SADC imposed Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe did everything to dampen spirits for Zimbabweans in a promising year 2009
For most Zimbabweans the year 2009 ended in as bad a mood as it started. This is not to say they did not get anything out of it but merely to state that what they realised fell far short of what they had anticipated following the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) on 15 September 2008. The stalled implementation of the GPA as subscribers haggled over allotment of Cabinet posts, Provincial Governors allotments, unilateral appointments of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor and the Attorney General (AG) by President Mugabe as well as the abductions and harassment of MDC and Civic Society activists by Intelligence and Law enforcement agencies.
The gloom that engulfed the nation’s raised and then dashed hopes was to become the
subject of a crucial SADC meeting in Pretoria on 26 and 27 January 2009 where it was resolved that;
I. The parties shall endeavour to cause Parliament to pass the Constitutional Amendment 19 by 5 February 2009.
II. The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Ministers shall be sworn in by 11 February 2009;
III. The Ministers and Deputy Ministers shall be sworn in on 13 February 2009, which will conclude the process of the formation of the inclusive government.
IV. The Joint-Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), provided for in the Global Political Agreement, shall be activated immediately. The first meeting of JOMIC shall be convened by the facilitator on 30 January 2009 and shall, among other things, elect the chairpersons;
V. The allocation of ministerial portfolios endorsed by the SADC Extraordinary Summit held on 9 November 2008 shall be reviewed six (6) months after the inauguration of the inclusive government.
VI. The appointments of the Reserve Bank Governor and the Attorney General will be dealt with by the inclusive government after its formation
VII. The negotiators of the parties shall meet immediately to consider the National Security Bill submitted by the MDC-T as well as the formula for the distribution of governors.
Poor ordinary Zimbabweans who by now had resigned the fight to have their votes in the March 2008 harmonised elections count after the interventions by SADC and AU had resulted in the GPA and imposed and legitimized a President most of them loathed and felt had outlived his usefulness could only watch haplessly as political events in the country slipped further out of their control and became the prerogative of SADC and the political leadership in the country.
The resolutions by SADC were received with skepticism among the generality of the populace but still carried the day as the populace was too weak to fight ravaged by years of economic deprivation at the hands of Zanu PF misrule which they wanted curtailed by whatever means no matter how flawed.
The fears of the ordinary Zimbabweans over SADC resolutions were soon to be confirmed when the President decreed that the appointments of the RBZ Governor and AG were fait accompli and would not be revisited let alone reversed.
The persecution of the MDC and Civic activists through abductions and torture perpetrated by supposedly National Law and Security enforcement and maintenance agents was escalated when the AG joined the fray by invoking section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA) at every turn where politically motivated felons were granted bail to keep them in detention a bit longer than would otherwise be the case if bail was not opposed.
It is instructive that in the more that 20 instances when the section was invoked the AG appeals to the Supreme Court failed and the decisions of the lower courts were upheld leading to the widely held view that the AG was abusing this well intended section of our laws because of his self proclaimed Zanu PF allegiance.
An MDC-T member or reputed anti Zanu PF Civic Society activist was involved in every single instance the now notorious section 121 of CPEA was invoked while it has never been imposed in instances where renowned Zanu PF loyalists are granted bail regardless of the severity of allegations they face.
Any hope the nation had that political repression through judicial persecution would recede were dashed when instead of him being sworn into Government the following day as Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy Bennett was arrested and detained in disregard of undertakings he had from SADC and MDC that he would not be persecuted on his return from exile.
His case is still before the Courts and more alarmingly he is the only prospective coalition Government official denied swearing into office by President Mugabe on allegations he is facing criminal prosecution when there are numerous others in the same government who were sworn into office while facing criminal charges of a similar nature and or had them withdrawn before plea by the AG signaling behind the scenes political horse trading behind the dropping of the cases.
No doubt all the fears that had been erased in the minds of the quick to buy in hopefuls that political abuse and impunity that characterized Zanu PF misrule had been reined in by the consummation of the coalition government were dashed forever by these acts of the AG.
One other hope that the nation had was the abolition of politically motivated inter party violence on commercial farms and the return of normal business environment so desperately necessary for economic stabilization and growth.
A fresh wave of farm occupations by Zanu PF activists and the cold shoulder that greeted the Deputy Premier when he rightly tried to verify the accuracy of claims of renewed farm invasions in Chegutu as well as the silence that followed his visit only confirmed what Zimbabweans had feared would ensue from the flawed SADC resolutions compelling formation of the coalition government where the Home Affairs
ministry was to be co-ministered by a Zanu PPF and MDC-T appointee.
The experiment has failed dismally to cause a swift paradigm shift in the manner in which policing is carried out in the country.
While MDC-T co-Minister Gilles Mutseyekwa has been frothing at the mouth about what will happen his Zanu PF counterpart Kembo Mohadi has been silently solidifying relations between the Police, Army and Central Intelligence Organisation and facilitating their access to the AG and Minister of Justice to ensure minimal glitches in the political judicial persecution so vital in instilling fear within opponents of Zanu PF imposition in the government after the party lost in the March elections to the MDC-T.
The result has been a sustained trumped legal onslaught on Zanu PF opponents and unprecedented arrogance from the Zanu PF contingent in the Coalition government in disregarding court verdicts and arbitration resolutions from SADC and international political blocs.
The problems now causing a gloomy political end for the year 2009 are because SADC realized too late that Zanu PF was allowed too much free play with security forces and that power in its control is being abused to derail progression of the coalition government to the attainment of its formative objectives.
The belated flurry of activity directed towards resolution of outstanding GPA issues could have been avoided had the resolutions of the SADC meeting in January 2009 stuck to the GPA and allocated the Home Affairs Ministry to the sole control of the MDC-T.
If Zanu PF activists were unsure of Police reaction to impunity they would desist from committing crimes and most of the acts currently encouraging them to disregard laws resulting in breaches of agreements to end the practice of selective justice would have set the framework for expeditious implementation of the GPA.
The coalition government has managed to breathe some life into the hitherto economically besieged ordinary Zimbabweans.
Despite all the mantra about sanctions reverberating from the Zanu PF contingent in government the country has managed to arrest rampant hyperinflation through the adoption of a multi currency economic policy, curtailment of RBZ quasi-fiscal indulgence and restocked retail shops that had been emptied by the Junta’s price wars.
While there is political stagnation in the implementation of the GPA the ordinary people in the country are no longer as threatened from hunger, disease and shortages of the past decade.
Even on the political front there have been immense benefits derived from the formation of the coalition government as the political playing field has been freed slightly and the stringent embargo on political association has been relaxed to allow for non Zanu PF politicking without undue political interference although some sporadic overzealous incidences have been recorded.
As we welcome 2010 with Mugabe still the President as he wished when his party sided with the then opposition MDC and forced him to use the current route that has embarrassed him with a defeat at the hands of Tsvangirai instead of his preferred route of extending his term to 2010 and then holding harmonised elections, we hope the shadow of gloom cast by outstanding GPA issues will be removed and progress recorded towards;
Freeing the Zanu PF monopolized airwaves;
Implementation of the National healing and reconciliation initiative;
Restoration of the impartial rule of law;
Abolition of lawlessness on the farms, commercial enterprises and in churches as well as within communities;
Improvement of national productivity;
Prosecution of the corrupt and deviants;
Fresh compilation of the Voters Roll and or at the very least thorough data integrity audit of the current one;
Introduction of legislation to curtail electoral fraud, theft and thuggery;
Completion of the current Constitution making process and the holding of internationally supervised and monitored elections by the 3rd quarter of 2011 or at the very latest the last quarter of that year.
There is an urgent need for the introduction of the Human Rights Act and the amendment of the AIPPA laws to bring them into line with best practice internationally and to legislate and accommodate the role of the Media commission.
We wish our readers and leaders a more prosperous 2010.
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