We are not interested in fruitful discussions President Zuma only the fruits.

Where are the fruits that you discussed with the feuding Zimbabwe political leaders President Zuma
South African President Jacob Zuma emerged from recent talks he held with feuding Zimbabwe coalition government subscribers to announce that he had held some very fruitful discussions with the trio of President Robert Mugabe (Zanu PF), Premier Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) and 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Arthur Mutambara (MDC-M).

Sadly he had none of the fruits to show or give as samples to the expectant Nation so that they could test the quality of the fruit President Zuma says the country is about to reap for the country.

In sales if you have an agent who reports holding fruitful discussions with prospects but does not deliver their custom, there is only one course of action that must be taken to make the agent realise the worthlessness of his effort.

Threaten the agent with the sack if he does not deliver the fruits he so fondly discusses with prospective customers.

The issues President Zuma came to mediate over are to most Zimbabweans Constitutional disputes in the public domain and his discovery of them through the so called fruitful discussions does not push forward their resolution in any way.

For the record the disputed issues arise from Constitutional Amendment No19 that was passed unanimously by the very government now squabbling over implementation of the law it passed.
Among the issues are;
Assignment of Ministerial responsibilities
Appointment of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor
Appointment of the Attorney General
Appointment of Provincial Governors
Appointments of Senior National and Ambassador Incumbents
Swearing in of ministers and Deputy Ministers
National Healing and Reconciliation
Appointment of the Media, Human Rights and Electoral Commissions
Retraining and reorientation of law enforcement agencies
Review of Co-Ministering agreement of the Ministry of Home Affairs
Democratisation of the system of governance through Constitutional reforms
Removal of stringent Media controls through opening airwaves to competition
Enactment of the establishment of the Citizenship and Immigration Board
Land reform audit and rationalization and
Economic revival through reintegration of the country into the global village.

These are tacit Constitutional demands the coalition government imposed on itself that allow for no ambiguity in their interpretation other than consensus seeking in implementation strategy.

But so far what has been bogging down the coalition government is not the implementation strategy but rather a blatant and unwarranted refusal to abide by the spirit and letter of the Constitutional provisions mainly by President Mugabe aided by 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Mutambara at the highest level of the coalition government.

President Zuma disclosed as follows after meetings with the trio that;

“I am very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation displayed by the leaders and all their parties,”
“I have had fruitful discussions with all the signatories to the global political agreement (GPA), their negotiating teams, leading Zimbabwean personalities and other key stakeholders,”

We now ask him where the fruits are. Can he kindly put them on the table so that the starving Nation can share them and mitigate against the threatening political hunger gripping the ordinary Zimbabweans.

President Zuma knows that President Mugabe has failed to uphold the Constitution of
Zimbabwe by his refusal to comprehensively form the agreed coalition government.

There is nothing in CA No 19 that allows him to decide who to swear into the coalition government or not as he has done with regard to the Deputy Agriculture Minister portfolio.

All the constitution empowers him to do is for him to receive names of nominations by respective coalition parties and without question swear them into office.

The refusal by the President to swear in the MDC-T nominated and advised to him Deputy Agriculture Minister designate Roy Bennett for whatever reasons he has or has not adduced is flagrantly unconstitutional and does not need to be fruitfully discussed by a President who is the SADC appointed point man in its guarantees that led to the Constitutional Amendment that justifies the current Zimbabwe government.

By holding fruitful discussions over this Constitutional breach instead of ordering immediate compliance to make good the obvious breach of the Constitution that SADC guaranteed and continues to guarantee until the transitional government hands the reigns to a democratically elected government President Zuma scored 2 out of 10 in this regard.

There is thus nothing to praise him for at this juncture and the nation awaits the delivery of the fruits he discussed which to most of them is the unconditional swearing in of Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and a public Presidential apology for failing to uphold the Constitution in this regard.

Because President Mugabe has been allowed to breach the Zimbabwe Coalition Government Constitution and escaped the rap of the guarantors in respect of his failure to complete formation of the prescribed government he has exploited the supervision laxity within the guarantor to incrementally flout the Constitution.

Recently he gazetted the assignment of Ministerial portfolio responsibilities wherein he unilaterally allocated Acts under MDC-T nominated Ministers to his Zanu PF Ministries without seeking Constitutionally mandated concurrence of his coalesce partners namely the Premier and the 2nd Deputy Premier.

This was not the first time that the President had resorted to unilateral decrees on appointments and responsibility allotment within the coalition government albeit in utter disregard of the Constitution he swore to uphold.

The dangerous precedent was set in motion by then SADC mediator in chief on Zimbabwe the disgraced former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Following formalization of the GPA President Mbeki made the mistake of allowing President Mugabe to abdicate his first national responsibility as Head of the State under a coalition government.

The GPA is tacit and unambiguous that following his reinstatement as the legitimate President, Robert Mugabe was supposed to return the compliments of being conferred the Presidency by the GPA with the reciprocal swearing in of MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister in accordance with Article XX clause 20.1.3 (j) as read with Article XXIV clause 24.1 and Article XXV of the GPA.

For the avoidance of doubt that this was the logical first duty expected of the President in coalition government ruled Zimbabwe the clauses are reproduced and read;
“Article XX
20.1.3(j) The President shall, pursuant to this Agreement, appoint the Prime Minister pending the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment no.19 as agreed by the Parties;

Article XXIV
24.1 The Parties hereby agree: that the constitutional amendments which are necessary for the implementation of this agreement shall be passed by parliament and assented to by the President as Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act No 19. The Parties undertake to unconditionally support the enactment of the said Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 19;

ARTICLE XXV
COMMENCEMENT
25. This Agreement shall enter into force upon its signature by the Parties.”
Need we say more?

Because President Mbeki was in dereliction of duty he convened the GPA signing ceremony but omitted to include the swearing in of the Premier at the ceremony part of the agenda and President Mugabe gratefully exploited the omission and managed to defer the formalization of the Premier’s inclusion in government from the date the agreement was signed.

By their silence SADC Heads of State who graced the milestone event condoned Mugabe’s first direct breach of the GPA.

The grateful Zanu PF President now legitimate Zimbabwe President took full advantage of the critical omission by SADC to unilaterally gazette the allotment of Ministerial portfolios to among the subscribing parties to the new government.

When the allotment caused disputes that were expected from an exercise in which President Mugabe had negated Article XX clause 20.1.2(g) which reads;

“The President and the Prime Minister will agree on the allocation of Ministries between them for the purpose of day-to-day supervision,” the cunning Zimbabwe President exploited the time presented by the need to resolve the allotment dispute to approve the appointments of the disputed RBZ Governor, AG and Provincial Governors from among his party loyalists at the exclusion of the new partners in government.

Agreement on Ministerial allotments could not be reached when the Premier who was supposed to be consulted remained a designate because the President had not sworn him into office as required by the GPA.

The President then unilaterally gazetted his preferred allotment and when that did action secured SADC condonotion instead of condemnation the President was galvanized to press on and consolidate his powers that the GPA sought to curtail.

He appointed party loyalists Johannes Tomana as AG and Gideon Gono as RBZ governor against the spirit and letter of the GPA he had just put signature to adding more controversy to the dispute over Ministerial allotments.

Thabo Mbeki did not help matters when he teamed with the Angolan, Mozambican, Angolan and Swaziland Heads of state and rallied Sadc behind Mugabe’s blatant disregard of the agreement he had signed with Professor Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai in the presence of SADC.

Thinking he had done enough to sideline the loathed MDC-T leader who had embarrassed him by the infamous March 29 2008 Presidential election defeat that he had to militantly circumvent President Mugabe then forged an unholy alliance with Professor Mutambara and his party of MDC renegades to completely alienate MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai from the coalition government.

Mugabe and his Zanu PF offered the gullible Professor Mutambara the chance to become a defacto Premier in the proposed inclusive government if his party of renegades could snatch the Parliamentary Speakership from the MDC-T with the support of Zanu PF legislators on condition the 10 MP’s under his control would in future vote along with Zanu PF legislators thus technically restoring Parliamentary majority that Zanu PF had lost in the March elections.

When the MDC-M leader agreed to the pact President Mugabe then went to SADC and requested that the body endorsed his allotments of Ministries and allow him to convene Parliament so that he could demonstrate that he had a strong hand on power despite his electoral losses.

He made it clear that he would regain lost control in Parliament and thereafter move swiftly to implement the GPA as he would have disarmed the MDC-T leader of his negotiating power and left him in a begging position to be in government.

Unaware of his bad intentions SADC offered President the opportunity he had prayed for and decreed that the Home Affairs Ministry would be co-Ministered by Zanu PF and MDC-T nominees while the rest of the unilateral allotments of Ministries by Mugabe were upheld.

The regional political bloc that guaranteed the GPA conceded to the request by President Mugabe to convene Parliament and prove to them that he had capacity to rule the country with a minority in Parliament.

President Mugabe quickly moved to bolster his numbers in the Senate by appointing the 5 Senators he had been authorized to appoint in the GPA and 10 Provincial Governors from his party to guarantee the Party’s chances in winning the Senate Presidency and thus regaining control of the Legislature if the pact with Mutambara to wrestle the Parliament Speakership prevailed.

Professor Mutambara was easy game for Zanu PF as he and his entire party stalwarts had been humiliated at the polls by Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC contestants whom the faction had parted ways with citing leadership and strategic deficiencies of the Party president.

The unholy pact between Zanu PF and MDC renegades led by Mutambara was humiliated when Lovemore Moyo from the MDC-T won the parliamentary speakership and strengthened MDC-T’s negotiating hand in power sharing disputes. The following day President Mugabe was given a torrid time when he as harangued and heckled in Parliament by the triumphant MDC MPs when he officially opened the parliament in which his control had been diminished.

It became evident to SADC that Mugabe and his Zanu PF no longer had full charge of political power in the country.

The justification for the coalition government became imperative and in January 2008 some 4 months after the signing of the GPA Sadc intervened and ordered President Mugabe to stick to its timeline to form the government by 14 February 2008.

At that meeting Sadc also ordered that the contentious appointments that the Zanu PF leader had made should be referred to the constituted government to be dealt with in accordance with its constitution which had to be amended as agreed in the GPA.

The directive was so strongly put across to Mugabe he had no option but to comply and he grudgingly complied by swearing in the Premier on 11 February 2008 and the Cabinet Ministers on the 14th of the same month as ordered.

To show his displeasure he did not fully comply with the directive as he refused to swear in Deputy Agriculture minister nominee from the MDCT Roy Bennett but had instead ordered his arrest and detention the day before the swearing in ceremony thus creating fresh controversy for the coalition government.

The unilateral appointments President Mugabe had made were referred to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) which recommended the sharing of the posts in accordance with the popularity of each party based on its parliamentary representation of the province.

The irregular appointments of the AG and RBZ Governor were left to the Premier and the President to resolve as per the GPA provisions while appointments of Ambassadors were agreed would be on an as when a vacancy arose and allotted to the MDC until parity with Zanu PF postings was achieved.

While all this was going on Parliament unanimously passed Constitution Amendment No 19 as agreed in the GPA and with its passage, legally ended President Mugabe’s sole hegemony on power.

But the insolent President was at it again this time unilaterally announcing appointments of Permanent Secretaries for the new government without prior agreement with the Premier as is now constitutionally demanded of him.

The irregularity was resolved when the Premier eventually agreed to the appointments without alteration in a move that earned the Premier the tag that he was a lame duck Premier and junior partner to Zanu PF president in the government despite the GPA.

The Premier says he agreed to the appointments as they were after realizing that 70% of the appointees were pro his party and leadership and if he had demanded parity in the share he would remain with less than 50% loyalists heading the Ministries.

Be that as it may Mugabe had breached the Constitution and not the GPA and he got away with it lightly.

By refusing and or failing to implement JOMIC recommendations on the sharing of Provincial governorships he was again in breach of the Constitution.

Appointment of the constitutionally provided Electoral, Media and Human Rights Commissioners stalled after the Parliamentary Committee on rules made its recommendations to the President.

The Constitution Reform program ground to a standstill when President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party started making demands that its support for the project is conditional on MDC-T causing the lifting of EU and USA sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leadership and the winding up of foreign based radio Stations broadcasting into the country illegally.

In addition Zanu PF was demanding that the Premier and his party must dismantle parallel government structures he had set up in his office.

All these conditionalities from Zanu PF were of course unconstitutional and outrageous as they were an afterthought by the party that had come to realize how unpopular it had been rendered by the performance of the MDCs in government.

The dispute raged on and was referred to the SADC Troika after MDC-T announced a partial pull out from the coalition in October 2008 and the Troika ruled that coalition parties in Zimbabwe must enter into dialogue aimed at implementing all the agreements they entered into before the regional bloc within 30 days of the Troika meeting.

The Parties resumed stalled dialogue in December in compliance with the Troika directive but progress remained elusive resulting in the current Zuma initiative to break the impasse.

The Zuma intervention came at a time when President Mugabe had once again trashed the Constitution by revisiting agreed ministerial allotments between the coalesce partners and stripped MDC held Ministries to shells by allocating Acts under their administration to his office and or those portfolios under Zanu PF nominated Ministers.

Ambassadors from the MDC were only allowed to take up their postings last month exactly one year after they had constitutionally qualified to be posted.

The final and latest Presidential dereliction of constitutional duty has been his latest gazetting of shelf Ministries administered by MDC Ministers while the Acts that should fall under the same ministries have been allocated to Zanu PF nominated Ministers with no direct relationship with the Ministries.

Speculation has been rife that these shelf Ministries allotments featured highly among President Zuma’s fruitful discussions with coalition government principals.

The SADC appointed Mediator whose predecessor condoned the unilateral allotment of the Ministries by President Mugabe to the MDC despite intense protestations from the MDC-T now tells the Nation that in his latest visit he held fruitful discussions which speculators predict would result in the shelving of the unilateral reassignment of Acts by President Mugabe.

But for many Zimbabweans this is just not good enough and Zuma must be awarded 1 out of 10 for his efforts in this regard as things stand.

If indeed there was consensus that the stripping of powers from MDC held Ministerial portfolios by President Mugabe, holding discussions that will result in the gazetted allotments being shelved will not change the fact that legally the powers will be in Zanu PF appointed Ministers’ control.

Sane Zimbabweans know that the correct remedy for a gazetted illegality is a gazetted repeal of the unlawful assignments and not the shelving of the gazetted position which remains legally enforceable in the event of a dispute arising in the future which cannot be ruled out.