is probably the most crucial political agenda for the coalition government. It is detailed in Constitutional Amendment number 19 which is the basis upon which the government exists.

President Mugabe demands that the process be followed to the letter and the Kariba Draft Constitution be used as the foundation for the reform process.

It is not clear how the President has formulated the notion that the Constitutional reform process must be restricted to Kariba Draft Constitution agreed between Zanu PF and the MDC but was never implemented.

The Herald reports that “Addressing the Zanu-PF National Consultative Assembly at the party’s headquarters in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said the Parliamentary Select Committee on the constitution-making process should not deviate from that agreement (GPA).”

This is the kind of principled stance that we expect of the President in every agreement he enters into on behalf of Zanu PF and the State.
But the President flip flops and prevaricates depending on the clause of the GPA he is confronted with.

"Nyaya iri kuitwa iyi yokuti kune committee yeParliament . . . tiri kuti isu zvirege kusiyana neDraft Constitution yekuKariba nekuti takabvumirana tichisayinirana page-by-page saka hapana imwe constitution yatinoda isiri yeKariba," he said. (“In respect of the Parliamentary Constitutional reform committee, we are demanding that it should not deviate from the Kariba Draft Constitution because we agreed upon it page-by-page so there is no need for any other Constitution than the one agreed at Kariba.”)

"VeMDC vanobvumirana nayo kana tichitaura nezvayo asi vari kuvhundutswa nana-Madhuku vachiti it must be people-driven."(The MDC subscribes to the Kariba draft in private meetings with Zanu PF but are intimidated by the demands from Madhuku and his followers for a people driven process.”)

"Our people have got to be very careful and take precautions not to be derailed, not to be led away from the Kariba Draft. We will make the draft available," he said.

It is sincerely hoped the people referred to hear are those that subscribe to the Zanu PF view of constitution making that seeks to exclude the generality of the process from inputting its desires on how it wants to be ruled but seeks their ascent to how their rulers want to rule.

It would be sweet music for many ears in Zimbabwe to hear their President tell the Zanu PF National Consultative Assembly that the appointments of Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Provincial Governors, Reserve Bank Governor, Attorney General, Ambassadors as well as any other Senior coalition government officials should not deviate from the GPA and lead by example in that regard.

But no the President chooses when to remember that there is a binding agreement and when to turn a blind eye to its existence.

Unfortunately for the nation it is when the President believes the agreement favours Zanu PF that he demands strict adherence to it but when it favours other parties in the coalition or the nation he vitiates the agreement with the disdain of a spoilt brat.

There has been no agreement that the Kariba Draft constitution will be the basis upon which the constitutional reform revolves but rather that the Parties acknowledged its existence and annexed it to the GPA.

This was done as a means of including in Constitutional Amendment No19, the provisions contained in Chapters 4 and 13, and section 121 of the Kariba draft Constitution that the Parties executed at Kariba on 30 September 2007 and not as a basis for pre-empting the Constitutional reform process as the president is now attempting to mislead the nation.

COME CLEAN ON VIGIL AND ROHR POLITICAL AGENDA

Most political parties evolve from social interest group movements and or Civic Society. During their nascent years the movements relegate their political motive to the backroom of a single rallying point. This is done purposefully to protect the political idea from being hijacked by established political formations.

The political agenda comes to the foe at some point when the drivers consider it prudent to unveil it. This usually after assessing the level of the chemistry in the initial social interest group to be positive to the reception of the political agenda in place of the social one.

The evolution of ZAPU, ZANU, ZUM, UANC and MDC into political parties took this route. The Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) movement and Vigil/ROHR partnership are classical examples of political outfits in the making whose leadership has not satisfied itself about the appropriateness of time to transform them into political formations.

It is this deliberate denial by the Vigil/ROHR axis of its not so well camouflaged political agenda that this instalment is intended to expose and leave it to the generality of the Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom to judge for themselves.

In rebutting accusations of masterminding the jeering and booing of the Zimbabwe Premier at the Southwark Cathedral on 20 June 2009 the Restoration of Human Rights statement on this site dismisses as “a vicious, hate-fuelled and well-orchestrated campaign by some UK-based Zimbabwean online news sites aimed at discrediting ROHR Zimbabwe as an organisation and the personal integrity of Ephraim Tapa, its President,” adding;

“ROHR Zimbabwe and its leadership wants to disassociate itself from these malicious accusations as they are baseless and outright falsehoods.

We also want to state categorically that at no time did the organisation agree, let alone set an agenda to ridicule or disrupt the Southwark Cathedral meeting. Mr Tapa was not even at the meeting. We therefore dismiss the accusations with the contempt they deserve.”
On any other day such a passionate rebuttal would gain my immediate sympathies but not with the benefit of the hindsight knowledge I have of the titanic political battles between ROHR leadership and the MDC leadership. It is a passionate plea of innocence that defies logic.
Indeed the ROHR chairman was not there in person but his placard carrying supporters were in scores. ROHR does not explain why its members would carry prepared protest placards bearing its logo and that of its so called sister organisation Vigil to a meeting with the premier if there was no preset agenda to ridicule or disrupt his rally.
This becomes an imperative issue for ROHR to distance itself from when the message on its protest placards was the chant that disrupted the Premier’s speech.
Instead of explaining away this “coincidence” ROHR actually brags in its statement after giving its version of the build up to what it wants us to believe was a spontaneous response from the Premier’s audience that;
“To launch this campaign on so little evidence mean that elements in the Zimbabwean UK Diaspora must feel very threatened by us as our message continues to resonate with not only those in the Diaspora but also the wider constituency within Zimbabwe. The issue is that Zimbabwe is still not safe to return for those who fled persecution and are in need of international protection. ROHR Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Vigil does not apologise to anyone for our principled stance that ‘Mugabe Must Go’, our demand for democracy and justice, respect for the rule of law and the Restoration of Human Rights.”
Indeed many genuinely exiled Zimbabweans blame their confinement to refugee status on Mugabe and Zanu PF impunity.
While for some refugees life in exile is a garden of roses that they would like to live in for the rest of their lives there are many others who would rather spent their lifetime in Zimbabwe but for the excesses of the previous regimes solely headed by President Mugabe cannot contemplate returning to their home country to be welcomed by a regime in which Mugabe and his dreaded Zanu PF structures are significant if not in their opinions, dominant political players.
The “Mugabe Must Go” message that the Vigil and ROHR alliance claims monopoly ownership of, has been the rallying cry upon which the MDC was built from strength to strength over the past decade but has now been rendered obsolete by the political developments that resulted in a tripartite coalition government taking over from the Zanu PF regime on 13 February 2009.
The coming together of MDC-M, MDC-T and ZANU PF in a SADC and AU coerced government that has satisficed on key ideological values of the parties as a means to achieve a political environment that would allow the electorate to reclaim its militantly induced disenfranchisement after the inconclusive March 2008 election is being exploited ruthlessly by the Vigil/ROHR alliance to gain political space.
The problem though is that within Zimbabwe, while the “Mugabe Must Go” rallying cry resonates with the majority thinking and feelings, they have learnt from experience that the target’s departure requires a bit more political innovation than just the chanting of the slogan and voting.
That is why they are solidly behind the political diversion presented by the formation of the coalition government which they agree across the political divide is far from the ideal but nevertheless an opportunity worth pursuing to its logical end as it shields them from the impunity they endured during the days of sloganeering and protest marches which were simply quelled by the security forces loyal to Zanu PF and President Mugabe.
The Vigil/ROHR adherents Premiership hecklers obviously still worship the slogan religiously and are prepared to retain it as the main driver of their fight for democracy because they unlike their home-based opponents of President Mugabe and his vicious Zanu PF party do not have to make a choice between supporting the slogan and getting physically violated or supporting the coalition government to achieve the same objective while remaining physically safe.
That is why Vigil/ROHR is fooling itself that it is now the sole devout custodian of the fight for “democracy and justice, respect for the rule of law and the Restoration of Human Rights.”
Far from it. Within Zimbabwe the prime minister they booed and heckled at the Southwark Cathedral rally is the beacon bearing that torch whether or not the Vigil/ROHR likes it and or accepts it.
The National Constitutional Assembly has been forced to climb down from the pedestal that it alone had the people’s backing on how the Constitutional reform process should proceed after attendances at the Parliament led initiative sent the succinct message that no campaign by anyone against the coalition government initiative would succeed.
It is a lesson that the Vigil/ROHR alliance is yet to learn as its structures are more pronounced in the UK than in Zimbabwe. One would be tempted to think the alliance leadership is preparing to launch a UK government opposition political party of Zimbabwean refugees and exiles when in effect the alliance is struggling to attract adequate support to launch itself as a Zimbabwe political party in exile.
In his resignation message after leading a defiance campaign against the MDC National Council to dissolve the Tapa led MDC UK&I provincial executive where he was Provincial Secretary Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa made it clear that he would gain more political relevance and clout from defying the MDC NC and would launch himself into the political limelight better from outside the dominant party that had lost its formation ideals that he still held onto.
It is instructive that the same Mutyambizi-Dewa is a crucial Board member of both Vigil and ROHR now at the center of the fiasco at the Premier’s rally on 20 June 2009.
Anyone can believe what they want to but it appears too great a conjecture that his brother Terrance Tendai Mutyambizi -Dewa would pre-empt the ROHR rebuttal with an article on the same portal using unrestrained vicious language against MDC UK &I leadership than ROHR complains of against specific news sites that implicated it in leading the protests against what the Premier had asked of exiled Zimbabweans to consider.
Interestingly Terrence also raises the issue of lost formative ideals of the MDC as the cause for the protest by Zimbabwean exiles in the UK.
“The problem in the diaspora is most central to the ideas and the fundamental principles of the party when it was formed. It is to do with the power dynamics as it stands and his failure to deal with this at this stage will lead to the demise of his influence and the creation of new wisdoms. The agenda of the party has been changed by the reformed ZANU PF now running and controlling his mind in exchange of loyalty and patronage,” he stated adding;
“Morgan Tsvangirai should revisit the formation of the party and look at the agreed principles of the way forward. He will be able to establish what the people wanted from their leadership. He needs to address the issue of Tripartite, the issue of social housing, strategy for a welfare state and the commitment to democracy. Walking away from the people when they talk is never heard of in a democracy. Even when President Bush had a shoe thrown at him in Iraq he continued to address the audience. Walking away is a sign of either cowardice or a total lack of respect to what the people are saying.”
This was after he had smeared nearly the entire Provincial leadership of the MDC in the UK with unsubstantiated allegations of nepotism , murder of former party chairman Isaac Matongo, de-campaigning the party president for failing to reward them with positions in the coalition government that he felt must be reserved for the MDC founding activists like him and much more.
The drivel in Terrence’s published opinion on the Zimbabwe journalists.com portal mirrors the lies behind the ROHR statement that the Vigil/ROHR alliance has no political gripe with anyone or any other political formation for that matter when its members like Terrence are spewing nothing but deep rooted hatred of the Premier that unites them in ROHR.
The Zimbabwetimes.com carries another opinion from a self professed ROHR member Batson Chapata, 36, a regional co-ordinator for Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR)explaining why he booed the premier.
But ROHR contradicts his open and voluntary admission by stating in its rebuttal;
“Then, the call was for the Party to uphold its founding principles – constitutional democracy, transparency, accountability and justice for all. The ROHR President continues to cherish those values and, unlike some who have started glorifying Mr Mugabe with the advent of the inclusive government, continues to fight for GENUINE CHANGE. Whilst engaged in this struggle for human rights and notwithstanding his right to do so, Mr Ephraim Tapa does not for now have plans to seek any political office within any political party. And contrary to misleading theories being peddled by those who seek to detract from him, Mr Tapa harbours no rancour or vendetta against anyone within the MDC family.”
If indeed there was nothing linking ROHR to the protest as it claims why does it emerge that its key supporters are at variance with their organisation?
I may have missed it but nobody has to my knowledge questioned the presence of ROHR in Zimbabwe or anywhere else for that matter.
What has been questioned is the strategic setup of its structures on political party structure lines wherever it operates from and more importantly within the UK and I where its structures seem to shadow all MDC structures.
This is the question that the Vigil/ROHR alliance must answer rather than duck away from with frivolous explanations.
Vigil and ROHR has in the past been the subject of UK Metropolitan police investigation over complaints they are illegally charging for Asylum application advice without authority and selling MDC membership cards for personal benefit without the consent of the party causing immense harm to prospects of success of asylum seekers relying on recommendations from the grouping.
There is evidence everywhere of this having been the case and yet ROHR would like us to believe the fallacious explanation that it never involved itself with Asylum applications but is merely concerned with human rights advice to Zimbabwean exiles.
It is not a crime to contest for political power in Zimbabwe but the Vigil/ROHR campaign is deceitful and extortionate at the same time it aims to delay the inevitable attainment of the rights it purports to stand for.
The tirade by its members against the MDC UK&I Provincial executive exposes the Vigil/ROHR political agenda which it feels has gained momentum from heckling the Premier on his recent UK visit.
It was a good attempt but certainly not good enough to transform the political fortunes of the ambitious leadership of the alliance.
If anything it has pushed the nascent project against the wall and sooner rather than later it will find it increasingly difficult to raise funds from unsuspecting donors and desperate Asylum seekers.
The call for the MDC UK and I provincial leadership to resign must come from the MDC

The frightening prospects of returning to Zimbabwe

Stanford Biti and his branch executive maybe unaware of the underhand ROHR political initiative that isled by Tapa in getting back at the Premier and MDC President.


After an absence of between a year to a decade the looming prospect of a return to Zimbabwe for Zimbabwean nationals who sought refuge from political tyranny and the economic morass in the country is indeed a ghastly event to contemplate for most of the refugees.

This was amply demonstrated by the jeering and booing that was elicited from the over 1000 strong contingent that attended the Zimbabwe Premier’s public rally at the Southwark Cathedral on Saturday, 21 June 2009.


The Zimbabwe Premier, former opposition MDC leader now in coalition with Mugabe’s former ruling Zanu PF party and a smaller faction of the MDC under Deputy Premier Professor Mutambara’s stewardship took time off his gruelling Western Nations visit aimed at reviving severed relations with the block to explain and project what the future holds for the refugees.

They did not like what they heard from the Premier and they did not hide their repugnancy.

The Premier had called on all Zimbabwe refugees to start making arrangements to return to their homeland citing political and economic improvements brought about by the SADC coerced consummation of the coalition government.

They jeered and booed forcing the Premier to make a strategic retreat from the podium until they had regained their composure and prepared to listen after which he took to the podium and fielded questions from the floor.

The call
What triggered the Premier’s audience to respond as they did was the Premier statement below;

“What is our message to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora? Let me state here and I will state it boldly that Zimbabweans must come home.”

The crowd went into shrills of discontent and started chanting the MDC slogan “Chinja” (Change) in unison drowning attempts from the Premier to explain himself.

The Premier’s call was widely expected after he had made similar calls while in the USA. It is a well meant call from a Premier whose task to put the pieces of a ravaged economy and national social fabric was probably ill-timed.

From the very onset the MDC UK and I Province that organised the rally was not in consensus about the function given simmering leadership divisions in its executive.

The party province that is among the top sponsors of the party has among its leadership disgruntled cadres who are unhappy with the coalition government union and exclusions from ministerial appointments of certain party stalwarts.

This discord has been hugely exploited by the fall guys in the Ephraim Tapa led executive that was dissolved in 2007 and morphed up as the Civic group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) within the Zimbabwe Vigil which had sponsored Tapa and Mutyambizi’s ascendance to the MDC UK and I provincial leadership before they were exposed as impostors with little understanding of how the MDC party is geared and operates and relieved of their leadership roles.

What emerged as a spontaneous show of discontent with what the Premier had called upon exiled Zimbabweans to consider was in effect a well planned political initiative by ROHR and the Zimbabwe Vigil to embarrass the Premier by disrupting the Southwark rally and the private dinner that the Premier held with a select group of party supporters prepared to part with a whopping £75 per head to be in the Premier’s company at the dinner table.

After leading the rowdy behaviour at the rally Stenford Biti and Adella Chiminya were dispatched to the Premier’s hotel to go and dissuade the Premier from attending the private dinner at the Royal Over-Seas League Club that had been fully subscribed to.

The duo had already convinced Premiership Chief Spokesman and Permanent Secretary James Maridadi and Ian Makone respectively that the Premier’s attendance at the private dinner would be greeted with an equally if not worse protest to that witnessed at the rally.

The intention was never to demonstrate at the dinner venue but for the function to be cancelled so that the people who had pre-paid for the function would cause commotion by demanding refunds from the MDC organisers of the Function Izzy Mutanaurwa and Provincial Treasurer Tendai Goneso.

That would have been the perfect embarrassment for the Premier’s party. But it failed when the premier received intelligence of the intention and dispatched Secretary Ian Makone to reconnaissance the dinner venue and evaluates safety as well as the mood in the venue.

As fate would have it Ian Makone fell back on Stenford Biti’s availability for escort to the venue and on arrival found the place convenient in every respect for the Premier’s dinner.

The attendance was then confirmed much to the chagrin of the Vigil/ROHR emissaries who informed their principals that their mission had fallen through after unforeseen interventions caused Ian Makone to inspect the venue.

The only possibility the anti-Premier grouping had of disrupting the dinner was to sponsor hecklers to book into the occasion but when they arrived they found the subscriptions closed and could not be accommodated dealing a final blow to their wicked intentions.

But it was rather pitiful to see Provincial Secretary Sakhile Mtombeni pleading with gate security to be allowed in and finally seeking assistance of Provincial organising secretary Jaison Matewu to be admitted.

Why a senior party official like Mtombeni would have to negotiate entry to a party function in which he is by position second most powerful after the Chairman baffles the mind and points to the divisions at the top leadership of the Province.
The absurdity
Exiled genuine Zimbabwean refugees have multiple genuine misgivings about the coalition government which they are entitled to openly voice concern about and seek redress of.

They have been away from the country for many years most of which have gone to waste as they struggled to obtain refugee status and seek gainful employment forcing them to live on host governments and humanitarian charity.

Many fled vicious political violence that ravaged not just their homes but also life savings which they used to buy flight tickets to wherever they are now domiciled.

Those that managed to get asylum status and the right to work found themselves restricted to working in lower end menial jobs which were not cognisant of their training and experience.

Earnings were low and insufficient for them to atone for their losses and while the more enterprising took advantage of the economic downturn and accumulated assets back in Zimbabwe the majority just could not afford the demands of dual residence and managed to sustain lifestyles that they never imagined possible in their country of origin and never prepared for a day when the situation would not justify their stay in exile.

Most of the refugees were also exploited to sponsor the struggle for democracy in their country of origin by vultures in organisations like ROHR and The Vigil that promised them help in their asylum applications if they bought fake MDC party membership cards.

Unfortunately very few lucky ones benefited from their membership in these hazy organisations and yet were made to believe that it was the MDC that was letting them down after becoming “members” of the party and the party leadership refusing to support their applications notwithstanding the support and endorsements from the nefarious organisations.

By and large the situation on the ground in the country has drastically improved from those years when most refugees gapped it but they are far from ideal. The Premier has admitted same but invokes ire in refugees when he refuses to publicly condemn Zanu PF excesses after the formation of the coalition government.

They hate it when the premier appears powerless to stop farm invasions, wanton arrests of activists from his party and declares that there are no political prisoners in the country when scores of MP’s, Party activists, Ministers, Civil Society activists and Party administrators from the MDC he leads are being persecuted for political crimes in courts yet nothing seems to be done about Zanu PF activists who led the orgy of violence that displaced them.

To add insult to injury the premier in his capacity as MDC leader is widely seen as ungrateful for the support his party got from the diaspora as he has not accommodated anyone from Diaspora leadership of the party other than Roy Bennett into the quota of his appointments in the coalition government, neither has he accommodated them on various Conferences and Commissions underway.

Mugabe denied them the vote and the premier is seen as perpetuating that disenfranchisement by publicly misleading the world on realities on the ground and then having the temerity to request the Diasporans to obvious Zanu PF servitude they ran away from in the first instance.

They accuse the Premiership of misrepresentations and blinded leadership of the party and reckless abandon after being stripped of all powers in government by the President and loathed Zanu PF leader he now praises as if he never caused the exiles harm.

Diasporans legitimately argue that no sane person who has escaped the Zanu PF scripted inferno that engulfed the country in the past decade to the frying pan of the diaspora would consider jumping back into the raging fire in Zimbabwe at present with the hope of helping a lame duck Premier extinguish it.

Farm invasions, lack of national currency, snail paced economic reforms, dilapidated service delivery infrastructure, arbitrary politically motivated judicial persecutions, unimplemented portions of the GPA, lack of progress on media, security and constitutional reforms as well as failure to accommodate diaspora representation in the coalition government are all cited as reasons why the premier’s call for refugees to return are ill timed and unconvincing.

The irony of it is that the call made as it was in more than one of their sanctuaries has the greatest potential of influencing hosts to repatriate the refugees prematurely and exposing them to even greater hardships than those they ran away from.

But all this is misplaced apprehension because the Premier has not stated that Zimbabweans must be repatriated back to Zimbabwe forthwith but merely appealed to those of his fellow citizens that have been advantaged by exposure to external economies to seriously consider returning to the country and help in its monumental reconstruction.

For people to jeer and harangue their most well placed change agent over such a cry for help and demand him to use blunted and tired manpower resources to achieve the changes they desire before they consider returning to their homeland is pathetic.
Zimbabwe does not belong to the Premier and those who are trapped in it alone. It is our country and we can shape its destiny together through participation in the best manner we know how but certainly not through booing and jeering.

Indeed we need to make it clear to those leaders we trust are better placed to make a difference to our lives that we will not be prepared to be led up the garden paths but we demand real and last changes to the way our country is managed so that we will never slide back into the gloom of the past two decades.

The Premier was taken aback by the behaviour of the exiled Zimbabweans but not daunted. After listening to some of the views expressed on the live Zimnet Radio talk show on 21 June 2009 I am determined more than ever to do whatever I can to ensure we reclaim our place in shaping the reconstruction of the Zimbabwe we want even if it means sacrificing some luxuries accessible to me at present.

My prayer is that the Diaspora provincial leadership of the MDC that has done so wonderfully well in sponsoring the party be granted the extra energy to show direction for their membership that the struggle will never be completed to its logical conclusion without their unwavering support.

Expunging Walter Mzembi from PM’s meeting with USA President riles State media.

Exposed Zanu PF War Collaborator and Zimbabwe Presidential Mole planted in the Premier's delegation was barred from eavesdropping on discussions between the Zimbabwe Premier and the USA President

After spending the better part of the past fortnight selling the Premier as an errand boy of the octogenarian President of Zimbabwe dispatched to undo the sanctions crippling the President’s movement to the Western nations, the Herald is bemoaning that trusted presidential escort Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi strategically assigned to shadow the Premier on the current mission to Western nations was expunged from eavesdropping discussion between the Premier and the USA President.

Obama bars Mzembi bemoaned the herald after the stalker failed to feed the National paper with the inner titbits of discussions that transpired between the USA President and the so called Zimbabwe President Sanctions and aid emissary Premier Morgan Tsvangirai.

Worse the USA president hastily cancelled... .the media brief that had been pencilled in to follow the meeting blanking any chance the Zanu PF appendage to the delegation had of gaining insight on what transpired in the Oval office meeting no matter how scant.

Walter Mzembi is the current Minister of Tourism. A former war collaborator from Masvingo, Mzembi is being sold to the nation by a press that knows little if anything at all about him as one of the moderates’ reform minded offerings that Zanu PF seconded to Minster in the coalition government.

But for those of us who know him better Mzembi is not a moderate reform minded Zanu PF cadre but a silent assassin with close CIO ties.

When his father passed away in 1997, may his soul rest in peace the house he rented from Mr Chigovanyika opposite Widdcombe primary school was flooded with CIO operatives, Security Chiefs, War veterans, State media chiefs including Tarzen Mandizvidza, Reuben Barwe and Happyton Muchechetere and Government tents were erected for mourners as is the norm at State funerals.

He was then not a Senior Civil servant, Minister or Member of Parliament but a Marketing Director of Ag-Venture (Pvt.) Ltd having left Stewarts and Lloyds Ltd, where as General Manager and with Leo Mugabe, they had stripped the hitherto vibrant steel works company to a shell.

Whatever reasons the USA President’s security had for barring Mzembi from the Oval office meeting with the Zimbabwe Premier- we hope it was not from effective intelligence they had gathered about Mzembi’s close links with the notorious Zimbabwe CIO- it has raffled feathers at the State media confirming the spying mission he is serving on the Premier’s delegation.

Mzembi is the Presidential mole that was attached to the Premier’s retinue to feedback the State media with information they have been using to sabotage the mission by reporting it as a loathed Presidential Mission that he was in full control of and knew exactly what who in the delegation had said when and to who.

With the Presidential spy expunged from the meeting facts of what transpired became impossible to obtain for the state media and it really hurt that they could not spin the events to the advantage of the on-the-ball president as they had done on previous encounters between the Premier and the Netherlands Head of State.

The State Media was left to speculate on what could have caused the USA President to announce the US$73 million additional aid and why it had been channelled through the Aid agencies and not the coalition government.

Minute details about how the Premier had turned the tables against the boastful Zimbabwe President by excluding his spy were analysed leading to the unsubstantiated conclusion that the premier may be encouraging the kingpin of Western policy on Zimbabwe to withhold desperately sought after aid to force Mugabe to concede further political space for the Premier’s party.

The fact is the barring of Mzembi has shown that the USA brooks no nonsense of entertaining representatives of human rights violators in their offices be they appended to morally upright leaders or not.

It is unlikely Mzembi will be allowed into future meetings of the Premier with remaining Heads of State he is scheduled to visit and that is alarming for the Zanu PF propaganda machinery planted in State Media.

Even more alarming was the fact that the USA President redefined the mission as the Zimbabwe Premier’s and not the State visit it had been sold as by the State media.
That statement distanced the USA from association with Mugabe through the conduit of the Premier’s office and spells doom for Zanu PF’s intended claim to credit for any of the Premiership successes at the same time it closes the door on intended factual claims the media was preparing to claim had caused any failures of the Premier’s mission.

It is no longer possible to claim that the west denied the Zimbabwe government aid and the lifting of illegal sanctions because of the land reform dispute because the spy that was supposed to vouch for that- Walter Mzembi- will be relying on hearsay.

The Ministry of information that ignored a request for information officers to be assigned to the premier’s mission because the most reliable are reserved for the President and assigning them to the premier would send the wrong signal that the Premier commands equal powers to those of the President, must now be scratching their heads bold pondering what to do next to ensure they obtain first hand information about the Premier’s discussions with Western Heads of State.
The alternative use of embassy information attaches to cover for the State media has already proved inadequate after they were excluded from the Finance Minister’s previous entourage in the USA.

That leaves Premier’s Chief spokesman James Maridadi and or Secretary in the Premier’s office Ian Makone as the only legitimate sources of information about discussions between the Premier and his hosts that the State Media can rely on given its frosty relations with foreign correspondents.

And yet State media relations with the duo are not anymore better than the relations they have with foreign correspondents.
Interesting!

How can a well meaning President openly spy on his very own head of government and expect to be taken seriously in a coalition government relationship?

Sparks fly from the Zimbabwe Constitution making process

NCA Chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku threatens to derail the constitution reform mission.


Sparks are already flying from the Zimbabwe constitution reform epicentre at the Zimbabwe Parliament before the core group selected to spearhead the drive for a constitutional order to replace the nearly 4 decade old Lancaster House crafted supreme law of the country.

The 1978 Lancaster House constitution was agreed between the tripartite negotiating forum involving exiled Patriotic Front of ZAPU and ZANU liberation political formations on one hand and the Internal Settlement alliance that bunched colonial renegades led by Ian Smith and locally based Black Zimbabwean political formations led by the UANC’s Bishop Abel Tondekai Muzorewa and included ZANU led by founder Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and ZUPO’s Chief Jeremiah Chirau anchored by British imperialist represented by the Queen’s government.

There were no lesser sparks flying from that forum than we are witnessing from the ominously similar tripartite negotiating forum involving Conservatives in Zanu PF and Labour representatives in MDC-T and tribally based Liberal Democrats in MDC-M.

The major difference between the 1978 process and the current is found in the represented interests in the process and the added dimension of a more vocal and better empowered Civil Society which was not a major concern in the 1978 process.

The 1978 process was obsessed with reconciling foreign settler political domination and divisionism interests against local indigenous demands for overriding political powers and the right to self rule.

In the current process the process seeks to consolidate the gains from the 1978 process and remove the element of foreign interests in our politics at the same time it tightens on democratic governance loopholes that have emerged from the 1978 constitution.

In the current initiative, like was the case 1n 1978 the need for a new constitutional law is self justifying given that the 1978 supreme law was never intended to be a permanent statute but a transitional law from colonial rule to sovereignty.

That an interim constitution has survived 4 decades albeit with serious amendments on 19 occasions to align it with changed value systems in the country defies logic and has united the nation on the need for a replacement supreme law to accommodate current political thinking rather than a heavily patched one which is reactionary to political developments.

Under normal circumstances where there is national consensus on a need there should be minimal or no conflict on the redress process. However because the constitution is a foundation law for political governance there will be, as has been the case elsewhere, strong competing political interests that cause friction and conflict in people. People will differ on preferred methodologies to crafting the supreme law based on how they saw the process' ability to entrench their underlying political values.

By its nature Constitution making is a critical political project that capacitates politicians to exercise political power and dominion in a certain way without attracting undue criticism over what would be considered excessive abuse of power under a different constitutional order.

Because of that it is hardly surprising that political interest groups by whatever name they prefer to be known –Party, Civil Society or simply People-that will be subjects of the supreme law would want to see in place a process that has the greatest chance of producing a law that puts them at an advantage to exercise power and influence on governance.

The current sparks flying across Zimbabwe’s political parties and Civil Society in any direction are a manifestation of this latent desire to get a grip on the process and manipulate it to best advantage of those initiating the sparks.

Forget the hype about people-driven constitution as if ever there was any other known animal species-driven constitution in existence on planet earth and some such other slogans in the constitution making process.

All known and existing constitutions throughout the world were made by people. The trendy phrase people-driven constitution is a rallying slogan that is cynically used to disown certain categories of people from the constitution making process or at the very least demean their relevance in the process.

The current process in Zimbabwe has been tagged a parliament-driven process. The term is used derisively as if parliamentarians are not of the human genre. Their participation in the process is pre-qualified as occupation driven sectarian interest in the process as if everyone else’s participation is devoid of professional and or sectarian interests.

Nothing can be further from the truth than that. All people seeking involvement with the constitution making process are politically conscious of the value the process and result have on sectarian interest they value and wish to advance.

The better politically organised they are the more defined their interests and the more seniority they seek in the process to be able to manipulate it in their favour.

The reason why the coalition governing parties agreed on a constitution making process championed by parliament yet open to accommodating other interest groups of people is because the parties are concerned about electoral, economic and political abuses that have passed through the safety net provided by the current constitution.

The anticlimax end of the harmonised elections in March 2008 demonstrated all the political concerns that the parties want addressed to avoid recurrence of similar deviations in future elections.

Similarly those claiming to be of the people-driven constitution making process champions have well defined concerns about how the politicians have denied them fundamental human rights enjoyed by other citizens universally which they yearn for.

Their desire for a process driven by none governmentally tied players is motivated by a compelling desire to reign in the political abuses of the past and hold politicians accountable to the Civil liberties advocates and dictates they subscribe to by securing legal guarantees of their collective supremacy over government.

That is why now there are two parallel forces demanding supremacy over ownership of the process an interestingly both claiming to be championing a people-driven constitution making process.

Within the main groupings one championed by Dr Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) civic group and the other by the three coalition government principals there is no homogeneity in interests to be served by the Constitution reform process and its outputs.

There are diverse and sometimes competing interests that are triggers of the friction now evident from the process.

It is simply not true that there is a single entity that is championing all the diverse interests represented by the constitution making process. The brutal truth is that each interest group vying to control the process has embedded interests that must be satisfied from the process.

That is why talk of people-driven is cheap point scoring politicking emerging from the process.

The reason why there is no dispute about the need for a home grown supreme law is because the interests served by the current constitution have been superseded by changed political circumstances in the country and the emergence of newer threats to power hegemony requiring proactive management through a new constitutional order.

Zanu PF has been entrenched in uninterrupted power for the past four decades during which it has fenced its hegemony with a raft of laws it fast tracked through the Legislature in which it enjoyed an unassailable majority through Presidential appointees whose only loyalty and accountability was to the incumbent President rather than the electorate.

The President was constitutionally assigned draconian powers wherein he literally held 20% of the national vote as an individual.

The political competition was restricted to the remaining 80% of the political space in the country.

Hitherto passage of Constitutional amendment number 18 the party that controlled the national Presidency had a 20% head start in legislative elections which competitors had to overhaul first before entertaining any thought of wrestling legislative control from the ruling party.

The ruling Zanu PF party took full advantage of their exclusive dominance of the Executive and numerical advantage in the Legislature to assert dominance over the Judiciary thereby neutralising any oversight roles that the three pillars of governance are designed to serve in an ideal democracy.

As a consequence of the diminished relevance of the Legislature and the Judiciary to the exercise of power the Executive developed into an autocratic monster that relied on the use of patronage incentives to coerce compliance with its desired national policies and programmes rather than inclusivity to establish needs and wants of the generality of the people in the country to design policies and programmes that served those needs.

This provided fertile breeding grounds for corrupt practices at all levels of governance as the underpinning concept in all corrupt practices of denial of access to induce compliance became a norm rather than an exception.

Immense political, economic and social benefits accrued to those fortunate to be in the right places at appropriate times as they accessed the lion’s share of limited national resources and amassed them for use in coercing the disadvantaged to pay homage to them to have any sniff at the benefits.

Given a choice Zanu PF would rather retain the constitution that allowed it to exercise power with such impunity and yet kept the party insulated against public accountability by state organs such as the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Security forces all of which the Executive pampered with sufficient benefits to retain loyalty.

Those that resisted the corrupt advantages were isolated and individually plucked out of the system exposing them to militant abuse and economic deprivation.

Unfortunately for Zanu PF the patronage system induced laziness as the wealth creating work ethic was slowly replaced by the get rich quick mentality that characterises patronage systems wherever they are found.

The demise of the national work ethic triggered increased competition for dwindling resources within and outside government establishment and as demand outstripped supply prices of goods and services soared causing worker and peasant disaffection with the government.

The setting in of the vicious inflation spiral caused government to panic when its core constituencies in the Liberation War Veterans wing of the party mutinied against the party over unfair distribution of wealth among party loyalists when they witnessed their leadership enjoying lavish lifestyles while they languished in abject poverty.

The threat was to cause the Executive to award the former fighters hefty monetary rewards that it had not budgeted for resulting in there being too much money in circulation chasing too few goods that had to be managed through price increases which cause the crush of the country’s currency on Black September in 1998.

The involvement of the State in the DRC conflict did nothing to help the situation. The strain on the fiscus was beyond its capacity and something had to give way and it did when disenchanted workers transformed their Trade Union association into a political movement of sorts that attracted the support of farmers, Academics, Industrialists and Civic groupings in a union aimed at extracting government accountability that Parliament and the Judiciary had abrogated.

Faced with a serious political challenge to its hegemony the government decided to test its strength by embarking on a constitution reform process that was highly contested by the new opposition Party and its grassroots in Civic Society, the trade union Movement and Tertiary Student political activism.

The government lost a crucial referendum to adopt the draft it had painstakingly put together to entrench the Zanu PF hegemony signalling the start of a vicious and lethal political contest for power between Zanu PF and the newly formed MDC party that is raging on within the current coalition government minus the violent levels the contest had sunk to by 30 June 2008.

This is not to say that political violence and abuse has been extinguished in the country. Political violence still rears its ugly head sporadically in various places throughout the country to date. The State controlled public media continues to cynically promote and spoil for violent political thuggerry.

The Judiciary continues pursuing a programme of selective judicial persecutions of MDC loyalists perceived or real it matters not.

The President sets the tone of the abuse by deliberately and blatantly violating sections of the agreement he entered into with the MDCs to legitimise his current Presidency that had been internationally condemned after he refused to concede evident defeat to MDC leader in the March 2008 harmonised elections.

From this background it is tacitly evident that the MDC wants a constitution that will not only tip the electoral process in its favour by wiping out the 10% legislative head start held by Zanu PF but will also specify remedies for electoral and political misconduct in the country.

For the MDC the constitution making process is not as critical as the end result that whatever process is used will produce.

The objective of the MDC is clear that the country is in dire need of a constitution that not only criminalises military intervention in democratic processes but goes further to specify concrete remedies an aggrieved party can resort to in cases of such interventions.

The MDC wants a constitution that will soft land defeated sitting Presidents without recourse to military interventions. One crucial objective that the MDC wants the Constitution reform process to attain is to devolve power from centralised ownership to regional control.

The MDC knows the value of the Constitution as a political power management tool having benefited immensely from amendments it pushed through in Constitutional Amendments No 18 and 19 and would not accept to play second fiddle to anyone in the process underway in the country.

The argument that Constitution making must be left to the sole control and direction of the “people” when that word is used to mean a political or sectarian interest group will not wash with career politicians in government at present or even those aspiring to wrestle power in future.

There is no country on planet earth that is being governed by a constitution drafted and legislated by the Civil Society. Zimbabwe will not be an exception to that.

Dr Madhuku’s demands are legitimate to the extent that he advocates for involvement of all the willing and interested people-used here to mean qualified citizens of the country without reference to their professions- in the reform process.

After that legitimate call anything he says or demands will persuade him and his organisation and its associates to participate must be put in appropriate political perspective.

As an interested citizen Madhuku holds no special brief to choose who must preside over the process. Politicians elected to the Legislature carry more meaningful mandates to spearhead legislative reforms than the unelected NCA organisation and or its associates whose membership is indeterminate and political interest obscure.

Indeed the politicians will manipulate the process as they do anything that impinges on their motive to exercise absolute power and that must be guarded against but not in the manner that Dr Madhuku suggests that they be made subordinate to an appointed authority whose loyalties will be to the one who appointed him and thus has the capacity to disappoint.

There is more danger in such a person being manipulated by the politicians that are close to his principal than there is of a co-chaired parliamentary select committee whose loyalty and accountability is to the electorate than the executive.

Put simply the people elected the Parliamentarians to watch over executive excesses fully aware that whoever they sent to parliament will be subject to political direction by his party unless he stood on an independent ticket.

Because of that people cannot be represented in a political process as critical as constitution making by a Civic Group ahead of the politicians they entrusted the role of monitoring the Executive.

The people will greatly appreciate independent monitoring of the process spearheaded by parliament if such monitoring is not in any way prohibited and in this instance is being actively sought after and accommodated.

That is the challenge that the NCA and Dr Madhuku should seriously consider taking on in the current process if they seriously think they can make a difference to the outputs of the process.

The compelling political drivers behind the current process are far too engrossing for the NCA and its allies to think they can repeat the 2000 referendum, feat after boycotting the process.

The people want a Constitution that will protect them from violent political abuse and repression by a seemingly lifetime Presidency and nothing will dissuade them from voting for a constitution that limits presidential terms and devolves power to regional management.

The national mood at present is that any instrument that empowers them to confront Presidential power excesses is an important step towards achievement of total democratisation of the political management of the country and the NCA will not be allowed to derail the process by falsely claiming to be acting for people it neither has nor will find.

It matters not that the new constitution being merely a document on paper will not withstand a military onslaught because the Zimbabweans know that without the documented evidence of their rights they neither have the capacity nor the legitimacy to stand up against Executive excesses as has been evident in their history with Zanu PF governance.