MDC mounts pressure for Gono and Tomana to step aside

Unilaterally appointed RBZ Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana are both from Zanu PF and unfit for the positions they hold

Several battlefronts have been opened to have the impediment to national progress caused by the unilateral appointments of Dr Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana as Reserve Bank Governor and Attorney General relieved by repudiation of the irregular appointments.

The two appointments have been singled out as the remaining outstanding issues at variance with full implementation of the Global Political Agreement signed on 15 September 2008 that resulted in the coalition government formed on 13 February 2009.

President Mugabe unilaterally renewed Dr Gono’s tenure as RBZ governor and promoted Johannes Tomana to AG in October and November 2008 respectively notwithstanding that he had entered into an agreement with Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara representing Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-M to form a coalition government wherein senior political appointments would be subject to agreement between the trio.

The other two principals have taken exception to the appointments and are demanding that they be repudiated as they were made in violation of the agreement.

President Mugabe has maintained that the appointment are fait accompli and need no further dwelling on thereby creating a stalemate on the matter.

In the absence of a definitive clause in the GPA outlining what constitutes a deadlock and how it will be referred to arbitration there has been unimaginative and outrageous suggestions in media that only the coalition government can unanimously declare a deadlock and thus refer the issue to arbitration.
But that suggestion flies in the face of common law practice. The Coalition government cannot seek arbitration within itself.

The position is simply that only disputes that will arise in the coalition government between any of the subscribers to the GPA in respect of interpretation of the agreement by the parties is possible of reference to arbitration by SADC and or AU who were agreed upon as guarantors of the agreement.

It is incomprehensible that the coalition government would be aggrieved of itself to the extent of seeking SADC or AU arbitration. The absurdity is so fundamental it is amazing how it can ever be suggested by reasonable people.

There will never arise a situation where the coalition government is at variance with itself to the point of necessitating external adjudication.

It is therefore absurd for anyone to suggest that any dispute reference to Sadc must be by consensus of the parties involved.

Rather in any agreement an aggrieved party has recourse to judicial and quasi judicial redress of its grievances and in this case either Zanu PF or MDC-M or MDC-T individually, jointly or severally have open access to refer any matter they feel has been stalled by disagreements between them and thus needing third party binding rulings to be disposed.

This is the first course of action that MDC-T and MDC-M have jointly agreed to take to address the disputed appointments which Zanu PF claims were legally above board and need no further scrutiny while the aggrieved hold otherwise.

Clearly SADC as guarantors need to be involved because the dispute is clear cut and needs the guarantors’ ruling as to which party or parties are interpreting the 15 September agreement in so far as it relates to the disputed two senior political appointments in the coalition government.

Sadly the dispute has been reduced to personalities of the incumbents when the crux of the dispute is whether or not President Mugabe was entitled to fill the positions with individuals he had not discussed and agreed with Premier Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara as per the agreement upon which the coalition government is premised.

Because these are political positions within the government it was always evident that there would arise political conflicts in who ultimately lands them.
That is why there is so much politicking around the appointments.

The MDC-M and T wants the politically influential positions entrusted to someone they are comfortable would enhance the soiled fiscal and judicial reputation of the country to attract favourable international reputation for the country.

Zanu PF wants the post in the hands of trusted cadres whom they can manipulate to push through some political initiatives that have hitherto been condemned internationally as being violations of human rights but that the party considers were at the centre of its struggle against colonialism.

For Zanu PF anything condemned by former colonial masters as being against humanity is seen as an attempt on their part to retain control over internal affairs of Zimbabwe which impinges on national sovereignty in an unacceptable manner while within the MDC safeguarding national sovereignty is possible without violating human rights.

The political battlefront has sucked in traditional powerbases of the political formations in the coalition government.

Zanu PF has fallen back on its military establishments support while the MDC has gone back to its grassroots for support.

Several MDC rallies are being staged countrywide where the appointments are being sold to the electorate as being ultra vires the spirit and letter of the GPA and must be rescinded. In addition to that the MDC has received a boost from the international community particularly the vocal Western democracies that are demanding the rescission of the disputed appointments and cessation of land reform hostilities before considering aid packages for the country’s economic turnaround.

By selling Gono and Tomana as impediments to the flow of international aid and Zanu PF and its military backers declaring support for the impediments to remain in place MDC is damaging the political image of Zanu PF within the electorate which is wallowing in abject poverty because of the lack of international support.

Zanu PF has in the past done a good job of telling unsuspecting Zimbabweans that their poverty is inscribed by the sanctions that the MDC asked for and the MDC is now saying to the same people the sanctions Zanu PF were alleging were requested by the MDC are in fact a Zanu PF request as they are appointing thieves like Dr Gono and human rights violators like Johannes Tomana and military commanders to gate keeping positions that should allow aid to flow in to scare away those with the ability to help the country recover lost economic glory.

The message is making the electorate very angry with Zanu PF and the increased impatience with Mugabe’s overdue retirement and succession plans within Zanu PF meetings is informed by the knowledge of the public sentiment towards the party by its structures on the ground.

There is a feeling within the party that with each day that passes and there are these negative stalemates in the coalition that the MDC is exploiting the party will be walloped in elections over irrelevant and disposable political lightweights like Tomana and Gono who have very little to lose from the demise of Zanu PF.

Within MDC-M are murmurs of discontent with the party leadership that are being fuelled by suspended legislators and Secretary of Defence Job Sikhala’s public onslaught on the party leadership over his personal grievances within the party.
Professor Mutambara is widely being seen to be complying with advice from George Charamba to relieve leaders of the revolt against Paul Themba Nyathi’s bid for Parliamentary Speakership.

The situation is not helped by the fact that the smaller faction of the coalition government is in a quandary over where to find a Parliamentary seat for Deputy party leader Gibson Sibanda who has technically ceased to be a Minister after failing to secure a seat within three months of his appointment.

The legislators from whom he can secure a seat are all too aware that they are being targeted for dismissal from the party to accommodate Gibson Sibanda and they do not like it a bit given that they were overlooked for Ministerial appointment despite their electability on which the faction leadership rode to political relevance in the coalition government.

To distance himself from Charamba’s advice while executing it to the letter Professor Mutambara has decided to stand resolute with Tsvangirai on Gono and Tomana’s appointments and that is bad news for the duo.

The political pressure has been telling as it has forced the Military cabal that has long been known to be against Tsvangirai’s involvement with governance to confirm what has always been suspected that Dr Gono was clandestinely financing their ruthless campaign for Zanu PF.

By telling the nation that Dr Gono was the only person acceptable to Military Commanders as the permanent head of the RBZ they have soiled his tattered image further and exposed him to the vagaries of political factionalism that is rife within Zanu PF.
T
he vocal vote of confidence from the Military establishments has certainly irked Emmerson Mnangagwa and Solomon Mujuru who have hitherto claimed the lion’s share of Military command confidence within the Zanu PF hierarchy.

Dr Gono must be prepared for sharper daggers to be planted in his back by supporters of these influential Zanu PF drivers.