By Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati
Media information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba and Zanu PF Thsolotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo trying their best to justify lost causes.
For some unknown reason Professor Moyo still behaves as the Zanu PF national spokesman. For all we know Professor Moyo is the Zanu PF (MP) for Tsholotsho North Constituency by default and Central Committee Member by adoption following his decision to rejoin the Party that had parted ways with him in 2005.
Since rejoining Zanu PF Professor Moyo has been given the insurmountable task of proving his loyalty to the Party he left in acrimonious circumstances that saw him throwing brickbats at the Presidium which require some form of restitution on his part for him to be pardoned.
Professor Moyo’s readmission to the Zanu PF ranks was made conditional on him undertaking never to show public disrespect or opposition to the Party elders and delivering the promised split of the MDC-T before the next elections.
The second test is proving much harder to overcome for the egghead Professor who thought he had infiltrated the party enough during his stint as a pseudo Independent MP.
He had forged links with MDC-M rebels that had won him their trust to the point of them joining him in a frivolous and vexatious legal petition to nullify the election of MDC-T’s Lovemore Moyo as the Parliamentary Speaker.
He was also in talking terms with several MDC-T MP’s whom he believed he could count on to help him saw seeds of disunity in the MDC-T that would result in the 2005 style split that rocked the MDC following infiltration by the CIO.
That support has not been forthcoming. Unrestrained access to the State Media that he prioritized as the only tool he required to divide the MDC-T was granted and has given him all the space he requires to execute his task of dismantling the MDC-T unity to no avail.
Professor Moyo’s obsession with media propaganda as a tool for political power acquisition and consolidation is legendary and knows no bounds.
As Information and Publicity Minister from 2000 to 2005 he managed to abuse his authority and shut down several privately owned and foreign media houses from broadcasting from the country.
He also crafted the most repressive laws and regulatory infrastructure that the State has and is still using to gag free dissemination of information.
The one person professor Moyo failed to get the better of through the raft of laws and vitriolic propaganda he churned on State Media was Roy Bennett’s Legal Counsel Beatrice Mtetwa.
The duo clashed in courts and on the streets of Harare with Professor Moyo intending to silence the Humana Rights defender and at each turn coming a cropper.
Professor Moyo’s political debauchery always came to nothing each time he came face to face with Mtetwa and as if fate had it, Beatrice Mtetwa’s and Professor Moyo’s ex-wife were of Swazi origins adding an extra dimension to the duels between the duo.
Instead of openly admitting that he loathes anything that attracts Beatrice Mtetwa’s support or intervention Professor Moyo has always presented his personal vendetta against Mtetwa as political discourse between MDC-T and Zanu PF which is outrageous.
That Professor Moyo’s politics is steeped in the personality syndrome he always accuses the MDC-T of being preoccupied with and not ideology can be gleaned from his obsession with the Mtetwa personality.
Despite his accusations that the MDC-T is preoccupied with personality syndrome and bereft of ‘a coherent and homegrown ideological framework,’ because of as he puts ‘the embattled party’s rather crazy reaction to the appointment of Justice George Chiweshe as Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe and its continuing subservience to Roy Bennett and his sickening antics,’ facts on the ground tend to be to the contrary.
Ever since he jumped onto the sinking Zanu PF ship in 1999 Professor Moyo has been on a solo mission to save the political fortunes of one man in Zanu PF that is President Mugabe.
For his personal protection from criminal activities that forced him out of the Ford Foundation in Kenya and the Wits University in South Africa Professor Moyo realised that his last safety enclave was in Zanu PF under the stewardship of President Mugabe and his scorched earth mantra against western nations he had swindled of funds and were baying for his blood.
When Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai led the MDC party to oppose the Zanu PF excesses that had bankrupted the country and impoverished 90% of the citizenry Professor Moyo rallied behind Mugabe’s leadership of Zanu PF and the country notwithstanding the catastrophe the government had caused to the country that even the illiterate were able to see and wanted reversed .
While the MDC was agitating for Mugabe to go as it is still doing to date to pave way for the reconstruction of the country’s democratic governance and economic resuscitation Professor Moyo was and is still crafting legislation to suppress citizens and pushing for Mugabe to remain in office to derail implementation of policy programmes to benefit ordinary people.
It was the MDC-T that in the national interest to stop the economic hemorrhaging that Zanu PF had subjected the nation, decided to surrender an election victory and work with the vanquished Mugabe and Zanu PF in a coalition government that was imposed by SADC and the AU following refusal by Zanu PF apologists to concede electoral defeat.
The MDC-T realised that in order for the country not to slide into military dictatorship and Junta rule it had to accept working with the defacto Junta leader Mugabe and make his involvement part of the solution to avert a bloodbath for political power in the country that was economically ravaged and where the majority of the people were left with no other solution than to fight for survival.
Oblivious of this people centered consideration on the part of the MDC-T, Professor Moyo believes the MDC-T acknowledges Mugabe as a solution to the country’s problems because of his leadership skills when to the contrary he is being acknowledged or his reckless and uncaring vindictiveness that could cause more harm than good if he is excluded from an undeserved political seat.
The pragmatic ideology that guides the MDC-T in accepting to work with a failed President Mugabe in a transitional period such as the coalition government is ample evidence of the political depth in the party as it has managed to weigh consequences of refusing to accommodate the ruthless dictator to the lives of ordinary citizens of the country.
The reason why the majority of MDC-T cabinet ministers now openly admit that it is a privilege that history has been kind to give them the rare opportunity to work under an iconic African dictator with a towering global disrepute of Mugabe is because they now have insider knowledge of how he became a dictator and who is behind his ruthlessness and more importantly how they can push him out without exposing the populace to danger.
After the formation of the coalition Government last year, Zanu PF relying on advice from morons like Professor Moyo’s Patrick Chinamasa, Tofataona Mahoso, Johannes Tomana, Godfrey Chidyausiku, Mariyawanda Nzuwah, George Chiweshe, Godfrey Chidyausiku and George Charamba etal tried everything possible to cause the MDC-T to pull out of the coalition government that was beginning to make a positive difference to the lives of the ordinary citizens by breaching the transitional Constitutional amendments.
President Mugabe has been and is still being ill advised to act unilaterally in making appointments of failed performers like Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney General Johannes Tomana and the Provincial Governors notwithstanding that the party entered into an agreement that is tacit and unambiguous on what he should do during the tenure of the coalition to ensure proper winding up of the SADC and AU transitional arrangements for the country.
m ’s negative politics of personalities and positions shifted away from President Mugabe and focused on the positions of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Attorney-General respectively with cacophonic calls that "(Gideon0 Gono must go" which the party alternated with "(Johannes) Tomana must go".
Provincial Governors are not are part of the coalition government President’s office in terms of our Constitution, relevant laws and practice but rather as a result of their inclusion in Constitutional Amendment No 19 which removed their seats from Parliament to the Senate and required the president to make the appointments in terms of the coalition agreement which restricts him to consulting and agreeing with the other principals before effecting such appointments.
But because Professor Moyo is obsessed with the personality that is the President and has a mission to accomplish to achieve total acceptance in Zanu PF he still believes albeit wrongly that the President is above the law and can act unilaterally in such appointments even when the appointments are unconstitutional and there is no precedent coalition government practice to fall back on.
What has reduced outstanding GPA issues, to ‘a pathetic discourse about personalities and positions with nothing in it for the struggling masses,’ is not because they are MDC-T afterthoughts since signing the GPA on 15 September 2008 but rather the distraught the refusal by Zanu PF to live by the spirit and letter of the agreement has caused by delaying realisation of the quick recovery of the economy the population was hoping would accrue from the agreement.
Indeed many elements now regret that they squandered their vote on Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the MDC-T party on March 29, 2008 but not because the Premier and the MDC-T has failed them but rather because they have accommodated an ungrateful and ruthless dictator and Zanu PF to do as he pleases in the coalition government that is supposed to make their lives better but failing because of the Zanu PF intransigency.
That is why many are eagerly waiting for the Constitution reform initiative to be completed and give them a chance to vote against the undeserving Zanu PF delinquents in the coalition government.
Unlike Zanu PF, MDC-T politics is not about prescriptive, unworkable and outmoded Marxist socialist ideologies, policies and like minded personalities and their positions but rather globally compliant democratic practices that permit the citizens to direct the government towards the goals that will benefit the populace.
No wonder that the party has a zero tolerance on unilateralism and rewarding of total and fatal incompetents as epitomized by the scandalous manner in which President Mugabe unconstitutionally appointed George Chiweshe to the position of Judge President of the High Court on the recommendation of the Judicial Services Commission without consulting the two other coalition government principals which is required of him by CA No 19.
Whatever requirements the law imposes on the Judicial Services Commission to discharge its functions without any influence from any authority, they do not override or preclude the amended Constitutional requirement for the President to consult his other principals before effecting such appointments.
As it stands the recent unilateral appointment of Judges by President Mugabe remains unconstitutional regardless of the numbers he so appointed.
Professor Moyo’s obsession with the politics of personalities and not the MDC-T’s becomes evident in the homage he pays President Mugabe for appointing George Chiweshe and the flowery praise he showers on Chiweshe’s suitability for the position of Judge President of the High Court.
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“It’s just personal about Chiweshe in the typical fashion of MDC-T politics of personalities and positions.
The unacceptably ridiculous message from MDC-T is that Justice Chiweshe should not be Judge President because he is a former Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
It is common cause that before serving as Chairperson of ZEC, Justice Chiweshe was a judge of the High Court of Zimbabwe based in Bulawayo and that he served in that capacity with distinction. This means he is a qualified and experienced judge with no blemish on the bench. Full stop.
The record will also show that it is Justice Chiweshe who presided over the March 29, 2008 general election, which arguably stands as the freest and fairest election ever held in Zimbabwe.
There is no serious minded person who can challenge this fact in terms of what happened in the run up, the organisation and the conduct of that election and still hope to be taken seriously.
Yes, there were problems after the March 29, 2008 election but they had nothing to do with ZEC or Justice Chiweshe.
In the main, the post March 29, 2008 election problems emanated from the fact that the founders and funders of the MDC-T wanted ZEC under Justice Chiweshe to unlawfully declare Tsvangirai as the winner of the presidential election when everyone, including idiots, who observed knew only too well that there was no outright winner in terms of the law requiring the victor to have 50 percent plus one; meaning that a runoff election had to be held by law.
The idea that Tsvangirai should have won an election that he did not contest is so absurd that it is better left without any comment.
So what then is the MDC-T’s fuss over Justice Chiweshe’s appointment all about?
Well, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.
As a foreign founded and funded political party, the MDC-T does not want an independent minded judge who is wholly grounded in the Zimbabwean national experience and who is above brown-envelope justice to administer the High Court.
The truth of the matter based on his professional experience is that Justice Chiweshe, whose qualification as a judge is beyond question, is incorruptible and the MDC-T does not like people like that because its British and American founders and funders foolishly believe that their dirty money can buy anything, everything and everyone in Zimbabwe, especially in the judiciary, the media and security organs of the state which have been targeted as brick walls against regime-change.
The fact that Tsvangirai took the advice of the founders and funders of his party to violate our electoral law by ‘‘boycotting’’ the June 27, 2008 presidential runoff election cannot rationally be blamed on Justice Chiweshe or ZEC. There comes a time when we must all carry our own crosses and that applies to Tsvangirai, his MDC-T and its founders and funders.
In the meantime life must go on.
The irreversible reality done without prejudice is that Justice Chiweshe is the Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe as an expression of a selection by the Judicial Service Commission, which President Mugabe has accepted and implemented. That is the end of that story, the rest is the future,” eulogized Professor Moyo for a personality called George Chiweshe.
Anyone as good as the egghead Professor projects George Chiweshe would be an asset that the country can ill afford to put to waste and thus deserving the appointment.
So why did the President decide not to take this unrivalled candidate to his co-principals with these arguments and seek their endorsement of his appointment?
George Chiweshe was appointed to his position on the recommendation of a Judicial Services Commission whose neutrality is questionable. What with the likes of self confessed Zanu PF functionaries like AG Johannes Tomana, public Service Commission Chairman Mariyawanda Nzuwah and Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku pulling strings in the Commission that is complimented by two others from the Law Society whose names are not disclosed.
The position he has been appointed to is not about qualifications alone but also his relevant experience in dealing with national issues that require the incumbent to have demonstrated unbiased leadership.
It is that experience that disqualifies Chiweshe regardless of how well academically qualified he was for the position.
The relevance of his experience as an army Brigadier in an army whose commanders relied on his legal advice to pronounce that they will only accept a straight jacket President with Liberation War credentials is a major stain on his reputation.
The admission that under Chiweshe’s stewardship at ZEC Zimbabwe held peaceful elections whose results could not be announced because of a participant party’s foreign handlers interferences is the very reason why he should never be made a crucial gatekeeper of our sovereign institutions like Judge President of the High Court if he cannot make decisions in the face of foreign interferences.
If the election was as peaceful and as well managed as professor Moyo credits George Chiweshe why did it take him and his ZEC 35 days to count less than 5million ballots and announce the outcome?
Why was it not possible to stage the Presidential runoff in the stipulated 21days after the initial election and how legal was the Statutory Instrument that set aside an Act of Parliament that he allowed to be used in staging the June 28 presidential runoff election?
What distinguished him as a Bulawayo High court Judge when it is known that he sentenced MDC political activists for trivial cases while he never sentenced the violent Zanu PF mobsters who assaulted opponents in the 2001 and 2005 elections?
If his distinguished service is measured in terms of selective application of justice then we must agree with Professor Moyo.
But it is obvious that President Mugabe and his advisors were aware of the unsuitability for the key post in the coalition government and decided the best remedy was to ignore the Constitution and appoint thereby creating a constitutional impediment in the coalition government that will buy time for Zanu PF to think ways of regrouping.
That is why Professor Moyo and George Charamba are now in overdrive with propaganda in support of the illegal appointment of George Chiweshe and the other judges and can afford to publish drivel like;
“The irreversible reality done without prejudice is that Justice Chiweshe is the Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe as an expression of a selection by the Judicial Service Commission, which President Mugabe has accepted and implemented. That is the end of that story; the rest is the future,”
As for Professor Moyo’s preoccupation with the personality that Roy Bennett is we can only conclude that it is in defence of his friends Chinamasa and Tomana’s source of income as well as his fear of Beatrice Mtetwa that drives him to insanity.
Both Professor Moyo and George Charamba are literate enough to understand the meaning of this preamble to Schedule 8 of our constitution and must stop displaying the kind of public ignorance they are projecting in the name of defending the indefensible.
For the avoidance of doubt we repeat the preamble to schedule 8 hereunder;
“For the avoidance of doubt, the following provisions of the Interparty Political Agreement, being Article XX thereof, shall, during the subsistence of the Interparty Political Agreement, prevail notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution-“
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