President Mugabe centre being reduced to size by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangrai Top left and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara Bottom right
Slowly but surely Zimbabweans are watching the dismantling of the Mugabe mystique as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara take it in turns to unmask the aura of invincibility that Mugabe has assumed for more than half a century uncontested leadership of both country and Zanu PF.
Deluded in the comfort of unquestioned rule by decree for nearly 3 decades, President Mugabe must be wondering what it is he has done or not done to deserve the indignity of having to contend with a crop of politicians young enough to be his children tearing into his repute and directives.
Having legitimised his continued hegemony on the political space through the SADC and AU inspired Inclusive Government that saved him from a catastrophic defeat in the March 29, 2008 Presidential election, Mugabe must have felt he was back in undisputed control of the country’s politics.
Ever since the Global political agreement between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations was signed on 15 September 2008 Mugabe and his Zanu PF acolytes have experimented with numerous initiatives to show they are still in sole charge the country without much success.
The first of those initiatives was 27 June 2008 when Mugabe participated in a Presidential runoff election in which he proclaimed himself winner by a landslide 85% of the valid vote.
The experiment collapsed ignominiously when he attended the 30 June African Union (AU) summit in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt as the summit’s newest Head of State.
The other Heads refused to endorse his headship and he returned to the country with his tail under his knees burdened by the weight of the AU resolution for him to form an inclusive government if he wanted their unconditional support and camaraderie.
Severely wounded by this embarrassing episode President Mugabe pleaded with then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to revive the mediated SADC dialogue he had unilaterally suspended in preference of reasserting his authority through the March elections that ended in his embarrassing defeat.
Mugabe‘s prayers for salvation were answered when on 21 July 2008 then South African President Thabo Mbeki presided over the signing of a tripartite Memorandum Understanding (MoU) by Professor Arthur Mutambara, Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe.
Therein the competing political leadership trio committed their respective political formations to negotiating an Inclusive Government in place of one that could not be consummated after the defeat of Mugabe in the March elections was set aside by the silent Military Coup staged by Zimbabwe’s Military Commanders under the Joint Operations Command (JOC).
Protracted negations ensued the signing of the MoU with Mugabe attempting to retain control of all the levers of power he had lost control of and the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai trying to unseat him while Arthur Mutambara was focussed on regaining political relevance lost by his MDC faction due to humiliating defeats suffered by its leadership in the march Parliamentary, Senatorial and Local Authority elections.
The negotiations nearly collapsed when Mugabe attempted to hold onto the draconian powers that underpinned his leadership of the country prior to March 2008.
In August 2008 multi faceted experiments were set up by Zanu PF to test possibilities of retaining exclusive power by stalling SADC mediated negotiations for power sharing.
First the Military Junta instructed the Registrar General not to renew his Tsvangirai’s passport which had been used up to ensure he would not travel outside the country to countries they believed were sponsoring his party’s regime change agenda.
Over 1500 MDC supporters remained in detention over trumped up political violence cases committed in the run up to the 27 June Presidential runoff election that had been internationally discredited.
By 11 August Zanu PF had forged alliances with the rebel MDC faction led by Mutambara in attempts to neutralise Tsvangirai’s demands for equitable distribution of power between him and Mugabe before the Inclusive government could be consummated.
The power sharing talks collapsed on 12 August as a consequence of this alliance which buoyed Mugabe into believing he could form a partially inclusive government with Prof Mutambara and excluding the detested Tsvangirai.
On 15 August SADC Heads of State convened an emergency meeting to find ways of resolving issues that had led to the collapse of the negotiations for an inclusive government.
At the end of the summit they authorised Mugabe to carry out his experiment of forming an partially inclusive government with the Mutambara MDC faction by convening Parliament and proceeding on that basis.
A spate of bombings that looked controlled and stage-managed were reported at police stations and on railway lines and bridges in what the MDC led by Tsvangirai said was a prelude to a plan aimed at eliminating its leadership through trumped up charges of committing acts of banditry.
On 25 August Mugabe convened Parliament hoping the alliance he had forged with Mutambara would vindicate his belief that he could form a partially inclusive Government with the support of the MDC faction Members of Parliament (MP’s) provided the alliance secured Parliament Speakership in a parliament where the MDC dominated it by one extra MP.
Despite vigorous denials of the alliance by Mutambara and his faction Zanu PF withheld fielding a Parliamentary Speaker contestant and whipped its MP’s to support the candidature of Paul Themba Nyathi putting to rest the speculation about the alliance.
Professor Mutambara with a paltry 10 MP’s in the 210 Chamber could not have put up a Parliamentary speaker contestant with any hope of winning against an MDC and Zanu PF fielding. When Zanu PF did not contest it confirmed why Mutambara had fielded Paul Themba Nyathi against MDC-T’s Lovemore Moyo.
Mugabe’s 3rd major experiment bombed out when Moyo defeated Nyathi for the Parliamentary Speakership and the following day Mugabe suffered the humiliating experience of opening an MDC controlled Parliament.
The MDC Parliamentarians did not make it any easier for him as they jeered and heckled him throughout his speech and made him very uncomfortable.
If Mugabe was convinced that he had outmanoeuvred partners to the MoU and was set to reclaim his undisputed political superiority that had been dented by the March defeat events in parliament on 26 August convinced him otherwise and he was back to the SADC mediation table in a hurry after that humiliating experience.
Within three weeks he had conceded power to Tsvangirai and the compromise was final agreed upon on 11 September 2008, where Mugabe retained the Presidency, Tsvangirai secured the Premiership and Mutambara the Deputy Premiership, all with Executive powers., the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister has come back with guns blazing after he was publicly berated by President Mugabe on television Thursday.
Having been forced to concede more powers to his opponents than he anticipated Mugabe sought to experiment retrieving some of the powers by instructing Patrick Chinamasa to significantly alter the agreement reached on 11 September in Zanu PF’s favour behind the backs of the other subscribers to the MoU.
It nearly paid off when the alterations were in the document publicly signed by the subscribers on 15 September, but for the eagle eyes of scrutinisers in the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai the alterations were flagged and annulled leaving Chinamasa embarrassingly exposed as the agreement fraudster.
For the fourth time Mugabe and Zanu PF’s experiment of means with which to retain exclusive power had been foiled.
As soon as the GPA was signed Mugabe was off to the United Nations Assembly meeting in the United States of America instead of attending to the requirements of the GPA he had just signed.
As a consequence of his deliberate dereliction of responsibilities assigned to him the designated Prime Minister and his deputies could not take up government responsibilities because the constitutional framework allowing them to do so had been left in abeyance.
Leaving this crucial requirement in abeyance was itself a fifth experiment by Mugabe and Zanu PF to see if they could exercise exclusive power despite the agreement.
The convening of Parliament before consummation of the Inclusive Government had actually benefited his Party as Mugabe had unilaterally appointed 10 of his acolytes to become Provincial Governors which would not have been the case had he consummated the Inclusive Government as soon as agreement to its formation on 15 September 2008 was endorsed.
The time buying strategy has become central to Mugabe and Zanu PF strategies to salvage power that is now pouring through his fingers.
It allowed him to hold out for a co- Minister of home Affairs thereby creating one more position for his loosing acolytes and a further 5 Minister of State positions that saw Cabinet balloon from 31 GPA agreed portfolios to 42 and 15 Deputy Ministers increasing to 19. In addition to those Unconstitutional addendums to the GPA it allowed Mugabe to reappoint Gideon Gono as Reserve Bank Governor and elevate Johannes Tomana to Attorney General.
Mugabe was also afforded time to kidnap and detain opposing political activists and use them as power bargaining chips to a point where he now has no less than 43 priced ones in the custody of the Zimbabwe Prisons.
The impunity by Mugabe appears to have reached a dead end if events in the past week are anything to go by.
The MDC MP’s have outperformed the octogenarian MP’s Mugabe entrusted with making waves in the Inclusive Government.
Mugabe has been forced to terminate the appointments of the 10 Provincial Governors.
The irregular appointments of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana have returned to haunt him and have pushed him to the defensive wall.
The arrest and detention of political and Civic Society is causing him nightmarish nights.
To divert pressure he instructed Chief Secretary to his office and Cabinet to unilaterally announce reassignment and deployment of 34 Zanu PF acolytes as permanent Secretaries of the 41 Ministries in the Inclusive Government.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai promptly nullified the deployment which he rightly declared unconstitutional as his office had not agreed them with the Presidency before they were made as dictated by article 20.1.7 of the eight Schedule of the country’s Constitution.
Worse Mugabe’s trusted AG Johannes Tomana appears to be causing Mugabe further headaches by correctly invoking legal clauses that keep detainees behind bars but increases public and international discontent and mistrust of Zanu PF.
Dr Gono’s irregular appointment for a second term as Reserve Bank Governor is no less burdening for the Zimbabwe president under siege.
Deputy PM Professor Mutambara teamed with Finance Minister Tendai Biti to rubbish the Reserve Bank Governor’s recent Monetary policy statement and the Budget presented by Zanu PF Junta Acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Him of the foiled GPA fraudulent of 15 September 2008.
Mugabe says Mutambara is inexperienced and thus prone to error but we know that in the inclusive Government Mugabe’s experience is matched to the minute by Mutambara’s experience and the former’s experience of rule by decree is not of any use in an Inclusive Government.
More pertinently Mugabe argues that appointments by the illegitimate Junta regime that has made way for the Inclusive Government made binding commitments for the Inclusive Government which is politically mischievous given that he has not carried on with the Junta Cabinet appointments that endorsed them.
By dissolving the Junta Cabinet Mugabe acknowledged its illegitimacy and has no option but to admit the appointments he made on advice from the illegitimate Junta structures and Cabinet must be equally reviewed and accepted or nullified as the new dispensation assess them.
Mutambara says Mugabe is entitled to personal views but those must be separated from inclusive government views.
In any event it is not accurate for Mugabe to say the Budget presented to Parliament by Chinamasa cannot be revised or reversed because that is the responsibility of Parliament and as far as we know Parliament has not debated and passed that budget.
What will Mugabe do if Parliament refuses to pass the budget?
This is the reason why we must salute the dilution of Mugabe’s presidential powers. It is no longer a case of what he says goes. Rather he is now required to defend his personal likes and dislikes and be guided by the majority view.
And about time too.
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