Elections thief George Chiweshe former ZEC Chairman recently rewarded by Zanu PF with unilateral appointment by president Mugabe as Judge President of the High Court causing the same reactions in MDC-T similar yet still substantive past appointments have stirred in the past. Could this be the one that instructs MDC-T to look elsewhere for remedies to Mugabe's failure to uphold the Constitution?
The MDC-T is once again crying foul as it finds itself short changed by President Mugabe’s unilateralism in the coalition government.
President Mugabe has followed up his unilateral appointment of the Reserve Bank Governor, Attorney General and Provincial Governors and his unconstitutional refusal to swear in Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture with announcement of unilateral appointments of High and Supreme Court judges.
The latest appointments have further riled the MDC-T that is already seething with anger over the blatant refusal by Zanu PF to fully implement the provisions of Constitutional Amendment No 19.
The MDC-T are in the flawed coalition government to try and salvage whatever it can of its political losses following the rigged March 29, 2008 elections the party won a victory that was invalidated by the intervention of the military and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in favour of Zanu PF.
Bruised and battered by a well oiled and armed violent Zanu PF machinery augmented by a complicit Sadc leadership the MDC-T was forced into accepting a seat in a coalition government negotiated at the behest of the defeated Zanu PF party.
Because Zanu PF forced itself into the coalition government it was always going to be the dominant player despite its unpopularity with the electorate.
President Mugabe did not waste any time in making the most out of the coalition government allocating all the critical Ministries to his Zanu PF adherents many of whom he had to appoint as Senators to qualify for Cabinet posts following their humiliating defeat at the polls.
Next he moved to appoint 10 Provincial Governors, the RBZ Governor and the AG all from Zanu PF ranks notwithstanding the humiliating rejection the party had suffered at the polls and provisions of the GPA his party had entered into with MDC-T and MDC-M requiring consulting first before appointing.
Having realised that the MDC-T and MDC-M had no meaningful means with which to resist his unilateralism in making appointments President Mugabe went on to announce a full line-up of Permanent Secretaries he had appointed without consulting the other coalition principals as required of him by CA No19.
The appointments were later to be ratified by the Premier after President Mugabe had agreed that he would appoint the next set of Ambassadors from MDC nominees until an external representation balance was struck between the coalition partners.
To pacify the restive MDC-T coalition partners who had announced a partial pull out from the coalition government that was threatening to delegitimize President Mugabe , he also added the appointment of Commissions and the reconvening of the National Security Council on a monthly basis as well as the revisiting by inter-party negotiators of all outstanding CA No 19 issues.
No sooner had the tactic to lure back the MDC-T into full participation in the coalition government than President Mugabe was at it again this time reassigning ministerial portfolios to himself and Zanu PF ministries while leaving ministries under MDC nominated ministers without any administrative Acts to superintend.
In all instances the MDC-T in particular has done well to highlight these unconstitutional behaviours to the nation and the guarantours of the coalition agreement but has not come up with effective counter strategies to stop the unconstitutional actions by the President.
The multitudes that have banked their trust in the party to make a difference in their lives have not done themselves any service by concentrating their analysis of events in the coalition government and embarking on a strengths/weakness evaluation of the parties instead of throwing in missiles for the MDC-T to use in countering the Zanu PF onslaught on their rights.
The unilateral appointments remain substantive to date despite the vociferous MDC-T opposition and referral of the illegal appointments to the guarantours and the never-ending negotiations.
To be fair to the MDC-T the party has also scored significant victories in gaining appointments of its nominees as Ambassadors to 5 missions abroad and the appointment of the Zimbabwe media Commission, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Human rights Commission as well as the regular meetings of the National security Council.
But these gains were made insignificant given the national expectations that are premised on the full and unconditional implementation of the coalition agreements leading to the holding of elections to foreclose the flawed coalition era and replace it with a representative government of the electorate’s choice.
The MDC-T has announced that agreement was reached ages ago on the share of Provincial governors among the coalition parties but all the electorate sees are Zanu PF Governors and no indication as to when the agreed quotas will be put in practice.
The MDC-T has referred the matter to SADC but there is no sign there from that they will enforce the agreement.
President Mugabe argues that provincial governors are his Constitutional prerogative to appoint and not covered by the GPA.
But that argument is preposterous as the GPA has now been integrated as part of the Constitution through CA No19 which overrides any Constitutional and Statutory variances with its spirit and letter during the lifespan of the coalition government.
None other than President Mugabe signed CA No 19 into the Supreme law of the coalition government and annexed the GPA to it.
The MDC-T is right to make all the noises about the failure by the President to uphold CA No 19 in letter and spirit. The MDC-T is equally right to refer the matter to Sadc guarantours of the Supremacy of CA No19 during the tenure of the coalition government.
However if these initiatives are not yielding the desired result the MDC-T needs its supporters to tell it what to do next and all the party is getting is brickbats about it having entered into this untenable position without the approval of its grassroots support which wanted nothing less than the total transfer of power from Zanu PF following the March 2008 electoral defeat of Zanu PF.
The paradox though is that while the coalition was not an expectation of the MDC-T grassroots it was the same grassroots that implored party leadership to do all it could to relieve them of the harsh and hostile burden of Zanu PF retributive violence and the coalition government initiative has done just that.
The MDC-T supporters must now use the freedom from violence they have to demand that their MP’s do something about the violations of the coalition constitution by President Mugabe and Zanu PF in addition to its Jomic and Negotiators and Sadc arbitration initiatives.
The ZCTU has already suggested that a fresh Presidential election be considered in the circumstances, which is not an outrageous proposal at all.
Alternatively the MDC-T must table a motion in Parliament to impeach the President who has willingly of deliberately refused and or failed to uphold the Constitution he swore to defend and uphold at all times during his tenure of office.
IF there is doubt on the interpretation of CA No19 of outstanding in so far as the powers of the President to appoint certain categories of Public Servants as appears to be the case the best place for that to be put to rest would be in the Supreme Court.
In the past the MDC-T has been reluctant to resort to the Supreme Court for adjudication of its political disputes with Zanu PF on the premise that the Supreme Court bench was compromised in favour of the government.
Now that the Party’s leader is also the Head of Government and Premier, why is the party still reluctant to approach the court for redress of a constitutional dispute in the government it is involved in?
The MDC-T must seriously consider approaching the Supreme Court for adjudication on the interpretation of “SCHEDULE 8 (Section 115(2) and (3)) which reads;
“Transitional Amendments and Provisions
Framework for a New Government
1. For the avoidance of doubt, the following provisions of the Interparty Political Agreement, being Article XX thereof, shall, during the subsistence of the Interparty Political Agreement, prevail notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution-
20.1.3 The President
(a) ......
(n) appoints independent Constitutional Commissions in terms of the Constitution;
(o) appoints service/executive Commissions in terms of the Constitution and in consultation with the Prime Minister;
(p) in consultation with the Prime Minister, makes key appointments the President is required to make under and in terms of the Constitution or any Act of Parliament;
The argument that approaching the Supreme Court would automatically suspend political initiatives to settle the dispute may be valid but is defacto flawed because even without the approach the political initiatives are in limbo and as good as suspended.
Once the Supreme Court clarifies the meaning and application of these clauses the disputed appointments in the coalition government can be dealt with accordingly and in compliance with the legal ruling.
That will spare the nation of all the political noses it has been subjected over the past 18 months over the appointments which legally appear to be flawed but are defacto operational.
With specific reference to the refusal by the President to allow Senator Roy Bennett to take up his appointment as Deputy Minister of Agriculture the MDC-T must in addition to efforts and initiatives it has so far undertaken, initiate a parliamentary motion compelling president Mugabe to uphold CA No19 section “23A Political rights which reads;
“(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every Zimbabwean citizen shall have the right to;
(a) free, fair and regular elections for any legislative body, including a local authority, established under this Constitution or any Act of Parliament;
(b) free, fair and regular elections to the office of President and to any other elective office;
(c) free and fair referendums whenever they are called in terms of this Constitution or an Act of Parliament.
(2) Subject to this Constitution, every adult Zimbabwean citizen shall have the right;
a. to vote in referendums and elections for any legislative body established under this Constitution, and to do so in secret; and
b. to stand for public office and, if elected, to hold office.”
By failing to challenge the President legally the MDC-T is complicit in Roy Bennett’s refusal to assume public office for whatever reasons that the President and Zanu PF have so far advanced which are unconstitutional.
It is no use the MDC-T complaining about the unilateral appointment of Retired Brigadier General George Chiweshe as the new High Court Judge President because he was the Chairman of the Electoral Commission that robbed the party of its electoral victory in March 2008 yet on the other hand the Party’s Secretary General in his capacity as Finance Minister appoints Gideon Gono as Chairman of the RBZ board in the full knowledge that the same Gono was the financier in chief of Chiweshe’s electoral rigging.
The complaints become even more ludicrous when the MDC-T is shunning the option to stop President Mugabe from acting unconstitutionally by refusing to table parliamentary initiatives open to the party to counter Presidential excesses and worse refuses to approach the courts for redress preferring to resort to Sadc, Jomic, Inter Party negotiators, ZMC, ZEC, ZHRC and other Commissions for arbitration before the laws they operate under have not been changed.
The results will not change because the rules remain and can only be changed in Parliament where the party seems afraid to hazard radical legislative changes for fear that its slim parliamentary majority may not carry the day.
But the people it claims to represent would rather see attempts to change these regulations fail and know who is against the changes so that they will deal with them come next elections.
As it stands there are many who believe that the MDC-T is shedding crocodile tears over Mugabe and Zanu PF’s refusal to implement the coalition agreement when it is the MDC-T that wants to use the outstanding issues to gain political mileage through accusing Zanu PF of political intransigence.
The noble cause the MDC-T is fighting for of seeing through the Constitution making process will come to nothing if in the process the party loses its grassroots support by failing to address immediate concerns of the electorate on the flawed belief that its economic stabilization and political violence interventions have endeared it to the grassroots in perpetuity.
The fight must continue even after the party wins elections under the new Constitution in the making as the improved conditions that people are enjoying are still way below the ideal.
All the unconstitutional and unilateral appointments and or denials of public office that the President has made or perpetrated must suffer the same treatment and fate without singling out the recent appointment of George Chiweshe.
Chiweshe's recent appointment is not in any way more repugnant than the imposition of people rejected at the polls as Provincial Governors, the appointment of Financier of the violent electioneering by Zanu PF as RBZ Governor, the imposition of a self confessed Zanu PF activist as the AG thereby delaying the prosecution of perpetrators of violence while the innocent victims are persecuted and denied the right to public office.
MDC-T must stop pussycating on these serious issues and take the bull by its horns in Courts, in Parliament, within Sadc and AU as well as in Jomic and other Commissions that are in place through pushing for regulations and laws that will bind the operatives to act constitutionally and judiciously.
What corrective measures have all those Ministers and deputy Ministers from the MDC who are whingeing about being stripped of their powers taken to reclaim their powers other than crying in public about their losses?
Why can’t they raise these unconstitutional acts in Parliament and demand their powers back that way given that these were ministries they were allotted after Zanu PF had chosen those it wished to administer in the first instance?
Is it not time these Ministers take a cue from Roy Bennett’s bravery and grit and start hitting back and very hard too whenever they are lapped in the face by their Zanu PF counterparts.
The Prime Minister can only do so much for them but it is really up to them to show that they are not in government to nursemaid Zanu PF Ministers but to push through the people’s agenda for the country.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment