JOMIC co-chairman Professor Welshman Ncube has lost his bearings a long time agoWhen the MDC-M reincarnated from the graveyard of the 2008 harmonised elections also runs to become a critical factor in shaping our country’s misgivings I wrote expressing misgivings at Thabo Mbeki’s decision to invite electoral rejects from the faction to determine the fate of the vote of the electorate that had rejected the same people.
Then I argued as I still do now, that it rendered electoral democracy a meaningless concept and empowered the rejects to thumb their noses at a hapless electorate confused why their hard won one man one vote is no longer a means for them to exercise power to determine their destinies.
I further advanced that Zimbabweans will hold SADC and Thabo Mbeki in particular accountable for negative outcomes likely to come out of the flawed process he had instituted in Zimbabwe unless the outcomes of the mediation process met or exceeded national expectations.
The minimum national expectation was and still is that Zanu PF political hegemony and impunity had to be ended forthwith and the restoration of the impartial rule of law that upholds fundamental Human Rights enshrined in our laws and respected individual property rights would be vigorously pursued and applied by the government that would be agreed upon in tandem with the people’s wishes as epitomised by the March electoral outcomes.
The outcome of mediated political settlement is now in place and the verdict is unanimous that it falls way short of ordinary electorate expectations at the same time it is an improvement on the political status quo that preceded the settlement.
President Mugabe, Premier Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Tsvangirai are unanimous that they appended their signatures on a flawed political settlement but are still committed to panel beat it and make it workable.
The general populace concurs and has been patient with the government as it struggles to find its feet in the pitfall infested political environment the government is operating.
Saddled with a bankrupted fiscus, dilapidated economic and social infrastructure, a human resource that has lost the work ethic, a discontented and militarised industrial and public service, a pervasive terminally corrupt system of doing business, a sceptical international community and economically handicapped sympathetic and empathetic SADC neighbourhood, the government is struggling to meet heightened expectations in the country.
Numerous breaches of implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have not worked in favour of the noble cause of the coalition government principals to transform imperfections in the agreement into benefits for the Nation.
The 10 Provincial Governors appointed by President Mugabe from his Zanu PF Party to boost his chances of winning the Senate Presidential elections which were delicately poised after his party had “won” equal seats to those won by his opponents in Senatorial elections remain defacto in office despite the matter having been deferred to JOMIC for finalisation as a precondition for consummation of the coalition government on 13 February 2008.
JOMIC is yet to disclose its resolution on the matter to the Nation.
Cabinet initially agreed to be limited to 31 Ministries and 10 Provincial Governorships has been dramatically expanded to 38 Ministers and 10 Provincial Governors without explanation from the internal implementation watchdog of the GPA Joint Implementation Committee (JOMIC) that has three month to month rotational co-chairmen.
The initially agreed 15 Deputy Ministerial positions have suddenly increased to 19 again without explanation from JOMIC.
A Deputy Minister nominee from the MDC-T party remains the only party nominee to have been refused and or deferred swearing in by President Mugabe without explanation from JOMIC.
The agreed land audit to address suspected multiple farm ownerships by a few elite beneficiaries and stop commercial farming disruptions and reversal of the land reforms that had taken place prior to the signing of the GPA is yet to commence.
Meanwhile there are sporadic eruptions of commercial farm invasions by people claiming to have been allocated the farms some 2 to 4 years before the GPA was signed but had not taken occupation for one reason and another and no action has been taken by JOMIC to ensure these disruptions, justified or not, are stopped pending findings of the agreed land audit.
Political and Civic activists who were abducted and detained incommunicado for months after the signing of the GPA on allegations of committing acts of banditry and or recruitment of bandits are still being prosecuted notwithstanding cessation of political hostilities implied in Article VII of the GPA to allow for National healing and JOMIC has not ruled on the legality or otherwise of such persecutions.
President Mugabe has unilaterally renewed and extended the employment contract of discredited Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and promoted self confessed Zanu PF member Johannes Tomana to the vacant position of Attorney general that has been vacant for over two years.
JOMIC has not commented on the legality or otherwise of such actions by a party to the GPA which clearly stipulates that appointments in this category must be made after consultations have taken place between the coalition government principals.
In tandem with that development the President has unilaterally announced the appointment and reassignment of Permanent Secretaries to head the coalition Ministries all of them with links to Zanu PF and the Premier has in all instances denied ever being consulted on the appointments yet JOMIC has not moved in to make peace and define the power limitations on principals of the coalition government in regard to appointments of Senior Civil Servants.
Three months after the consummation of the coalition government not a single one of its Ambassadors has been recalled for debriefing on the new order at the country’s affairs to find out their suitability in representing the new government and its image given their past association with a discredited regime. JOMIC has not moved in to force principals to cascade inclusivity to these levels of governance in compliance with the GPA provisions.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has been unilaterally reconfigured by President Mugabe to become the Ministry of Transport Communication and Infrastructure Development.
The GPA has agreed upon a Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, a Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity and a Ministry Information Communication Technology.
It was tacitly agreed to share these Ministries between the MDC and Zanu PF in the coalition government with the first and second being headed by Ministers nominated by Zanu PF and the third by an MDC-T Minister.
It is this third Ministry’s Communications responsibility that President Mugabe raided and reassigned to a Minister nominated by his party without explanation.
JOMIC has not found it proper to comment on the legality or otherwise of the Presidential move to reconfigure Ministries outside of agreed parameters in the GPA.
The reasoning appears to be that government business must be dealt with in government offices and the public need not be informed of what is going on in those offices.
But those offices are public offices and the GPA is a political settlement that supplanted electoral settlements. Whenever there are variations to the original agreement they should be made transparently and officially available to the general populace and there is no institution better placed and officially mandated to do so than JOMIC.
Instead we have a JOMIC co-chairmen abdicating this responsibility and informing us that sanctions must be lifted as a precondition to the government delivering on its mandate.
“Absolutely. As an inclusive government we are unequivocal and we agreed to it in the Global Agreement that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as an inclusive government is in place. It is in place and in our view yes, there are issues, there are issues on human rights, there are issues on governance but you will not help the inclusive government address those issues, work together with speed to correct those anomalies, to have a greater respect for human rights, get greater respect for the rule of law, to be effective in stopping farm invasions, a government which has no resources to actually get the police to move around.
A government with no resources to monitor the Ministry of Lands, to monitor what is happening, is unable at the end of the day to deliver on the promises of the GPA. Which is why we are saying yes these things are there but let us work together - with the international community assisting us to address them. Without that assistance it will be that much more difficult to address those issues,”JOMIC co-chairmen Ncube declared the institution’s conviction that sanctions lifting was a precondition to government with the issues.
But it is the same government without resources that has police officers and Lands officers leading hooligans invading commercial farms throughout the country and abducting and driving their abductees to every nook and cradle of the country in torture missions that says it has no resources to stop the malpractices reported countrywide.
It is the same government that has issued each of the 48 Ministers brand new top of the range Mercedes Benz vehicles costing approximately US$78000 each enough to buy 4 top of the range Nissan Note vehicles at US$17000 each.
Imagine what the government could have done with savings of 75% on Ministerial cars. It could have secured the brand new cars for the MP’s and still remained with enough change to buy at least a truck for each district Police Station.
So Professor Moyo a little self introspection will help you become a bit honest with yourself and the electorate you have imposed yourself to serve.
You asked how on earth you can; “restore the rule of law when you need the police to restore the rule of law and they’ve no capacity to go to the farms to see what is happening?
How do you restore the rule of law if the Minister of Lands is unable to get to the farms to determine what is happening?” and further went on to say that, “I absolutely agree with you that if there are farm invasions then they must stop. But I do not think, I do not think that it is right for those who it is within their power to assist us to ask us to do things which if we have no assistance we cannot do. It is pretty much like a sponsor in a soccer match saying I want you to go and play; I want you to be in the top of your log before I sponsor you.
So you have a team without a uniform, without soccer boots, who have no capacity to train and say they must first win the soccer league before you can sponsor them. It just does not make sense.”
Surely you cannot have been trapped in power to this extent.
The responsibility for law and order and the safety and security of the Nation is a function the State cannot outsource to anyone let alone foreign sponsors.
While we agree with you that you may have inherited a culture of impunity from your predecessors we cannot exonerate you for failing to stop the culture without lumping you with those you accuse of having nurtured the culture.
The reason why people voted as they did in March 2008 was because they had become fed up of lame excuses of the nature you are now regurgitating without shame.
Did you get on board to stop the impunity using donor funds or available resources? Is the impunity externally sponsored or is it internally motivated?
We are convinced that the problems are internally motivated and sponsored by people you know and are afraid to confront and chide.
Personally I believe that the reason why you imposed yourself in Government was to open doors for foreign aid to flow to your control and share in the gravy train.
Stop the impunity, restore human rights and dignity, tolerate opposing views and uphold democratic principles of governance that have zero tolerance on corruption and is totally committed to upholding individual property rights and you will not spend a cent more than you are spending in programmes to consolidate power through borrowed funds that are not forthcoming anywhere.
Those we elected know why we elected them and it was certainly not to have sanctions lifted but rather to restore our equality and dignity before the law.
Those like you who feel they can only deliver that if they are sponsored with lavish donations from whoever have no place in our leadership.
There is no difference between what you are now doing and what Dr Gono did to our currency and fiscus.
Then I argued as I still do now, that it rendered electoral democracy a meaningless concept and empowered the rejects to thumb their noses at a hapless electorate confused why their hard won one man one vote is no longer a means for them to exercise power to determine their destinies.
I further advanced that Zimbabweans will hold SADC and Thabo Mbeki in particular accountable for negative outcomes likely to come out of the flawed process he had instituted in Zimbabwe unless the outcomes of the mediation process met or exceeded national expectations.
The minimum national expectation was and still is that Zanu PF political hegemony and impunity had to be ended forthwith and the restoration of the impartial rule of law that upholds fundamental Human Rights enshrined in our laws and respected individual property rights would be vigorously pursued and applied by the government that would be agreed upon in tandem with the people’s wishes as epitomised by the March electoral outcomes.
The outcome of mediated political settlement is now in place and the verdict is unanimous that it falls way short of ordinary electorate expectations at the same time it is an improvement on the political status quo that preceded the settlement.
President Mugabe, Premier Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Tsvangirai are unanimous that they appended their signatures on a flawed political settlement but are still committed to panel beat it and make it workable.
The general populace concurs and has been patient with the government as it struggles to find its feet in the pitfall infested political environment the government is operating.
Saddled with a bankrupted fiscus, dilapidated economic and social infrastructure, a human resource that has lost the work ethic, a discontented and militarised industrial and public service, a pervasive terminally corrupt system of doing business, a sceptical international community and economically handicapped sympathetic and empathetic SADC neighbourhood, the government is struggling to meet heightened expectations in the country.
Numerous breaches of implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have not worked in favour of the noble cause of the coalition government principals to transform imperfections in the agreement into benefits for the Nation.
The 10 Provincial Governors appointed by President Mugabe from his Zanu PF Party to boost his chances of winning the Senate Presidential elections which were delicately poised after his party had “won” equal seats to those won by his opponents in Senatorial elections remain defacto in office despite the matter having been deferred to JOMIC for finalisation as a precondition for consummation of the coalition government on 13 February 2008.
JOMIC is yet to disclose its resolution on the matter to the Nation.
Cabinet initially agreed to be limited to 31 Ministries and 10 Provincial Governorships has been dramatically expanded to 38 Ministers and 10 Provincial Governors without explanation from the internal implementation watchdog of the GPA Joint Implementation Committee (JOMIC) that has three month to month rotational co-chairmen.
The initially agreed 15 Deputy Ministerial positions have suddenly increased to 19 again without explanation from JOMIC.
A Deputy Minister nominee from the MDC-T party remains the only party nominee to have been refused and or deferred swearing in by President Mugabe without explanation from JOMIC.
The agreed land audit to address suspected multiple farm ownerships by a few elite beneficiaries and stop commercial farming disruptions and reversal of the land reforms that had taken place prior to the signing of the GPA is yet to commence.
Meanwhile there are sporadic eruptions of commercial farm invasions by people claiming to have been allocated the farms some 2 to 4 years before the GPA was signed but had not taken occupation for one reason and another and no action has been taken by JOMIC to ensure these disruptions, justified or not, are stopped pending findings of the agreed land audit.
Political and Civic activists who were abducted and detained incommunicado for months after the signing of the GPA on allegations of committing acts of banditry and or recruitment of bandits are still being prosecuted notwithstanding cessation of political hostilities implied in Article VII of the GPA to allow for National healing and JOMIC has not ruled on the legality or otherwise of such persecutions.
President Mugabe has unilaterally renewed and extended the employment contract of discredited Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and promoted self confessed Zanu PF member Johannes Tomana to the vacant position of Attorney general that has been vacant for over two years.
JOMIC has not commented on the legality or otherwise of such actions by a party to the GPA which clearly stipulates that appointments in this category must be made after consultations have taken place between the coalition government principals.
In tandem with that development the President has unilaterally announced the appointment and reassignment of Permanent Secretaries to head the coalition Ministries all of them with links to Zanu PF and the Premier has in all instances denied ever being consulted on the appointments yet JOMIC has not moved in to make peace and define the power limitations on principals of the coalition government in regard to appointments of Senior Civil Servants.
Three months after the consummation of the coalition government not a single one of its Ambassadors has been recalled for debriefing on the new order at the country’s affairs to find out their suitability in representing the new government and its image given their past association with a discredited regime. JOMIC has not moved in to force principals to cascade inclusivity to these levels of governance in compliance with the GPA provisions.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has been unilaterally reconfigured by President Mugabe to become the Ministry of Transport Communication and Infrastructure Development.
The GPA has agreed upon a Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, a Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity and a Ministry Information Communication Technology.
It was tacitly agreed to share these Ministries between the MDC and Zanu PF in the coalition government with the first and second being headed by Ministers nominated by Zanu PF and the third by an MDC-T Minister.
It is this third Ministry’s Communications responsibility that President Mugabe raided and reassigned to a Minister nominated by his party without explanation.
JOMIC has not found it proper to comment on the legality or otherwise of the Presidential move to reconfigure Ministries outside of agreed parameters in the GPA.
The reasoning appears to be that government business must be dealt with in government offices and the public need not be informed of what is going on in those offices.
But those offices are public offices and the GPA is a political settlement that supplanted electoral settlements. Whenever there are variations to the original agreement they should be made transparently and officially available to the general populace and there is no institution better placed and officially mandated to do so than JOMIC.
Instead we have a JOMIC co-chairmen abdicating this responsibility and informing us that sanctions must be lifted as a precondition to the government delivering on its mandate.
“Absolutely. As an inclusive government we are unequivocal and we agreed to it in the Global Agreement that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as an inclusive government is in place. It is in place and in our view yes, there are issues, there are issues on human rights, there are issues on governance but you will not help the inclusive government address those issues, work together with speed to correct those anomalies, to have a greater respect for human rights, get greater respect for the rule of law, to be effective in stopping farm invasions, a government which has no resources to actually get the police to move around.
A government with no resources to monitor the Ministry of Lands, to monitor what is happening, is unable at the end of the day to deliver on the promises of the GPA. Which is why we are saying yes these things are there but let us work together - with the international community assisting us to address them. Without that assistance it will be that much more difficult to address those issues,”JOMIC co-chairmen Ncube declared the institution’s conviction that sanctions lifting was a precondition to government with the issues.
But it is the same government without resources that has police officers and Lands officers leading hooligans invading commercial farms throughout the country and abducting and driving their abductees to every nook and cradle of the country in torture missions that says it has no resources to stop the malpractices reported countrywide.
It is the same government that has issued each of the 48 Ministers brand new top of the range Mercedes Benz vehicles costing approximately US$78000 each enough to buy 4 top of the range Nissan Note vehicles at US$17000 each.
Imagine what the government could have done with savings of 75% on Ministerial cars. It could have secured the brand new cars for the MP’s and still remained with enough change to buy at least a truck for each district Police Station.
So Professor Moyo a little self introspection will help you become a bit honest with yourself and the electorate you have imposed yourself to serve.
You asked how on earth you can; “restore the rule of law when you need the police to restore the rule of law and they’ve no capacity to go to the farms to see what is happening?
How do you restore the rule of law if the Minister of Lands is unable to get to the farms to determine what is happening?” and further went on to say that, “I absolutely agree with you that if there are farm invasions then they must stop. But I do not think, I do not think that it is right for those who it is within their power to assist us to ask us to do things which if we have no assistance we cannot do. It is pretty much like a sponsor in a soccer match saying I want you to go and play; I want you to be in the top of your log before I sponsor you.
So you have a team without a uniform, without soccer boots, who have no capacity to train and say they must first win the soccer league before you can sponsor them. It just does not make sense.”
Surely you cannot have been trapped in power to this extent.
The responsibility for law and order and the safety and security of the Nation is a function the State cannot outsource to anyone let alone foreign sponsors.
While we agree with you that you may have inherited a culture of impunity from your predecessors we cannot exonerate you for failing to stop the culture without lumping you with those you accuse of having nurtured the culture.
The reason why people voted as they did in March 2008 was because they had become fed up of lame excuses of the nature you are now regurgitating without shame.
Did you get on board to stop the impunity using donor funds or available resources? Is the impunity externally sponsored or is it internally motivated?
We are convinced that the problems are internally motivated and sponsored by people you know and are afraid to confront and chide.
Personally I believe that the reason why you imposed yourself in Government was to open doors for foreign aid to flow to your control and share in the gravy train.
Stop the impunity, restore human rights and dignity, tolerate opposing views and uphold democratic principles of governance that have zero tolerance on corruption and is totally committed to upholding individual property rights and you will not spend a cent more than you are spending in programmes to consolidate power through borrowed funds that are not forthcoming anywhere.
Those we elected know why we elected them and it was certainly not to have sanctions lifted but rather to restore our equality and dignity before the law.
Those like you who feel they can only deliver that if they are sponsored with lavish donations from whoever have no place in our leadership.
There is no difference between what you are now doing and what Dr Gono did to our currency and fiscus.
No comments:
Post a Comment