Parliament is the august house of our democratic governance to the extent that members elected to that chamber are held in the highest esteem as honourable members by word of mouth and attendant action towards them.
Cardinal rule number one is that only duly elected and or legally appointed members have a right to warm the benches of this critical chamber.
At the invitation of the State and with the approval of the Speaker of Parliament, an invited guest –usually an expert in a certain field of governance and politics or economics and social sciences- may be allowed to address the august house.
Any other person wishing to be in parliament may apply to the Clerk of parliament for a seat in the public gallery to observe and listen to the debates.
There are several rules governing Parliamentary etiquette, decorum and language use that must be strictly enforced by the Speaker through Police details assigned to Parliament duty.
When the standing rules and ordinances are set aside by non Parliamentarians purporting to be members of the house, bona fide members are expected to defend the esteem of the house and reject to honour such impostors by giving them an audience or paying homage to whosoever gatecrashes into the house.
There are no set rules as to how bona fide Members of Parliament (MP’s) must behave towards an uninvited or unwelcome impostor appropriating himself the honour and privilege to address the house on whatever subject because such behaviour was beyond imagination and would naturally be extinguished by the arrest of the gate crasher before he even makes his way into the chamber let alone attempt to reach the podium.
When Robert Gabriel Mugabe who until 25 August 2008 had dutifully defended the house from invasion by unelected and uninvited guests decided to gate crash into the august house and give it illegitimate direction using powers he was conferred by the military commanders on 27 June 2008, decided it was time to break away with tradition, bona fide MP’s reacted by heckling him to express their displeasure with his unwelcome presence.
On 29 March 2008 Mugabe sought electoral endorsement to remain a bona fide member of the august house but was beaten into a distant second place by Morgan Tsvangirai and thus disqualified to retain membership he had enjoyed from 1980.
He was hurt and promptly dismissed the will of the electorate by ordering a run off Presidential election against Tsvangirai.
Realising that it was impossible to win an electoral contest against the popular MDC leader, Mugabe enlisted the violent services of the Military to coerce the electorate to vote for him forcing Tsvangirai to pull out in order to save the lives of his unarmed supporters who were being wantonly killed by Mugabe’s military campaigners.
Without regard to the fact that when the illegal runoff “election” was held he had no challenger left in the race, Mugabe still declared himself winner of the runoff with a landslide 85% 0f the vote.
Immediately thereafter he rushed to the AU Heads of State meeting in Egypt but was taken aback by the lukewarm reception he received.
Realising all was not well about his stolen “re-election” as no one was prepared to endorse and legitimise him, Mugabe reignited political talks with political opponents in the MDC he had shelved after miscalculating that he was poised to be re-elected on 29 March 2008.
Deliberate and calculated political brinkmanship between Mugabe and Sadc mediator in chief President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa resulted in the drafting in of Professor Arthur Mutambara’s MDC political faction -despite that it had won a paltry 10 out of 210 Parliamentary seats that were up for grabs in the 29 March elections- into the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on how to legitimise Mugabe’s electoral fraud and ease him into retirement thereafter.
It paid off handsomely for Mugabe when Mutambara who had been humiliated at constituency level elections realised that this was a God sent opportunity for himself and his routed formation of pseudo Pan Africanist democrats to recover lost relevance.
He quickly signed up to the Mugabe legitimisation plan on promises of a ceremonial Deputy Premiership in the plan.
The opportunistic political lightweight was ecstatic about the prospect of the undue reward he stood to reap and sang Mugabe praise songs a bit too early for the liking of some of his elected “followers”.
The deserving beneficiary Morgan Tsvangirai found himself alienated in the talks by the person he thought was closest to him by his own pronouncements.
The seasoned politician he now is proving to be, Tsvangirai refused to endorse the plan much to the chagrin of mediator President Thabo Mbeki who thought he had the deal in the bag for the 15 August 2008 Sadc summit in his country that was to culminate in him taking over the chair from the then ailing and now late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa.
Stung by Tsvangirai’s solo refusal to sign-up over an unfair power sharing clause and unjustified lifespan of the transitional arrangement, Mbeki rushed to Mugabe’s right hand man Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos and tabled the agreement signed between Mutambara and Mugabe and requested that he approves that as the basis for a new government in Zimbabwe.
The proposals empty of any meaningful power transfer from the illegitimate Mugabe were easily accepted by the Angolan President who took it upon himself to do what he knows best –intimidate opponents to sign against their- as he has done for 29 years to Angolan political opponents.
He found Tsvangirai a different proposition though. Real power transfer proposals were counter proposed to him at the Pretoria SADC meeting by Morgan Tsvangirai whom SADC had invited to justify Mugabe’s attendance to the summit as Head of State.
Botswana President refused to sit in conference with Mugabe as Head of State prior to his disputed re-election being regularised and promptly gave the dubious South Africa Sadc summit a deserved miss.
Frustrated by Tsvangirai’s well founded power demands, Dos Santos who is not known for legal acumen but rather dictatorial and violent repression of political opposition, decided to threaten Tsvangirai by advising him to seek legal advice on Mugabe’s legitimacy as Zimbabwe President signalling his recognition of Mugabe.
Sure footed Tsvangirai promptly counter proposed that since Dos Santos was happy with the equity in the power sharing deal sold to him by Thabo Mbeki, it would make no difference then if he assumed the role envisaged for Mugabe and Mugabe switched to the role envisaged for him in the deal he felt was skewed in favour of Mugabe.
Realising that the counter proposal was too hot a potato after Mugabe fumed when it was put to him Dos Santos and company decided to use the underhand threat by vaguely signing up to a communiqué authorising that MP’s elect from the 29 March harmonised elections be sworn in and Parliament be convened against the MoU provisions agreed to by Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara.
That signalled the end of the Sadc led negotiated settlement of the Zimbabwe crisis. It was believed among SADC leaders that since Mugabe and Mutambara were amenable to the power Transfer convening Parliament will result in Tsvangirai’s MDC Parliamentary supremacy being reversed by a Zanu PF and MDC PF alliance.
Such a development it was reasoned would force Tsvangirai to seek political accommodation from the other two signatories to the MoU or face political alienation and irrelevance.
So strong was the belief that when Parliament was convened on 26 August 2008. Zanu PF did not field a contestant for the powerful position of Speaker and whipped its MP’s to back the MDC PF contestant Paul Themba Nyathi.
Just in case one or two of the MP’s Mutambara claimed to control decided against voting along with Zanu PF murderers, the ZRP were instructed by JOC to arrest no less than two of the MDC MP’s to ensure his numbers would not surpass that in Zanu PF and the Mutambara MP’s vote would just be the icing of the cake.
But once that outcome was achieved the MDC MP’s supporting Mutambara would be beholden to vote with Zanu PF on all future motions to be decided by vote or face alienation and vicious repression from Zanu PF.
The MDC MP’s Mutambara claims to own and lead revolted and voted with MDC MP’s loyal to Tsvangirai and the MDC sponsored candidate Lovemore Moyo was duly elected Speaker creating the stage for an acrimonious opening of Parliament by Mugabe.
Mugabe had hoped to use Parliament Speakership elections to demonstrate his legitimacy with a compliant MDC PF speaker in place.
If he had an option Mugabe would have missed the opening of a Parliament under the control of a hostile opponent. His hitherto supportive wife refused to accompany him to the prestigious ceremony she has never missed in the past.
Her premonition that advised to miss the event was justified as Mugabe was subjected to his worst show of disrespect since he ascended to the leadership of the country in 1980.
On his entry MDC MP’s refused to stand up to acknowledge his presence only standing up when the National Anthem was played.
When he read his address, the MDC MP’s heckled him and sang anti Mugabe and Zanu PF songs reminding Mugabe that they were the ones mandated to be in Parliament and Mugabe was a gatecrasher they did not welcome or heed.
For the first time Mugabe restricted his address to reading what was written on the address paper and beat a hasty retreat as soon as he had finished reading the speech none of which was listened to because of the heckling by MDC MP’s.
In faraway South Africa and Angola President Mbeki and Dos Santos were watching the events unfolding in the Zimbabwe Parliament with awe.
Things had gone terribly wrong for Mugabe and his legitimacy was far from being cemented through cynical projects to sideline Tsvangirai.
In Zimbabwe Patrick Chinamasa, Bright Matonga, Walter Mzembi and Advocate Martin Dinha were joined by foul mouthed Mugabe spokesperson George Charamba and geriatric Kumbirai Kangai and motor mouth Professor Jonathan Moyo in a directionless condemnation of the MDC MP’s behaviour.
The behaviour was disrespectful, outrageous and disgraceful they all lamented. We can advise them that they are the least examples of civility and more is in store for the gate crashing despot who refuses to respect the electorate.
Demented Mugabe later recovered from the shocking experience to announce that he would trudge on and form a government minus the rowdy MDC party soonest.
That was a serious mistake and miscalculation on his part. Mbeki promptly recalled the Party negotiators to damage control the humiliating experience suffered by Mugabe and project the false impression negotiations that had collapsed at the end of the SADC summit were still in progress.
As expected the meeting collapsed without achieving an inch of progress but rather widening the gap between the opponents in Zimbabwe and also between Mbeki and Tsvangirai.
Zanu PF now demands that MDC MP’s be disciplined by their Speaker. Meanwhile the AU is now demanding that a 50-50 power sharing deal be instituted forthwith but they should not be surprised if Tsvangirai resists that new position as well.
When he demanded that solution they did not back him. It is only now that they are backing him because Mugabe is in a serious mess and Tsvangirai realises that. He will demand more power to rescue Mugabe’s collapsing political pedestal.
Even the JOC commanders realise that they are up against a formidable opponent and have decided to seek refuge from possible prosecution for their well documented against humanity that Mugabe has underwritten.
President Mbeki missed the point and thinking Mugabe was still in control of the JOC and Zanu PF forged ahead and pressured both Mugabe and Tsvangirai to accept a 50-50 power sharing proposal where under Mugabe’s chairmanship the Executive will be termed “The Cabinet.”
After formulating government policies and projects the same group called Cabinet before Mugabe minus him and his deputies will transform into “The National Council of Ministers” under Tsvangirai’s chairmanship to approve and implement the policies formulated by themselves as Cabinet under Mugabe’s chairmanship.
The deal sailed through grudgingly on 11 September 2009 when Tsvangirai agreed to sign the deal.
Naturally the agreement raised hope in a Nation where day to day survival has become such a daunting ordeal everyone has been turned into an informal trader of sorts. The expectation was then that after signing the agreement Mbeki and SADC would take charge of its expeditious implementation to halt the suffering endured in the country.
Mbeki meanwhile knew he was under intense pressure from the domestic South Africa power struggles within the ANC party that sponsored his election as President and wanted Mugabe legitimised before then as he was not sure about his continued tenure of office.
Mbeki has never been an impartial peace broker in Zimbabwe and has done all in his power to prop up the Mugabe regime.
The agreement has been signed but only one clause there from legitimising Robert Mugabe’s continued tenure of office as President has been implemented.
Armed with that agreement Mugabe wasted no time in showing off his and newly found legitimacy by gallivanting to the UN Security Council meeting in New York with the largest delegation in his tow.
At home his sincerity in entering the power sharing agreement is coming under increased scrutiny even from parties to the agreement.
But Mugabe has always been about himself and those questioning why he entered into the agreement have their answer in his priorities.
Mbeki has been deposed as South Africa President and replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe subject to Parliamentary approval.
Going by the support he gave for Mugabe to attend the AU/EU summit in Portugal, Motlanthe would be more of the same that Mbeki was as mediator and Sadc and AU must think long and deep before assigning another South African President to mediate in Zimbabwe.
The most neutral source of mediators is the AU and UN. Because of mediation partiality Mugabe is allowed to attend a UN meeting as the lone known Executive running the country legitimately.
Meanwhile Parliament’s next sitting is deferred to October 2008 allowing Mugabe to do as he pleases.
When Parliament next seats the agreement will be tabled o formalise it into law. After that it is expected that Cabinet/National Council of Ministers will then be announced and serious Government business will commence.
Only then will we expect the Parliament circus to end and notions that Tsvangirai has been given powers by Mugabe and or Zanu PF will be allayed as his powers devolve from Parliament.
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