PIC: MDC President and Zimbabwe Prime Minister Designate Morgan Tsvangirai
Sadc Heads of State meet on Sunday 9 November 2008 with their chair promising to be tough with Zimbabwean political protagonists to decisively conclude the power sharing deal it brokered that is in trouble over distribution of power among the subscribers.
Only fools will take the threatened tough action seriously given that SADC has been ceased with resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis for no less than 8 years now of which the past 18 months have been intense but to no avail.
We hope the threatened tough action is not admission on the part of the esteemed Heads of SADC States that hitherto they were guilty of handling the crisis with kid gloves as charged by many Zimbabweans and the UN.
That said it would be interesting to see what tough action the SADC heads will take given their repute for misdirecting their pressure in pursuit of elusive solutions for the Zimbabwe crisis hitherto.
When Mugabe ordered his Police and Intelligence operatives to viciously disrupt a Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds in downtown Highfield suburb of Harare where they killed Gift Tandare in cold blood and took into custody the most senior political opponents and thoroughly beat them up, Sadc responded by commissioning formal mediation talks between the victims of the thuggery and the assailant before the assailant’s long time friend and admirer Thabo Mbeki then President of South Africa.
Elated the vicious Robert Gabriel Mugabe bragged that he would dish out more of the same treatment to anyone in his country who sought to spearhead a regime change agenda in collusion with former colonial masters in Britain and America.
The mediation talks took forever to conclude and when they were suspended all Zimbabweans had gained was Constitutional Amendment No 18 (CA No 18) which was far less than the New Constitution they were after and the suspension of repressive legislation and violent politicking that was central to electoral rigging.
It was an improvement from the draconian provisions under which previous elections had been held and despite its rushed passage through Parliament and irrational insistence by Mugabe to hold elections before some of its provisions were in place, fairly peaceful elections were staged for the first time in the country on 29 March 2008.
The results of those elections were that Zanu PF and Mugabe lost the unassailable two third majorities they held in Local Governance, Parliament and The Senate to the opposition MDC and worse Mugabe lost the Presidential bid to Morgan Tsvangirai of the then opposition MDC.
The same leaders now threatening tough action to force down the Global Political Agreement they cajoled the victorious MDC to sign up to after they allowed Robert Mugabe and his Militia dubbed State Defence, Police, Prisons and Intelligence Operatives to manipulate election results at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) National Collation Office and force an illegal Presidential runoff between Mugabe which all of them endorsed.
They were tough with Tsvangirai to drop his victory claim and participate in the illegal runoff and all promised to ensure the runoff election would be credible.
After no less than 135 of his key activists were massacred in cold blood by armed Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF militia and hundreds of thousands others were displaced, all his rallies were violently disrupted or cancelled, his campaign transport had been impounded, his adverts had been taken off air and Print by the State Media Houses, he had been detained without charge on no less than 5 occasions while on the campaign trail and neither SADC nor AU had intervened Tsvangirai withdrew his candidature in the farcical Presidential runoff.
SADC, AU and the UN all called for postponement of the sham runoff but Mugabe responded by convening his ZEC to sit as an Electoral Court and declare the withdrawal null and void and stage the runoff as if nothing had happened.
On 29 Jun exactly 48 hours after the same ZEC that could not declare election results with similar participation for 32 days after 28 March elections declared Mugabe landslide winner of the solo contestant runoff Presidential election and his crowning was staged 2hours later in time for him to pack his bags and fly to the AU Heads of State meeting in Egypt the day after his coronation.
The AU leaders including the SADC leaders now threatening tough action on Zimbabwe leaders for being deadlocked on power sharing under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) they forced down in Zimbabwe in total disregard of the wishes of the electorate welcomed Mugabe to the summit fully aware his re-election was null and void and he had lost the presidency to Morgan Tsvangirai.
That was tough action against a despotic and errant former President which most Zimbabweans expect to be replicated in South Africa tomorrow by SADC Heads as threatened by the Chair?
The AU meeting resolved to mandate Sadc to revive mediation talks that had been put on ice by the elections and endorsed President Mbeki to continue as Chief Mediator despite damming disclosures by the MDC that he was compromised to Zanu PF and it had lost confidence in his impartiality.
Now that was tough on a genuine complainant seeking fair treatment and his response was to refuse to appear before Mbeki till there was in place a neutral observe and or monitor of President Mbeki’s mediation.
That drove the point and SADC and AU mellowed and put together a cosmetic Mediation reference Group to monitor and support President Mbeki’s mediation. It was a tame response to serious allegations of partiality that was threatening the resumption of dialogue.
Dialogue resumed and when negotiations reached a stalemate UN’s Ambassador Haile Menkerios of the Reference Group tested the effectiveness of the group by attempting to visit Harare on a fact finding mission. He was denied entry by Mugabe and scolded by Chinamasa.
When South Africa was put under pressure by FIFA to resolve the Zimbabwe impasse or lose the chance to host the 2010 football World Cup bonanza the Ruling ANC decided it was time to show some teeth.
Mbeki was told to go to Zimbabwe and return with an agreement or stay there until that objective was achieved. He obliged and coaxed Mugabe to accept the MDC demands for equitable power sharing between him and Tsvangirai and on 11 September 2008 the GPA was agreed upon by the parties.
Mugabe had tried to circumvent power sharing negotiations by pleading with SADC Heads to allow him to convene Parliament having cobbled an unholy alliance with Professor Mutambara to support a Speaker from that faction earning the faction a new designation MDC-PF from disenchanted MDC supporters who felt Prof Mutambara had sold out the democracy struggle for power.
The alliance was soundly defeated when MDC’s Lovemore Moyo was elected Parliament Speaker despite that two MPs from his formation had been arrested before the voting to guarantee that Zanu PF MPs would cancel out MDC votes for him and MDC PF would have a field day electing their formation candidate.
They revolted and voted for Moyo and the unholy Zanu PF and Prof Mutambara’s MDC PF alliance was exposed and left in tatters
That defeat resulted in Mugabe succumbing to the negotiations that led to the 11 September.
But on 15 September 2008 when the agreement was tabled before a parade of SADC Heads for the Principals to solemnise, they were duped to sign a forged document that Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa boasts having altered on instructions from Robert Mugabe.
Worse after he was legitimised as President Mugabe packed his bags to attend the UN summit in the USA without legitimising the agreed to Prime Minister and his Deputies as well as appointing the agreed to Vice Presidents.
On his return he unilaterally gazetted the Cabinet allotments for the parties ahead of appointment of the Prime Minister, and the Deputies as agreed.
Aggrieved by the blatant disregard of the GPA provisions by Mugabe the MDC registered its displeasure with the mediator who by then had been forced to resign as President of South Africa by his own party for victimising senior party members through trumped up prosecutions that were nullified by the country’s High Court.
Having lost his clout after Court criticism piled on his office he resigned to avoid fighting a threatened vote of no confidence.
The disagreement on how to implement the Zimbabwe power sharing deal coming as it did when Mbeki was still leaking his wounds, was not the best of problems for him to attend to and he took his time to accept resumption of leading the Zimbabwe mediation effort as mandated by SADC and endorsed by the AU and UN.
When he eventually visited Zimbabwe to try and unlock the impasse all he managed to do was infuriate the complainants whose confidence in him is very low by endorsing Mugabe’s unilateral allotments.
That was no way to mediate a complaint. Mr Mbeki projected himself as a Zanu PF extension and not a negotiator and his endorsements of the Zanu PF sharing model that grabbed all key ministries other than that of Finance was promptly declined by the MDC and an appeal lodged with the SADC Troika on Defence and Security for Arbitration by the reference Group.
A meeting of the Troika was convened in Mbabane Swaziland but could not take off because the chief complainant Morgan Tsvangirai has since June been denied a passport and the emergency travel document he was issued was belatedly issued and did not take account of his transit requirements in South Africa which Mugabe’s henchman have vigorously disputed after the embarrassment of a no show by Tsvangirai and his team to the negotiations.
The Troika had to postpone the meeting to Harare a week later where it failed to unlock the impasse because it lacks the teeth to bite where it hurts the intransigent Zanu PF and Mugabe.
The Troika concluded by referring the dispute to the full Sadc Heads of State meeting scheduled for Sunday where they have promised to be tough with Zimbabwe political leaders for dragging their feet in implementing the GPA.
But it is not all the leaders dragging their feet. One leader has taken it upon himself to take unilateral decisions that are causing the impasse and that is the leader SADC must target for tough action.
It would be a welcome gesture towards the toiling Zimbabweans they have disenfranchised and left vulnerable to hunger and starvation and unbearable economic hardships occasioned on the country by failed leadership of the same leader now causing the logjam inn implementation of the GPA.
SADC leaders have allowed Mugabe to believe and act as if he is the sole executive authority in the country and thus sole determinant of who to appoint, when and to which national responsibility.
That is the problem they have to deal with at their meeting on Sunday.
They must make it clear to Mugabe that his legitimacy devolves from the GPA of 11 September 2008 and not whatever had happened in the past under his stewardship of the state.
In this regard they must make it clear in no uncertain terms that he is only President of Zimbabwe to the extent he ensures the agreed inclusive government positions of President, Prime Minister, Vice Presidents and Deputy Prime Ministers are confirmed and constitutionalised after which he must sit with them to agree other Constitutional appointments.
That clarified they must bring him to the realisation that in terms of the GPA his powers are restricted to consensus Government practice with signatories of the GPA and not his party which failed to support his re-election bid on 29 March 2008 nor the JOC that fooled him to embark on the 27 June 2008 runoff fiasco and its preceding thuggery.
They should then clarify to him that the 31 Cabinet posts in the GPA are not Zanu PF or his property but rather a tripartite national institution of the signatories of the GPA whose distribution is not Mugabe’s prerogative to decide but must be distributed by mutual agreement among the principal signatories of the GPA.
That clarified the Heads of State must then discard the unilaterally gazetted allotment of Cabinet posts and consider each party’s proposed sharing model and eliminate Ministries where there is convergence on which party they should be allocated.
Therehave been too many conflicting statements coming from the parties and the SADC Troika over which ministerial portfolios are still in dispute for the Heads of Government to be abrupt and narrow down discussion to the Home Affairs portfolio alone.
It is obvious that no less than 10 portfolios, 6 Governorships, 31 Permanent Secretaries, over 60 Diplomatic posts and all Constitutional appointments are still in dispute and a formula to share them must be agreed.
The Heads of State must brace up for a diversionary argument from Zanu PF that MDC cannot be trusted with security ministries because alleged militia training in Botswana.
Similar allegations were levelled against MDC activists and MPs who were detained for six months on false allegations they were running military training camps in South Africa which the Zimbabwe Security and Intelligence operatives failed to disclose when required to do so by the High Court.
Hon Paul Madzore and his brother as well as Ian Makone, Denis Murira, Luke Tamborinyoka and the murdered Tonderai Ndira are some of the victims of the Zanu PF manufactured lies used stain the MDC.
SADC Heads must reject this ruse from Zanu PF aimed at derailing the power sharing deal and insist on tangible and verifiable evidence for this well known diversionary tactic by Zanu PF whenever it seeks to opt out of political agreements it realises are not in its favour.
Trivia like refusal to issue a Prime Minister designate a passport because he will campaign for more sanctions against a government in which he will be a key man must be extinguished once and for all. So should the continued violence by Zanu PF against MDC supporters.
While Zimbabweans welcome the hinted tough approach to be adopted by the Heads of SADC states in South Africa, the tough action must be directed to none other than the intransigent Mugabe.
Tsvangirai must not move an inch from his current position as he has already conceded too much in this deal.
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