President Mugabe behaves like a spoilt brat.

Mischievous Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe planning to derail the country's Constitutional reform agenda by misrepresenting the GPA out of fear of imminent defeat in elections that will follow adoption of the new Constitution


Not that there is anything novel about President Mugabe’s psychological assessment but the surest way to judge his intentions is to get him edgy. It appears the Western nations have unanimously come to the conclusion that Mugabe can only be trusted when he says something in anger.

And nothing appears to enter his nerves by the day as does the continued banishment of his Zanu PF closed circuit freedom to travel globally by way targeted sanctions imposed on them and of course his person.


After telling the world he had despatched his Premier to Western nations that imposed the evil sanctions against his party leadership and overzealous supporters to push for the lifting of the restriction against his adherents and country alike as well as seek international aid for the state’s economic recovery programmes, the refusal by all the countries visited to consider such a move at present has extracted the real thinking within his mind.

Of course the Premier denied he was a Presidential emissary tasked to dismantle the sanctions preferring instead to tell the nation that he had Constitutional mandates as Head of the government to ensure the country revived severed relations with the international community and more specifically the Western nations.

The Premier further explained that securing aid for the country was critical but not the main reason of his forays into the Western nations.

President Mugabe has concluded that his emissary’s mission was in vain. He has looked around his team to see if there still remains anyone with a better chance of succeeding where his greatest prospect –the Premier- has floundered and concluded the best chance has slipped by long before the emissary’s report has been tabled to him.

President Mugabe decided it was time to set out the government agenda proactively.

It is not clear on what basis he still believes he has the obligation to craft government policy other than perhaps that it is the manifestation of residual work habits of a government leader for the past 3 decades forgetting that the task has been reassigned to the Premier.

And what a mess of it he made.

Constitutional reform
The Constitutional reform agenda is probably the most crucial political agenda for the coalition government. It is detailed in Constitutional Amendment number 19 which is the basis upon which the government exists.

President Mugabe demands that the process be followed to the letter and the Kariba Draft Constitution be used as the foundation for the reform process.

It is not clear how the President has formulated the notion that the Constitutional reform process must be restricted to Kariba Draft Constitution agreed between Zanu PF and the MDC but was never implemented.

The Herald reports that “Addressing the Zanu-PF National Consultative Assembly at the party’s headquarters in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said the Parliamentary Select Committee on the constitution-making process should not deviate from that agreement (GPA).”

This is the kind of principled stance that we expect of the President in every agreement he enters into on behalf of Zanu PF and the State.
But the President flip flops and prevaricates depending on the clause of the GPA he is confronted with.

"Nyaya iri kuitwa iyi yokuti kune committee yeParliament . . . tiri kuti isu zvirege kusiyana neDraft Constitution yekuKariba nekuti takabvumirana tichisayinirana page-by-page saka hapana imwe constitution yatinoda isiri yeKariba," he said. (“In respect of the Parliamentary Constitutional reform committee, we are demanding that it should not deviate from the Kariba Draft Constitution because we agreed upon it page-by-page so there is no need for any other Constitution than the one agreed at Kariba.”)

"VeMDC vanobvumirana nayo kana tichitaura nezvayo asi vari kuvhundutswa nana-Madhuku vachiti it must be people-driven."(The MDC subscribes to the Kariba draft in private meetings with Zanu PF but are intimidated by the demands from Madhuku and his followers for a people driven process.”)

"Our people have got to be very careful and take precautions not to be derailed, not to be led away from the Kariba Draft. We will make the draft available," he said.

It is sincerely hoped the people referred to hear are those that subscribe to the Zanu PF view of constitution making that seeks to exclude the generality of the process from inputting its desires on how it wants to be ruled but seeks their ascent to how their rulers want to rule.

It would be sweet music for many ears in Zimbabwe to hear their President tell the Zanu PF National Consultative Assembly that the appointments of Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Provincial Governors, Reserve Bank Governor, Attorney General, Ambassadors as well as any other Senior coalition government officials should not deviate from the GPA and lead by example in that regard.

But no the President chooses when to remember that there is a binding agreement and when to turn a blind eye to its existence.

Unfortunately for the nation it is when the President believes the agreement favours Zanu PF that he demands strict adherence to it but when it favours other parties in the coalition or the nation he vitiates the agreement with the disdain of a spoilt brat.

There has been no agreement that the Kariba Draft constitution will be the basis upon which the constitutional reform revolves but rather that the Parties acknowledged its existence and annexed it to the GPA.

This was done as a means of including in Constitutional Amendment No19, the provisions contained in Chapters 4 and 13, and section 121 of the Kariba draft Constitution that the Parties executed at Kariba on 30 September 2007 and not as a basis for pre-empting the Constitutional reform process as the president is now attempting to mislead the nation.

COME CLEAN ON VIGIL AND ROHR POLITICAL AGENDA

Most political parties evolve from social interest group movements and or Civic Society. During their nascent years the movements relegate their political motive to the backroom of a single rallying point. This is done purposefully to protect the political idea from being hijacked by established political formations.

The political agenda comes to the foe at some point when the drivers consider it prudent to unveil it. This usually after assessing the level of the chemistry in the initial social interest group to be positive to the reception of the political agenda in place of the social one.

The evolution of ZAPU, ZANU, ZUM, UANC and MDC into political parties took this route. The Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) movement and Vigil/ROHR partnership are classical examples of political outfits in the making whose leadership has not satisfied itself about the appropriateness of time to transform them into political formations.

It is this deliberate denial by the Vigil/ROHR axis of its not so well camouflaged political agenda that this instalment is intended to expose and leave it to the generality of the Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom to judge for themselves.

In rebutting accusations of masterminding the jeering and booing of the Zimbabwe Premier at the Southwark Cathedral on 20 June 2009 the Restoration of Human Rights statement on this site dismisses as “a vicious, hate-fuelled and well-orchestrated campaign by some UK-based Zimbabwean online news sites aimed at discrediting ROHR Zimbabwe as an organisation and the personal integrity of Ephraim Tapa, its President,” adding;

“ROHR Zimbabwe and its leadership wants to disassociate itself from these malicious accusations as they are baseless and outright falsehoods.

We also want to state categorically that at no time did the organisation agree, let alone set an agenda to ridicule or disrupt the Southwark Cathedral meeting. Mr Tapa was not even at the meeting. We therefore dismiss the accusations with the contempt they deserve.”
On any other day such a passionate rebuttal would gain my immediate sympathies but not with the benefit of the hindsight knowledge I have of the titanic political battles between ROHR leadership and the MDC leadership. It is a passionate plea of innocence that defies logic.
Indeed the ROHR chairman was not there in person but his placard carrying supporters were in scores. ROHR does not explain why its members would carry prepared protest placards bearing its logo and that of its so called sister organisation Vigil to a meeting with the premier if there was no preset agenda to ridicule or disrupt his rally.
This becomes an imperative issue for ROHR to distance itself from when the message on its protest placards was the chant that disrupted the Premier’s speech.
Instead of explaining away this “coincidence” ROHR actually brags in its statement after giving its version of the build up to what it wants us to believe was a spontaneous response from the Premier’s audience that;
“To launch this campaign on so little evidence mean that elements in the Zimbabwean UK Diaspora must feel very threatened by us as our message continues to resonate with not only those in the Diaspora but also the wider constituency within Zimbabwe. The issue is that Zimbabwe is still not safe to return for those who fled persecution and are in need of international protection. ROHR Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Vigil does not apologise to anyone for our principled stance that ‘Mugabe Must Go’, our demand for democracy and justice, respect for the rule of law and the Restoration of Human Rights.”
Indeed many genuinely exiled Zimbabweans blame their confinement to refugee status on Mugabe and Zanu PF impunity.
While for some refugees life in exile is a garden of roses that they would like to live in for the rest of their lives there are many others who would rather spent their lifetime in Zimbabwe but for the excesses of the previous regimes solely headed by President Mugabe cannot contemplate returning to their home country to be welcomed by a regime in which Mugabe and his dreaded Zanu PF structures are significant if not in their opinions, dominant political players.
The “Mugabe Must Go” message that the Vigil and ROHR alliance claims monopoly ownership of, has been the rallying cry upon which the MDC was built from strength to strength over the past decade but has now been rendered obsolete by the political developments that resulted in a tripartite coalition government taking over from the Zanu PF regime on 13 February 2009.
The coming together of MDC-M, MDC-T and ZANU PF in a SADC and AU coerced government that has satisficed on key ideological values of the parties as a means to achieve a political environment that would allow the electorate to reclaim its militantly induced disenfranchisement after the inconclusive March 2008 election is being exploited ruthlessly by the Vigil/ROHR alliance to gain political space.
The problem though is that within Zimbabwe, while the “Mugabe Must Go” rallying cry resonates with the majority thinking and feelings, they have learnt from experience that the target’s departure requires a bit more political innovation than just the chanting of the slogan and voting.
That is why they are solidly behind the political diversion presented by the formation of the coalition government which they agree across the political divide is far from the ideal but nevertheless an opportunity worth pursuing to its logical end as it shields them from the impunity they endured during the days of sloganeering and protest marches which were simply quelled by the security forces loyal to Zanu PF and President Mugabe.
The Vigil/ROHR adherents Premiership hecklers obviously still worship the slogan religiously and are prepared to retain it as the main driver of their fight for democracy because they unlike their home-based opponents of President Mugabe and his vicious Zanu PF party do not have to make a choice between supporting the slogan and getting physically violated or supporting the coalition government to achieve the same objective while remaining physically safe.
That is why Vigil/ROHR is fooling itself that it is now the sole devout custodian of the fight for “democracy and justice, respect for the rule of law and the Restoration of Human Rights.”
Far from it. Within Zimbabwe the prime minister they booed and heckled at the Southwark Cathedral rally is the beacon bearing that torch whether or not the Vigil/ROHR likes it and or accepts it.
The National Constitutional Assembly has been forced to climb down from the pedestal that it alone had the people’s backing on how the Constitutional reform process should proceed after attendances at the Parliament led initiative sent the succinct message that no campaign by anyone against the coalition government initiative would succeed.
It is a lesson that the Vigil/ROHR alliance is yet to learn as its structures are more pronounced in the UK than in Zimbabwe. One would be tempted to think the alliance leadership is preparing to launch a UK government opposition political party of Zimbabwean refugees and exiles when in effect the alliance is struggling to attract adequate support to launch itself as a Zimbabwe political party in exile.
In his resignation message after leading a defiance campaign against the MDC National Council to dissolve the Tapa led MDC UK&I provincial executive where he was Provincial Secretary Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa made it clear that he would gain more political relevance and clout from defying the MDC NC and would launch himself into the political limelight better from outside the dominant party that had lost its formation ideals that he still held onto.
It is instructive that the same Mutyambizi-Dewa is a crucial Board member of both Vigil and ROHR now at the center of the fiasco at the Premier’s rally on 20 June 2009.
Anyone can believe what they want to but it appears too great a conjecture that his brother Terrance Tendai Mutyambizi -Dewa would pre-empt the ROHR rebuttal with an article on the same portal using unrestrained vicious language against MDC UK &I leadership than ROHR complains of against specific news sites that implicated it in leading the protests against what the Premier had asked of exiled Zimbabweans to consider.
Interestingly Terrence also raises the issue of lost formative ideals of the MDC as the cause for the protest by Zimbabwean exiles in the UK.
“The problem in the diaspora is most central to the ideas and the fundamental principles of the party when it was formed. It is to do with the power dynamics as it stands and his failure to deal with this at this stage will lead to the demise of his influence and the creation of new wisdoms. The agenda of the party has been changed by the reformed ZANU PF now running and controlling his mind in exchange of loyalty and patronage,” he stated adding;
“Morgan Tsvangirai should revisit the formation of the party and look at the agreed principles of the way forward. He will be able to establish what the people wanted from their leadership. He needs to address the issue of Tripartite, the issue of social housing, strategy for a welfare state and the commitment to democracy. Walking away from the people when they talk is never heard of in a democracy. Even when President Bush had a shoe thrown at him in Iraq he continued to address the audience. Walking away is a sign of either cowardice or a total lack of respect to what the people are saying.”
This was after he had smeared nearly the entire Provincial leadership of the MDC in the UK with unsubstantiated allegations of nepotism , murder of former party chairman Isaac Matongo, de-campaigning the party president for failing to reward them with positions in the coalition government that he felt must be reserved for the MDC founding activists like him and much more.
The drivel in Terrence’s published opinion on the Zimbabwe journalists.com portal mirrors the lies behind the ROHR statement that the Vigil/ROHR alliance has no political gripe with anyone or any other political formation for that matter when its members like Terrence are spewing nothing but deep rooted hatred of the Premier that unites them in ROHR.
The Zimbabwetimes.com carries another opinion from a self professed ROHR member Batson Chapata, 36, a regional co-ordinator for Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR)explaining why he booed the premier.
But ROHR contradicts his open and voluntary admission by stating in its rebuttal;
“Then, the call was for the Party to uphold its founding principles – constitutional democracy, transparency, accountability and justice for all. The ROHR President continues to cherish those values and, unlike some who have started glorifying Mr Mugabe with the advent of the inclusive government, continues to fight for GENUINE CHANGE. Whilst engaged in this struggle for human rights and notwithstanding his right to do so, Mr Ephraim Tapa does not for now have plans to seek any political office within any political party. And contrary to misleading theories being peddled by those who seek to detract from him, Mr Tapa harbours no rancour or vendetta against anyone within the MDC family.”
If indeed there was nothing linking ROHR to the protest as it claims why does it emerge that its key supporters are at variance with their organisation?
I may have missed it but nobody has to my knowledge questioned the presence of ROHR in Zimbabwe or anywhere else for that matter.
What has been questioned is the strategic setup of its structures on political party structure lines wherever it operates from and more importantly within the UK and I where its structures seem to shadow all MDC structures.
This is the question that the Vigil/ROHR alliance must answer rather than duck away from with frivolous explanations.
Vigil and ROHR has in the past been the subject of UK Metropolitan police investigation over complaints they are illegally charging for Asylum application advice without authority and selling MDC membership cards for personal benefit without the consent of the party causing immense harm to prospects of success of asylum seekers relying on recommendations from the grouping.
There is evidence everywhere of this having been the case and yet ROHR would like us to believe the fallacious explanation that it never involved itself with Asylum applications but is merely concerned with human rights advice to Zimbabwean exiles.
It is not a crime to contest for political power in Zimbabwe but the Vigil/ROHR campaign is deceitful and extortionate at the same time it aims to delay the inevitable attainment of the rights it purports to stand for.
The tirade by its members against the MDC UK&I Provincial executive exposes the Vigil/ROHR political agenda which it feels has gained momentum from heckling the Premier on his recent UK visit.
It was a good attempt but certainly not good enough to transform the political fortunes of the ambitious leadership of the alliance.
If anything it has pushed the nascent project against the wall and sooner rather than later it will find it increasingly difficult to raise funds from unsuspecting donors and desperate Asylum seekers.
The call for the MDC UK and I provincial leadership to resign must come from the MDC

The frightening prospects of returning to Zimbabwe

Stanford Biti and his branch executive maybe unaware of the underhand ROHR political initiative that isled by Tapa in getting back at the Premier and MDC President.


After an absence of between a year to a decade the looming prospect of a return to Zimbabwe for Zimbabwean nationals who sought refuge from political tyranny and the economic morass in the country is indeed a ghastly event to contemplate for most of the refugees.

This was amply demonstrated by the jeering and booing that was elicited from the over 1000 strong contingent that attended the Zimbabwe Premier’s public rally at the Southwark Cathedral on Saturday, 21 June 2009.


The Zimbabwe Premier, former opposition MDC leader now in coalition with Mugabe’s former ruling Zanu PF party and a smaller faction of the MDC under Deputy Premier Professor Mutambara’s stewardship took time off his gruelling Western Nations visit aimed at reviving severed relations with the block to explain and project what the future holds for the refugees.

They did not like what they heard from the Premier and they did not hide their repugnancy.

The Premier had called on all Zimbabwe refugees to start making arrangements to return to their homeland citing political and economic improvements brought about by the SADC coerced consummation of the coalition government.

They jeered and booed forcing the Premier to make a strategic retreat from the podium until they had regained their composure and prepared to listen after which he took to the podium and fielded questions from the floor.

The call
What triggered the Premier’s audience to respond as they did was the Premier statement below;

“What is our message to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora? Let me state here and I will state it boldly that Zimbabweans must come home.”

The crowd went into shrills of discontent and started chanting the MDC slogan “Chinja” (Change) in unison drowning attempts from the Premier to explain himself.

The Premier’s call was widely expected after he had made similar calls while in the USA. It is a well meant call from a Premier whose task to put the pieces of a ravaged economy and national social fabric was probably ill-timed.

From the very onset the MDC UK and I Province that organised the rally was not in consensus about the function given simmering leadership divisions in its executive.

The party province that is among the top sponsors of the party has among its leadership disgruntled cadres who are unhappy with the coalition government union and exclusions from ministerial appointments of certain party stalwarts.

This discord has been hugely exploited by the fall guys in the Ephraim Tapa led executive that was dissolved in 2007 and morphed up as the Civic group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) within the Zimbabwe Vigil which had sponsored Tapa and Mutyambizi’s ascendance to the MDC UK and I provincial leadership before they were exposed as impostors with little understanding of how the MDC party is geared and operates and relieved of their leadership roles.

What emerged as a spontaneous show of discontent with what the Premier had called upon exiled Zimbabweans to consider was in effect a well planned political initiative by ROHR and the Zimbabwe Vigil to embarrass the Premier by disrupting the Southwark rally and the private dinner that the Premier held with a select group of party supporters prepared to part with a whopping £75 per head to be in the Premier’s company at the dinner table.

After leading the rowdy behaviour at the rally Stenford Biti and Adella Chiminya were dispatched to the Premier’s hotel to go and dissuade the Premier from attending the private dinner at the Royal Over-Seas League Club that had been fully subscribed to.

The duo had already convinced Premiership Chief Spokesman and Permanent Secretary James Maridadi and Ian Makone respectively that the Premier’s attendance at the private dinner would be greeted with an equally if not worse protest to that witnessed at the rally.

The intention was never to demonstrate at the dinner venue but for the function to be cancelled so that the people who had pre-paid for the function would cause commotion by demanding refunds from the MDC organisers of the Function Izzy Mutanaurwa and Provincial Treasurer Tendai Goneso.

That would have been the perfect embarrassment for the Premier’s party. But it failed when the premier received intelligence of the intention and dispatched Secretary Ian Makone to reconnaissance the dinner venue and evaluates safety as well as the mood in the venue.

As fate would have it Ian Makone fell back on Stenford Biti’s availability for escort to the venue and on arrival found the place convenient in every respect for the Premier’s dinner.

The attendance was then confirmed much to the chagrin of the Vigil/ROHR emissaries who informed their principals that their mission had fallen through after unforeseen interventions caused Ian Makone to inspect the venue.

The only possibility the anti-Premier grouping had of disrupting the dinner was to sponsor hecklers to book into the occasion but when they arrived they found the subscriptions closed and could not be accommodated dealing a final blow to their wicked intentions.

But it was rather pitiful to see Provincial Secretary Sakhile Mtombeni pleading with gate security to be allowed in and finally seeking assistance of Provincial organising secretary Jaison Matewu to be admitted.

Why a senior party official like Mtombeni would have to negotiate entry to a party function in which he is by position second most powerful after the Chairman baffles the mind and points to the divisions at the top leadership of the Province.
The absurdity
Exiled genuine Zimbabwean refugees have multiple genuine misgivings about the coalition government which they are entitled to openly voice concern about and seek redress of.

They have been away from the country for many years most of which have gone to waste as they struggled to obtain refugee status and seek gainful employment forcing them to live on host governments and humanitarian charity.

Many fled vicious political violence that ravaged not just their homes but also life savings which they used to buy flight tickets to wherever they are now domiciled.

Those that managed to get asylum status and the right to work found themselves restricted to working in lower end menial jobs which were not cognisant of their training and experience.

Earnings were low and insufficient for them to atone for their losses and while the more enterprising took advantage of the economic downturn and accumulated assets back in Zimbabwe the majority just could not afford the demands of dual residence and managed to sustain lifestyles that they never imagined possible in their country of origin and never prepared for a day when the situation would not justify their stay in exile.

Most of the refugees were also exploited to sponsor the struggle for democracy in their country of origin by vultures in organisations like ROHR and The Vigil that promised them help in their asylum applications if they bought fake MDC party membership cards.

Unfortunately very few lucky ones benefited from their membership in these hazy organisations and yet were made to believe that it was the MDC that was letting them down after becoming “members” of the party and the party leadership refusing to support their applications notwithstanding the support and endorsements from the nefarious organisations.

By and large the situation on the ground in the country has drastically improved from those years when most refugees gapped it but they are far from ideal. The Premier has admitted same but invokes ire in refugees when he refuses to publicly condemn Zanu PF excesses after the formation of the coalition government.

They hate it when the premier appears powerless to stop farm invasions, wanton arrests of activists from his party and declares that there are no political prisoners in the country when scores of MP’s, Party activists, Ministers, Civil Society activists and Party administrators from the MDC he leads are being persecuted for political crimes in courts yet nothing seems to be done about Zanu PF activists who led the orgy of violence that displaced them.

To add insult to injury the premier in his capacity as MDC leader is widely seen as ungrateful for the support his party got from the diaspora as he has not accommodated anyone from Diaspora leadership of the party other than Roy Bennett into the quota of his appointments in the coalition government, neither has he accommodated them on various Conferences and Commissions underway.

Mugabe denied them the vote and the premier is seen as perpetuating that disenfranchisement by publicly misleading the world on realities on the ground and then having the temerity to request the Diasporans to obvious Zanu PF servitude they ran away from in the first instance.

They accuse the Premiership of misrepresentations and blinded leadership of the party and reckless abandon after being stripped of all powers in government by the President and loathed Zanu PF leader he now praises as if he never caused the exiles harm.

Diasporans legitimately argue that no sane person who has escaped the Zanu PF scripted inferno that engulfed the country in the past decade to the frying pan of the diaspora would consider jumping back into the raging fire in Zimbabwe at present with the hope of helping a lame duck Premier extinguish it.

Farm invasions, lack of national currency, snail paced economic reforms, dilapidated service delivery infrastructure, arbitrary politically motivated judicial persecutions, unimplemented portions of the GPA, lack of progress on media, security and constitutional reforms as well as failure to accommodate diaspora representation in the coalition government are all cited as reasons why the premier’s call for refugees to return are ill timed and unconvincing.

The irony of it is that the call made as it was in more than one of their sanctuaries has the greatest potential of influencing hosts to repatriate the refugees prematurely and exposing them to even greater hardships than those they ran away from.

But all this is misplaced apprehension because the Premier has not stated that Zimbabweans must be repatriated back to Zimbabwe forthwith but merely appealed to those of his fellow citizens that have been advantaged by exposure to external economies to seriously consider returning to the country and help in its monumental reconstruction.

For people to jeer and harangue their most well placed change agent over such a cry for help and demand him to use blunted and tired manpower resources to achieve the changes they desire before they consider returning to their homeland is pathetic.
Zimbabwe does not belong to the Premier and those who are trapped in it alone. It is our country and we can shape its destiny together through participation in the best manner we know how but certainly not through booing and jeering.

Indeed we need to make it clear to those leaders we trust are better placed to make a difference to our lives that we will not be prepared to be led up the garden paths but we demand real and last changes to the way our country is managed so that we will never slide back into the gloom of the past two decades.

The Premier was taken aback by the behaviour of the exiled Zimbabweans but not daunted. After listening to some of the views expressed on the live Zimnet Radio talk show on 21 June 2009 I am determined more than ever to do whatever I can to ensure we reclaim our place in shaping the reconstruction of the Zimbabwe we want even if it means sacrificing some luxuries accessible to me at present.

My prayer is that the Diaspora provincial leadership of the MDC that has done so wonderfully well in sponsoring the party be granted the extra energy to show direction for their membership that the struggle will never be completed to its logical conclusion without their unwavering support.

Expunging Walter Mzembi from PM’s meeting with USA President riles State media.

Exposed Zanu PF War Collaborator and Zimbabwe Presidential Mole planted in the Premier's delegation was barred from eavesdropping on discussions between the Zimbabwe Premier and the USA President

After spending the better part of the past fortnight selling the Premier as an errand boy of the octogenarian President of Zimbabwe dispatched to undo the sanctions crippling the President’s movement to the Western nations, the Herald is bemoaning that trusted presidential escort Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi strategically assigned to shadow the Premier on the current mission to Western nations was expunged from eavesdropping discussion between the Premier and the USA President.

Obama bars Mzembi bemoaned the herald after the stalker failed to feed the National paper with the inner titbits of discussions that transpired between the USA President and the so called Zimbabwe President Sanctions and aid emissary Premier Morgan Tsvangirai.

Worse the USA president hastily cancelled... .the media brief that had been pencilled in to follow the meeting blanking any chance the Zanu PF appendage to the delegation had of gaining insight on what transpired in the Oval office meeting no matter how scant.

Walter Mzembi is the current Minister of Tourism. A former war collaborator from Masvingo, Mzembi is being sold to the nation by a press that knows little if anything at all about him as one of the moderates’ reform minded offerings that Zanu PF seconded to Minster in the coalition government.

But for those of us who know him better Mzembi is not a moderate reform minded Zanu PF cadre but a silent assassin with close CIO ties.

When his father passed away in 1997, may his soul rest in peace the house he rented from Mr Chigovanyika opposite Widdcombe primary school was flooded with CIO operatives, Security Chiefs, War veterans, State media chiefs including Tarzen Mandizvidza, Reuben Barwe and Happyton Muchechetere and Government tents were erected for mourners as is the norm at State funerals.

He was then not a Senior Civil servant, Minister or Member of Parliament but a Marketing Director of Ag-Venture (Pvt.) Ltd having left Stewarts and Lloyds Ltd, where as General Manager and with Leo Mugabe, they had stripped the hitherto vibrant steel works company to a shell.

Whatever reasons the USA President’s security had for barring Mzembi from the Oval office meeting with the Zimbabwe Premier- we hope it was not from effective intelligence they had gathered about Mzembi’s close links with the notorious Zimbabwe CIO- it has raffled feathers at the State media confirming the spying mission he is serving on the Premier’s delegation.

Mzembi is the Presidential mole that was attached to the Premier’s retinue to feedback the State media with information they have been using to sabotage the mission by reporting it as a loathed Presidential Mission that he was in full control of and knew exactly what who in the delegation had said when and to who.

With the Presidential spy expunged from the meeting facts of what transpired became impossible to obtain for the state media and it really hurt that they could not spin the events to the advantage of the on-the-ball president as they had done on previous encounters between the Premier and the Netherlands Head of State.

The State Media was left to speculate on what could have caused the USA President to announce the US$73 million additional aid and why it had been channelled through the Aid agencies and not the coalition government.

Minute details about how the Premier had turned the tables against the boastful Zimbabwe President by excluding his spy were analysed leading to the unsubstantiated conclusion that the premier may be encouraging the kingpin of Western policy on Zimbabwe to withhold desperately sought after aid to force Mugabe to concede further political space for the Premier’s party.

The fact is the barring of Mzembi has shown that the USA brooks no nonsense of entertaining representatives of human rights violators in their offices be they appended to morally upright leaders or not.

It is unlikely Mzembi will be allowed into future meetings of the Premier with remaining Heads of State he is scheduled to visit and that is alarming for the Zanu PF propaganda machinery planted in State Media.

Even more alarming was the fact that the USA President redefined the mission as the Zimbabwe Premier’s and not the State visit it had been sold as by the State media.
That statement distanced the USA from association with Mugabe through the conduit of the Premier’s office and spells doom for Zanu PF’s intended claim to credit for any of the Premiership successes at the same time it closes the door on intended factual claims the media was preparing to claim had caused any failures of the Premier’s mission.

It is no longer possible to claim that the west denied the Zimbabwe government aid and the lifting of illegal sanctions because of the land reform dispute because the spy that was supposed to vouch for that- Walter Mzembi- will be relying on hearsay.

The Ministry of information that ignored a request for information officers to be assigned to the premier’s mission because the most reliable are reserved for the President and assigning them to the premier would send the wrong signal that the Premier commands equal powers to those of the President, must now be scratching their heads bold pondering what to do next to ensure they obtain first hand information about the Premier’s discussions with Western Heads of State.
The alternative use of embassy information attaches to cover for the State media has already proved inadequate after they were excluded from the Finance Minister’s previous entourage in the USA.

That leaves Premier’s Chief spokesman James Maridadi and or Secretary in the Premier’s office Ian Makone as the only legitimate sources of information about discussions between the Premier and his hosts that the State Media can rely on given its frosty relations with foreign correspondents.

And yet State media relations with the duo are not anymore better than the relations they have with foreign correspondents.
Interesting!

How can a well meaning President openly spy on his very own head of government and expect to be taken seriously in a coalition government relationship?

Sparks fly from the Zimbabwe Constitution making process

NCA Chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku threatens to derail the constitution reform mission.


Sparks are already flying from the Zimbabwe constitution reform epicentre at the Zimbabwe Parliament before the core group selected to spearhead the drive for a constitutional order to replace the nearly 4 decade old Lancaster House crafted supreme law of the country.

The 1978 Lancaster House constitution was agreed between the tripartite negotiating forum involving exiled Patriotic Front of ZAPU and ZANU liberation political formations on one hand and the Internal Settlement alliance that bunched colonial renegades led by Ian Smith and locally based Black Zimbabwean political formations led by the UANC’s Bishop Abel Tondekai Muzorewa and included ZANU led by founder Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and ZUPO’s Chief Jeremiah Chirau anchored by British imperialist represented by the Queen’s government.

There were no lesser sparks flying from that forum than we are witnessing from the ominously similar tripartite negotiating forum involving Conservatives in Zanu PF and Labour representatives in MDC-T and tribally based Liberal Democrats in MDC-M.

The major difference between the 1978 process and the current is found in the represented interests in the process and the added dimension of a more vocal and better empowered Civil Society which was not a major concern in the 1978 process.

The 1978 process was obsessed with reconciling foreign settler political domination and divisionism interests against local indigenous demands for overriding political powers and the right to self rule.

In the current process the process seeks to consolidate the gains from the 1978 process and remove the element of foreign interests in our politics at the same time it tightens on democratic governance loopholes that have emerged from the 1978 constitution.

In the current initiative, like was the case 1n 1978 the need for a new constitutional law is self justifying given that the 1978 supreme law was never intended to be a permanent statute but a transitional law from colonial rule to sovereignty.

That an interim constitution has survived 4 decades albeit with serious amendments on 19 occasions to align it with changed value systems in the country defies logic and has united the nation on the need for a replacement supreme law to accommodate current political thinking rather than a heavily patched one which is reactionary to political developments.

Under normal circumstances where there is national consensus on a need there should be minimal or no conflict on the redress process. However because the constitution is a foundation law for political governance there will be, as has been the case elsewhere, strong competing political interests that cause friction and conflict in people. People will differ on preferred methodologies to crafting the supreme law based on how they saw the process' ability to entrench their underlying political values.

By its nature Constitution making is a critical political project that capacitates politicians to exercise political power and dominion in a certain way without attracting undue criticism over what would be considered excessive abuse of power under a different constitutional order.

Because of that it is hardly surprising that political interest groups by whatever name they prefer to be known –Party, Civil Society or simply People-that will be subjects of the supreme law would want to see in place a process that has the greatest chance of producing a law that puts them at an advantage to exercise power and influence on governance.

The current sparks flying across Zimbabwe’s political parties and Civil Society in any direction are a manifestation of this latent desire to get a grip on the process and manipulate it to best advantage of those initiating the sparks.

Forget the hype about people-driven constitution as if ever there was any other known animal species-driven constitution in existence on planet earth and some such other slogans in the constitution making process.

All known and existing constitutions throughout the world were made by people. The trendy phrase people-driven constitution is a rallying slogan that is cynically used to disown certain categories of people from the constitution making process or at the very least demean their relevance in the process.

The current process in Zimbabwe has been tagged a parliament-driven process. The term is used derisively as if parliamentarians are not of the human genre. Their participation in the process is pre-qualified as occupation driven sectarian interest in the process as if everyone else’s participation is devoid of professional and or sectarian interests.

Nothing can be further from the truth than that. All people seeking involvement with the constitution making process are politically conscious of the value the process and result have on sectarian interest they value and wish to advance.

The better politically organised they are the more defined their interests and the more seniority they seek in the process to be able to manipulate it in their favour.

The reason why the coalition governing parties agreed on a constitution making process championed by parliament yet open to accommodating other interest groups of people is because the parties are concerned about electoral, economic and political abuses that have passed through the safety net provided by the current constitution.

The anticlimax end of the harmonised elections in March 2008 demonstrated all the political concerns that the parties want addressed to avoid recurrence of similar deviations in future elections.

Similarly those claiming to be of the people-driven constitution making process champions have well defined concerns about how the politicians have denied them fundamental human rights enjoyed by other citizens universally which they yearn for.

Their desire for a process driven by none governmentally tied players is motivated by a compelling desire to reign in the political abuses of the past and hold politicians accountable to the Civil liberties advocates and dictates they subscribe to by securing legal guarantees of their collective supremacy over government.

That is why now there are two parallel forces demanding supremacy over ownership of the process an interestingly both claiming to be championing a people-driven constitution making process.

Within the main groupings one championed by Dr Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) civic group and the other by the three coalition government principals there is no homogeneity in interests to be served by the Constitution reform process and its outputs.

There are diverse and sometimes competing interests that are triggers of the friction now evident from the process.

It is simply not true that there is a single entity that is championing all the diverse interests represented by the constitution making process. The brutal truth is that each interest group vying to control the process has embedded interests that must be satisfied from the process.

That is why talk of people-driven is cheap point scoring politicking emerging from the process.

The reason why there is no dispute about the need for a home grown supreme law is because the interests served by the current constitution have been superseded by changed political circumstances in the country and the emergence of newer threats to power hegemony requiring proactive management through a new constitutional order.

Zanu PF has been entrenched in uninterrupted power for the past four decades during which it has fenced its hegemony with a raft of laws it fast tracked through the Legislature in which it enjoyed an unassailable majority through Presidential appointees whose only loyalty and accountability was to the incumbent President rather than the electorate.

The President was constitutionally assigned draconian powers wherein he literally held 20% of the national vote as an individual.

The political competition was restricted to the remaining 80% of the political space in the country.

Hitherto passage of Constitutional amendment number 18 the party that controlled the national Presidency had a 20% head start in legislative elections which competitors had to overhaul first before entertaining any thought of wrestling legislative control from the ruling party.

The ruling Zanu PF party took full advantage of their exclusive dominance of the Executive and numerical advantage in the Legislature to assert dominance over the Judiciary thereby neutralising any oversight roles that the three pillars of governance are designed to serve in an ideal democracy.

As a consequence of the diminished relevance of the Legislature and the Judiciary to the exercise of power the Executive developed into an autocratic monster that relied on the use of patronage incentives to coerce compliance with its desired national policies and programmes rather than inclusivity to establish needs and wants of the generality of the people in the country to design policies and programmes that served those needs.

This provided fertile breeding grounds for corrupt practices at all levels of governance as the underpinning concept in all corrupt practices of denial of access to induce compliance became a norm rather than an exception.

Immense political, economic and social benefits accrued to those fortunate to be in the right places at appropriate times as they accessed the lion’s share of limited national resources and amassed them for use in coercing the disadvantaged to pay homage to them to have any sniff at the benefits.

Given a choice Zanu PF would rather retain the constitution that allowed it to exercise power with such impunity and yet kept the party insulated against public accountability by state organs such as the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Security forces all of which the Executive pampered with sufficient benefits to retain loyalty.

Those that resisted the corrupt advantages were isolated and individually plucked out of the system exposing them to militant abuse and economic deprivation.

Unfortunately for Zanu PF the patronage system induced laziness as the wealth creating work ethic was slowly replaced by the get rich quick mentality that characterises patronage systems wherever they are found.

The demise of the national work ethic triggered increased competition for dwindling resources within and outside government establishment and as demand outstripped supply prices of goods and services soared causing worker and peasant disaffection with the government.

The setting in of the vicious inflation spiral caused government to panic when its core constituencies in the Liberation War Veterans wing of the party mutinied against the party over unfair distribution of wealth among party loyalists when they witnessed their leadership enjoying lavish lifestyles while they languished in abject poverty.

The threat was to cause the Executive to award the former fighters hefty monetary rewards that it had not budgeted for resulting in there being too much money in circulation chasing too few goods that had to be managed through price increases which cause the crush of the country’s currency on Black September in 1998.

The involvement of the State in the DRC conflict did nothing to help the situation. The strain on the fiscus was beyond its capacity and something had to give way and it did when disenchanted workers transformed their Trade Union association into a political movement of sorts that attracted the support of farmers, Academics, Industrialists and Civic groupings in a union aimed at extracting government accountability that Parliament and the Judiciary had abrogated.

Faced with a serious political challenge to its hegemony the government decided to test its strength by embarking on a constitution reform process that was highly contested by the new opposition Party and its grassroots in Civic Society, the trade union Movement and Tertiary Student political activism.

The government lost a crucial referendum to adopt the draft it had painstakingly put together to entrench the Zanu PF hegemony signalling the start of a vicious and lethal political contest for power between Zanu PF and the newly formed MDC party that is raging on within the current coalition government minus the violent levels the contest had sunk to by 30 June 2008.

This is not to say that political violence and abuse has been extinguished in the country. Political violence still rears its ugly head sporadically in various places throughout the country to date. The State controlled public media continues to cynically promote and spoil for violent political thuggerry.

The Judiciary continues pursuing a programme of selective judicial persecutions of MDC loyalists perceived or real it matters not.

The President sets the tone of the abuse by deliberately and blatantly violating sections of the agreement he entered into with the MDCs to legitimise his current Presidency that had been internationally condemned after he refused to concede evident defeat to MDC leader in the March 2008 harmonised elections.

From this background it is tacitly evident that the MDC wants a constitution that will not only tip the electoral process in its favour by wiping out the 10% legislative head start held by Zanu PF but will also specify remedies for electoral and political misconduct in the country.

For the MDC the constitution making process is not as critical as the end result that whatever process is used will produce.

The objective of the MDC is clear that the country is in dire need of a constitution that not only criminalises military intervention in democratic processes but goes further to specify concrete remedies an aggrieved party can resort to in cases of such interventions.

The MDC wants a constitution that will soft land defeated sitting Presidents without recourse to military interventions. One crucial objective that the MDC wants the Constitution reform process to attain is to devolve power from centralised ownership to regional control.

The MDC knows the value of the Constitution as a political power management tool having benefited immensely from amendments it pushed through in Constitutional Amendments No 18 and 19 and would not accept to play second fiddle to anyone in the process underway in the country.

The argument that Constitution making must be left to the sole control and direction of the “people” when that word is used to mean a political or sectarian interest group will not wash with career politicians in government at present or even those aspiring to wrestle power in future.

There is no country on planet earth that is being governed by a constitution drafted and legislated by the Civil Society. Zimbabwe will not be an exception to that.

Dr Madhuku’s demands are legitimate to the extent that he advocates for involvement of all the willing and interested people-used here to mean qualified citizens of the country without reference to their professions- in the reform process.

After that legitimate call anything he says or demands will persuade him and his organisation and its associates to participate must be put in appropriate political perspective.

As an interested citizen Madhuku holds no special brief to choose who must preside over the process. Politicians elected to the Legislature carry more meaningful mandates to spearhead legislative reforms than the unelected NCA organisation and or its associates whose membership is indeterminate and political interest obscure.

Indeed the politicians will manipulate the process as they do anything that impinges on their motive to exercise absolute power and that must be guarded against but not in the manner that Dr Madhuku suggests that they be made subordinate to an appointed authority whose loyalties will be to the one who appointed him and thus has the capacity to disappoint.

There is more danger in such a person being manipulated by the politicians that are close to his principal than there is of a co-chaired parliamentary select committee whose loyalty and accountability is to the electorate than the executive.

Put simply the people elected the Parliamentarians to watch over executive excesses fully aware that whoever they sent to parliament will be subject to political direction by his party unless he stood on an independent ticket.

Because of that people cannot be represented in a political process as critical as constitution making by a Civic Group ahead of the politicians they entrusted the role of monitoring the Executive.

The people will greatly appreciate independent monitoring of the process spearheaded by parliament if such monitoring is not in any way prohibited and in this instance is being actively sought after and accommodated.

That is the challenge that the NCA and Dr Madhuku should seriously consider taking on in the current process if they seriously think they can make a difference to the outputs of the process.

The compelling political drivers behind the current process are far too engrossing for the NCA and its allies to think they can repeat the 2000 referendum, feat after boycotting the process.

The people want a Constitution that will protect them from violent political abuse and repression by a seemingly lifetime Presidency and nothing will dissuade them from voting for a constitution that limits presidential terms and devolves power to regional management.

The national mood at present is that any instrument that empowers them to confront Presidential power excesses is an important step towards achievement of total democratisation of the political management of the country and the NCA will not be allowed to derail the process by falsely claiming to be acting for people it neither has nor will find.

It matters not that the new constitution being merely a document on paper will not withstand a military onslaught because the Zimbabweans know that without the documented evidence of their rights they neither have the capacity nor the legitimacy to stand up against Executive excesses as has been evident in their history with Zanu PF governance.

The undisputed outstanding GPA issues.

Mugabe Tsvangirai and Mutambara have numerous outstanding issues to address in their Sadc imposed coalition government

The reason why Zimbabwe is currently being governed by a SADC imposed tripartite coalition of political formations can be traced down to one single factor of the politics of the country- fear.

Our country has been subjected to frightening levels of intimidating events that has left most of us quacking in our pants when circumstances call for us to stand up against open violations of our dignity as human beings.

The historical continuum of the country’s politics shows that the country has been under siege of megalomaniac political interventions that have traumatised generation after generation of its citizens.
From the South African invasions caused by Tshaka’s hegemony through Colonial invasions driven by British imperialism to Zanu PF independence hegemony and the current SADC imposed Coalition government Zimbabwean generations have had more than their fair share of irresponsible leadership in one form or another that has mellowed brave men and women to frightened cowards.

That fear is the most critical outstanding issue that must be addressed by the coalition government if the country entertains any thought of restoring the lost dignity of the generality of its citizenry.

It is the sole reason why we have succumbed to the rule by a government we never elected and are now contend to fire pot shots at from our enclaves in the vain hope that one of our missiles will hit the mark and free us with finality.

We are now happy to pour our grievances to a makeshift government that is half managed by the very leadership we grieve against in the hope that the half that has been leading the fight for our grievances to be addressed will somehow prevail without us adding our weight to their pull, push and shove or whatever form of action against our past and current nemesis now safely ensconced in the SADC imposed coalition.

It is out of fear that we exhibit behaviours that suggests tolerance of the coalition government when deep down our subconscious we hold misgivings about components in the bureaucracy, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive.

We all pretend a solution for our fears is in the offing from the very establishment we are afraid of. The stupidity of our pretences is exposed when our self imposed government acts in ways that rub it in us that we are indeed the cowards we know ourselves to be.

We now seem contended to sing the song that only those issues the three principal signatories of the 15 September 2008 agreement- dubbed the GPA for Global Political Agreement- declare to be outstanding to be the defacto outstanding issues needing to be addressed by the coalition.

This is the sad reality of the manifestation of our fear of the Government or alternatively National leadership.

Suddenly we are all pretending our misgivings about Mugabe’s militantly forced occupancy of the Presidency is no longer an outstanding issue in our quest for democratic governance are no longer issues this coalition government must address.

We even have the temerity to pretend that our concerns about selective application of the rule of law, impunity, violence, abuse by State functionaries, endemic corruption within and outside the bureaucracy, restrictions to free access and dissemination of information, restrictions to free association, restricted employment opportunities, dislocated infrastructure and service delivery, expropriated property, food insecurity, undemocratic governance through a flawed constitution and denial of right to choose our leaders are no longer outstanding issues unless the GPA principals say so.

This is the outrageous dehumanisation we have been subjected to by the fear of our leaders be they self imposed, Sadc imposed, elected or appointed.

It is out of fear that we are not able to openly demand the services we are taxed for from our government and leaders. We would rather openly support impunity and lawlessness that the leaders approve than stand up to them and chide them for promoting chaos.

This SADC imposed government that we are languishing under must more than any other government before it be held accountable to the letter and spirit of what they agreed to do that legitimised them as our government.

It is an indictment of our fear levels that we allow leaders who signed an agreement publicly and widely circulated it to still be able to stand before us and declare deadlocks over implementation of what they willingly agreed to and signed for before our very own eyes.

On 15 September 2008 Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Guseni Oliver Mutambara signed a document now called the GPA just under a clause reading;

“ARTICLE XXV COMMENCEMENT
25. Commencement This Agreement shall enter into force upon its signature by the Parties.”
That we should be discussing outstanding issues from that agreement is indicative of not just our fear but our hopelessness.
In that agreement the subscribers agreed on the following key steps to be followed in consummating the SADC imposed government;
i. To form a government in which Executive Powers and Authority would be vested in and shared among the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, as provided for in this Constitution and legislation-Clause 20.1.1

They agreed that the President, Prime Minister and Cabinet shall exercise executive authority subject to the Constitution and the law.

They even went further to define that in the exercise of executive authority, the President, Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers must have regard to the principles and spirit underlying the formation of the Inclusive Government and accordingly act in a manner that seeks to promote cohesion both inside and outside government.

ii. The roles and responsibilities of the cabinet were tacitly stated in clause20.1.2 while those of the president were spelt out in clause20.1.3 and the premier’s in clause 20.1.4.
In order to accurately determine outstanding issues we must of necessity visit these responsibilities within the guidelines set out in clause 20.1.1 to evaluate if the executive authority is exercising power within limits rather than just hallucinate emotionally about what should be considered an outstanding issue needing address by the coalition government as per their agreement which is not only their promise to us but also that of the agreement guarantors.

But evidence from State owned public media suggests outstanding issues whose origins are not traceable to the base agreement.

We are being battered to accept that the coalition executive has complied with the requirement to implement the agreement upon its signature by the parties when it took 5 months for the President to appoint the premier and his deputies as well as cabinet and even then a nominated deputy minister is yet to be sworn in 9 months after the agreement was reached on who will be sworn into cabinet.

The frightened scribes at the State owned media would rather sing praises about the delayed partial compliance with the agreement rather than lead us into questioning whether or not such partial compliance is within the spirit and letter of the agreement that legitimises this government and if not what should be done to force compliance.

The obvious breaches are not even supposed to be referred to the guarantors if the opinions from State owned media are anything to go by.

That is some measure of the fear of the coalition government gripping us.

iii. The signatories agreed on a government made up of a President specified by name as Robert Gabriel Mugabe, two Vice Presidents nominated by the President, a Prime Minister specified by name as Morgan Tsvangirai and two deputy Prime Ministers, one (1) from MDC-T and one (1) from the MDC-M as well as thirty-one (31) Ministers, with fifteen (15) nominated by ZANU PF, thirteen (13) by MDC-T and three (3) by MDC-M.

Of the 31 Ministers, it was agreed three (3) one each per Party, may be appointed from outside the members of Parliament. The three (3) Ministers so appointed shall become members of the House of Assembly and shall have the right to sit, speak and debate in Parliament, but shall not be entitled to vote.

In addition it was agreed that there shall be fifteen (15) Deputy Ministers, with (eight) 8 nominated by ZANU PF, six (6) by MDC-T and one (1) by MDC-M.

Is that the government we now have after implementation for us to agree, as we have done by our muted silence on the matter, that it is a closed issue?

The answer is obvious that we have a much larger government than what we were promised and we are silent about the breach because we fear this government to the same extent we feared the previous one.

iv. It was agreed that the Senate would be increased by a further six (6) appointed senatorial posts, which shall be filled by persons appointed by the President, 4 of whom will be nominated by MDC-T and 2 by MDC-M.

Is this the reality in our current Senate for us to agree that it is a closed issue?

Ten Senate seats were reserved for Provincial Governors to be appointed in terms of the26-27 SADC summit resolution that stated at resolution 7 as follows;
“7. In view of the above, the Extraordinary Summit decided as follows:
(i) the parties shall endeavour to cause parliament to pass the Constitutional Amendment 19 by February 5, 2009;
(ii) the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Ministers shall be sworn in by February 11, 2009;
(iii) the Ministers and Deputy Ministers shall be sworn in on February 13, 2009, which will conclude the process of the formation of the inclusive government;
(iv) the Joint-Monitoring 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 January 30, 2009, and shall, among other things, elect the chairpersons;
(v) the allocation of ministerial portfolios endorsed by the SADC Extraordinary Summit held on November 9, 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; and
(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 the Provincial Governors;
Where are these governors and when were they appointed and in terms of what statute for them to be legitimate senators and thus members of the coalition government.

We are afraid to challenge the illegitimate incumbents’ legitimacy even where we have unsatisfied regional Sadc resolutions to back our protests.

Worse the coalition government is continuing to pay the illegitimate incumbents from our taxes and further boast that they have agreed to pay them severance packages for having their appointments terminated midstream of their appointment terms.

Even more pertinently what does our silence over the incumbency of a Senate Presidency by a person elected by illegally appointed elected senators like the provincial governors imply?

This is the outrage that perpetuates where the ruled fear the rulers.

v. It was further agreed that any vacancies any vacancy arising in respect of posts referred to in clauses 20.1.6 and 20.1.7(b) of the agreement would be filled by a nominee from the Party which held that position prior to the vacancy arising.

Has any of this happened for us to be satisfied it is no longer an issue requiring attention of the coalition government?

The same argument applies for the numerous electoral vacancies which were supposed to be filled through by elections that the president must decree on receipt of notification of the vacancies from respective organs in which they have occurred be it Parliament, Senate or the Local Authorities.

Why are steps not being taken to fill the numerous vacancies in the Senate, Parliament and Local Authorities?

Is it because the President has not been made aware of the vacancies for him to order by elections or is it because none of us have the stomach for elections let alone the courage to demand them from the coalition government as per our constitution and electoral laws?

The truth of the matter is it is our fear that allows government to be in dereliction on such critical democratic governance requirements as timely by elections.

vi. It was agreed that a Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee ("JOMIC") to be composed of four senior members from ZANU-PF and four senior members from each of the two MDC Formations would be constituted to ensure compliance with the agreement at implementation stage.

Indeed the JOMIC is in place but is it satisfactorily functional and effective for us to remain silent about its performance.

What is our take on JOMIC agreeing a share of Provincial Governors that is not implemented for months on end?

vii. It was agreed that the coalition Government shall ensure that steps are taken to make the security forces conversant with the Constitution of Zimbabwe and other laws of Zimbabwe including laws relating to public order and security.

Has anything been done in that regard to satisfy us that the matter is closed or are we still witnessing rampant wanton persecution of the citizens by a rogue military establishment that does not even respect the office of the Prime Minister with the same honours it used to give the office when it was held by the current President.

The majority of us are not happy with the attitude and demeanour of our Security chiefs and would be elated to see their backs out of office but we sit back and pretend all is fine in the management of our security forces.

We have taken the same attitude on the confirmed appointments of permanent Secretaries on the false notion that they are apolitical professional office bearers when we all know to the contrary.

Are we sure that George Charamba, Misheck Sibanda, Mariyawanda Nzuwa, William Manungo, Christian Katsande and many other Permanent secretaries are not in office solely on the basis of their qualifications and experience and not because of their patronage of Zanu PF?

Are we satisfied that Augustine Chihuri, Paradzayi Zimondi, Happyton Bonyongwe, Constantine Chiwenga and all the senior security forces commanders are professional military personnel ahead of being Zanu PF functionaries?

We know the truth that these men are the reason why we are now saddled with the loathed Presidency of Mugabe but we are afraid to rock the boat by singling their continued stay in office as an outstanding issue requiring the urgent attention of this government is the democratisation process has to move forward.

viii. The parties further agreed that implementation of the agreement shall be guaranteed and underwritten by the Facilitator, SADC and the AU.

Why are we then against the referral of sticking matters to these bodies by any of the parties if they remain unresolved and unimplemented nine months after the signing of an agreement which came into effect the moment it was signed?

ix. To ensure smooth and legal implementation of the agreement the Parties agreed that they shall cause Parliament to amend any legislation to the extent necessary to bring this agreement into full force.

We are all aware that such legislation has been passed through the Constitutional Amendment No 19 (CA No19) and the National Security Council Act that disbanded the Joint Operations Command (JOC).

Whereas the agreement was annexed as a schedule of the Constitution and is now part of our country’s supreme law from which the executive draws its power and authority there are many instances of inconsistency with the constitution that are not being legally addressed by this government.

Sporadic lawlessness on commercial farms, disobedience of regional and national courts orders, insubordinate and treasonous threats from the military commanders, politically motivated prosecutions and persecutions, presidential refusal to swear in nominees, unilateral appointments of key personnel and generally despondence towards some of the clauses agreed upon prevails in this government.

We observe the occurrences in silence as if we all condone the inconsistencies and variances.

All because we are afraid to do what we know should be done to errand administrations- protest in our multitudes.

x. The parties agreed to constitute a committee composed of 2 representatives from each GPA subscribing political formation each to review on an annual basis progress on the implementation and achievement of the priorities and objectives set out in this Agreement, namely: Economic (restoration of economic stability and growth, sanctions, land question) Political (new constitution, promotion of equality, national healing and cohesion and unity, external interference, free political activity, rule of law, state organs and institutions, legislative agenda and priorities) Security (security of persons and prevention of violence) and Communication (media and external radio stations).

Who is in that committee or will it be formed at the anniversary of the signing of the agreement to review undocumented records of the coalition government?

Why is the absence of this implementation review committee documenting transgressions and achievements not causing anxieties in us?

We fear don’t we that like JOMIC this review committee will not be any more effective in changing behaviour in the coalition government and it won’t change much if we have it or not.

xi. The parties agreed a detailed Constitution making process that was detailed in article VI of the GPA. It was agreed that the coalition union would be reviewed at the end of the constitution making process.

The process is already facing teething problems in that it is at variance with what the Civic groups expected of the process and Zanu PF is now opening a new dimension to the challenges by stating the desire to have the process deferred on account it is not well funded domestically.

The question that arises from Zanu PF concerns is when they agreed to the process in September 2008 where did they think the funding would come from give that they were aware of the bankruptcy of the State?

If the constitution making process is deferred as demanded and yet it is the basis upon which the lifespan of the coalition government is premised are we not witnessing a deliberate attempt to prolong longevity of the coalition and thus political relevance of parasites in the imposed arrangement?
Why are we not prepared to stand up to this inconsistence and make it known that we will brook no tolerance to imposed rulers extending their unwelcome stay a minute longer than is necessary to restore our stolen franchise in state governance?

We are all a frightened lot and we are reaping the results of our cowardice.

That is why we are now incensed about the Gono/Tomana variance instead of the real issues of the continued impunity led by the JOC, Top bureaucrats and condoned by President Mugabe.

We are even willing to listen to the nonsense peddled by State media that Western imposed sanctions are the only outstanding issue to be addressed by the coalition when we are clear that the imposers will not be persuaded to review the restrictions they imposed unless the reasons for which they were imposed are addressed.

We all know that those reasons are within and not outside our government.

The president or whoever can send as many emissaries as he deems necessary to tackle the sanctions in western capitals but for as long as he does not assign emissaries power to remove the internal reasons that justified the westerners decision to impose sanctions the coalition will not attract the sympathy and aid it yearns for from those countries.

The limited and strictly monitored humanitarian aid that will trickle into the country will bypass the RBZ governor and military establishments will be excluded from beneficiary ship.

If Zanu PF thinks it is setting the Premier on a collision path with security chiefs they are day dreaming.

As more and more humanitarian aid is availed to non military establishments the junior operatives will feel the bite and question why other sectors are benefiting from government initiatives except for their critical sector.

It will crystallise in their minds that their commanders are the stumbling block and they will do something about that. Not against the PM but their commanders who include the President mark my words.
There are several outstanding issues that this coalition must address forthwith and they include the ones the premier alluded to and those the GPA promised us that have not been fulfilled to date.
We must learn to stand up against political leaders who impose their will on us instead of serve our demands.
Military Commanders must be replaced for national healing to commence. Likewise Provincial Governors, Gono and Tomana must be relieved of their duties because their appointments were not consistent with the letter and spirit of the GPA.

Edna Madzongwe’s election as Senate President must be nullified and fresh elections called after the house has been properly and legitimately filled in terms of the constitution. She is president of the house courtesy off votes of illegally appointed governors.
The editorial staff at State owned media must be retrenched and fresh applicants called to reform the institutions in charge of national information dissemination.
The coalition must never be allowed to delay or defer its critical objectives that justify its existence.
The economic turnaround must be pursued with more vigour by removing any internal hindrances to attraction of direct foreign investment.
The constitution making timetable must never be tempered with. Any procedural variations to the process must be timed to deliver the constitution within the agreed timeframes.
Democratisation and economic management are permanent responsibilities of any government and must be pursued with never ending vigour.
Talk of outstanding issues from an agreement signed 10 months ago must not be tolerated from the leadership. They must be told that they have had enough time to address those issues and must now be focussed on delivering on their promise to restore back our power which was usurped by SADC.

Mugabe’s assings last hope champion to unshackle sanctions?

President Mugabe and his last supposedly last ditch sanctions lifting errand boy Premier Morgan Tsvangirai



Whatever has become of President Mugabe to place his trust in PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who in his own past assessments is, an ignoramus puppet of the West and good for nothing Tea Boy and task him with the onerous responsibility to get 7 year old sanctions hanging on his neck?

Surely there should be better qualified and articulate minds in his sanctions riddled Zanu PF party for this critical role than an ignoramus Premier only in government because of a botched March 2008 election strategy that exposed Zanu PF unpopularity among the colonially deluded Zimbabweans who did so little to support his liberation war efforts and land reforms and were hell bent on repaying him with booting him out of the Presidency.

How can the invincible dear leader raise his hands in surrender and gamble the political fortunes of the vanguard party by allowing the leader of the party of puppets to get in sanctioned contact with the Anglo-Saxons that nearly succeeded in sponsoring the Premier from unseating him from the Presidency that was only averted by the timely intervention of the Zimbabwe Defence forces?

It must be a calculated last ditch gamble that he must do everything possible to ensure the Premier fails for if he was to succeed in getting the sanctions that the SADC and AU as well as the brainiacs in Zanu PF have failed to get lifted what political message would that send to the Premier’s multitudes of adoring supporters ?


What will be the implications of a successful mission by the MDC leader on sanctions to the waning fortunes of the “vanguard” Zanu PF party and those of the iconic Dear Leader President Robert Mugabe?

This kind of political brinkmanship is better avoided than attempted because both in success and failure to get sanctions lifted the MDC leader will strengthen his party’s relationship with the virulent Western regimes.
If he succeeds which must be made as near impossible as can be without letting out the objective, then that would mark the beginning of an accelerated end of the Zanu PF hegemony.

If he fails the electorate will be unforgiving on any actions on the part of Zanu PF they will rightly single out as having interfered with the Premier’s noble intentions.

Of course Zanu PF has the propaganda machinery that it will use to cast aspersions on the leadership abilities of the Premier and the myth that he is a western aid magnet for the country but that won’t resolve the problem that alienated the majority of the electorate from Zanu PF.

The need for western aid and international credit to resuscitate the battered economy is not in dispute but credit for that revival will accrue to the MDC to the same extent failure will impact on Zanu PF for failing the MDC to obtain international support for the country.

It is a catch 20 situation where Zanu PF is in a lose lose position so the propaganda that Tsvangirai is Mugabe’s sanctions errand boy may as well be intensified and if he succeeds the President and Zanu PF can have a basis on which to claim credit and triumph over illegal western sanctions.

In the preferred event the Premier fails which is likely under the prevailing political environment in the country, it would be a lot easier to dispel the claim by the MDC about its Western friends with billions waiting to be delivered to the country if there is regime change.

In the premise the brinkmanship by President Mugabe must be well publicised and oversold to make it easier to claim credit for the lifting of sanctions if they are lifted and or damage Tsvangirai’s perceived ability to attract financial support for the country.

That is the ill advice that President Mugabe took before tasking the Premier to champion the sanctions uplifting project.

The Premier has on numerous occasions categorically distanced himself and his party from allegations that he requested Western and EU nations to impose any restrictions on the country but he along with his party supports the restrictions because Zanu PF has for decades remained intolerant of opposing views to its agenda and has no respect for democratic governance.

Addressing people at the party’s 10th Anniversary celebrations in Chinhoyi, Premier Tsvangirai made it clear that his main concern is not about restrictions imposed on Zanu PF leadership being lifted but rather the building of destroyed cooperation bridges between the coalition government and the international community with a view of moving the country out of its current pariah status.

He reiterated that it was up to the imposers of the restrictions to lift them as and when it suits them if they are satisfied that the restrictions are no longer serving the purpose for which they were imposed and certainly not up to him as he had no part in determining reasons for their imposition on whoever and how far the affected have satisfied the preconditions set for uplifting of the restrictions had been satisfied.

On departure at the Harare Airport the Premier reiterated that his mission was sanctioned by the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that mandated the coalition government to re-engage the international community with a view to mend strained relations.
Despite those clear statements about his mission anonymous Herald Reporters disclosed that the Premier had been tasked by “the Government to call for the removal of sanctions and seek a financial package to revive the economy.”

The only factual part of the statement is that the Premier’s current mission has been mandated by the Coalition Government.

The purpose of the mission is being misrepresented as “to call for the removal of sanctions and seek a financial package to revive the economy.”

If that was the mission then it is bound to fail because the messenger in person states to the contrary that his mission is neither to call for the removal of sanctions nor to beg for international aid but rather to revive international contact and relationships between the country and countries that had severed dealings with the previous Zanu PF government.

Clearly if the coalition government had despatched the Premier on a mission to seek financial aid and call for the lifting of sanctions- a task possible of completion without the need to travel- there would be no reason why the emissary would state the mission in different terminology as he has repeatedly done.

Assuming for once that the Herald reporters were briefed of the purpose of the Premier’s mission by President Mugabe and not the coalition government, it is likely that what the President has been told to be the purpose of the mission by his personal advisors is at variance with what the government mandated its leader to do on this mission.

The Herald reporters departed from the notion that the premier had been despatched on the mission by the government and suddenly purported that the Premier had instead been despatched on the mission by the President with the changed specific objectives of calling for the lifting of sanctions and seeking financial help to resuscitate the economy.

The reporters from the State flagships disclosed that President Mugabe had told Mr Payne that “Government had tasked PM Tsvangirai to visit the US and European capitals to call for the lifting of the embargo and seek aid to resuscitate the economy.”

The herald reporters then disclosed that sources close to the deliberations between President Mugabe and Mr Payne had told the paper that the President expressed hope that his visit would lead to the removal of the sanctions the US imposed through the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA).

The likely closest informant of the Herald reporters can be none other than Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba who doubles as Presidential spokesperson.

If as we suspect he is the source the Herald reporters relied on it is not surprising that they published a clearly misleading version of the Premier’s mission.

It is not clear why the reporters did not disclose what the Premier’s spokesman James Maridadi told them was the purpose of the mission when he confirmed the Premier’s itnary for this mission preferring rather to disclose hearsay from undisclosed sources privy to discussions between the President and a US government emissary Mr Payne where the premier was not present to confirm what the President allegedly tasked him to achieve on this mission.

James Maridadi actually refuted that the Premier had been tasked by the President to seek the lifting of sanctions and beg for financial support and said the spin was from detractors of the coalition government on a mission to project the premier as a junior errand boy of the President rather than an equal partner in the coalition government leadership.

That did not stop the herald reporters continuing to rely on hearsay from its undisclosed informants that informed the reporters that;

"The President especially underscored that what Zimbabwe wanted were not just handouts and donations, but soft loans and credit lines which Zimbabwe would pay back on the strength of its own resources.

"He was hopeful the Congressman’s visit would bring ‘the flag of freedom from sanctions’," a source said.

The reporters from the Herald are fully aware of the Premier’s stance on the question of sanctions which is at variance with the purport in their report hence the reliance on phantom informants to justify a position they expect the Premier to take on the sanctions issue.

“But lately, there has been a common call across parties for an end to the embargo. Besides Zanu-PF, the MDC formation led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has spoken strongly against the embargo. On MDC-T’s side, PM Tsvangirai has indirectly called for the removal of the sanctions, urging the West to lift the "restrictive measures," the reporters partially conceded to the Premier’s position on sanctions.

But that stance is not satisfactory for the reporters some of whom are victims of the travel banishments to EU and Western countries.

They want the Premier to be vocal and resolute in unshackling them and affected Zanu PF sympathisers from the travel bans.

They are wondering why the travel restrictions against them are still in place long after both MDC formations have joined Government and wonder why they were targeted.

In an apparent show of their confusion the reporters then rely on the GPA to justify the premier’s mission but deliberately misrepresent that the 15 September agreement mandated the Premier to travel to the US and Europe to secure the lifting of sanctions without disclosing which article of the GPA contains such rubbish.

The agreement was simply to condemn sanctions against the coalition government if any were in place or being contemplated given the changed political circumstances in the country.

Those previously targeted can take advantage of the GPA to show that they no longer deserve to be under any form of restrictions and convince the imposers of restrictions to lift them.

The premier is not under any form of internationals restrictions and he does not wish the government he leads to be viewed as an extension of the defunct Zanu PF government and carry the liability of international financing restrictions for crimes he did not commit nor intends to commit.

He will thus not succumb to any pressure from whosoever to waste limited time he has on ensuring the coalition government remains on course to achieve its clearly stated targets by being sent on an errand to have sanctions that do not interfere with his government lifted.

“The sanctions, therefore, remain the major outstanding issue of the GPA, which gave birth to the inclusive Government,” bleated the herald reporters.

The question is outstanding between whom? If it is outstanding between the affected and the imposers what has that got to do with the coalition government.

The only impediment that the premier is concerned with is the one in ZIDERA which compels the US government representatives on International Financial Institutions to vote against any extension of credit financing to the Zimbabwe government then led by President Mugabe but now under his leadership.

The logic of that concern is that the Premier has good grounds to argue that he has not inherited a Zanu PF government but formed a coalition government which has no association with the excesses that demanded the sanctions on credit extension to the country.

The surest way to have the individual sanctions lifted is not for Mugabe to task Tsvangirai or anyone to do the biding but to merely accept the demise of Zanu PF hegemony and refrain from excesses of that regime which he is finding hard to do and thus perpetuating the lifespan of the sanctions.

The herald reporters could do themselves a great service by telling advising the president to stop human rights violations, commercial farm invasions and titled land repossessions without compensation, persecution of other political formations functionaries through a Zanu PF patronised AG, respecting the Constitutional amendments that ushered the coalition government and ceasing to act unilaterally on restricted areas of exercising power.

That way the imposers of the sanctions will have no basis upon which to maintain them.

But then we are preaching to a media house that is highly opinionated and does not heed advice from anyone other than Zanu PF.

That is why the reporters will languish in sanctions that little bit longer than is necessary.

And while still at it President Mugabe has the least qualifications to design a workable and persuasive sanctions lifting programme of action.

If he had such acumen the sanctions would not have been imposed on his government in the first instance.

Alternatively he would have managed to get the sanctions lifted over the past 7 years he has been moaning and groaning about them at every possible opportunity.

It is thus unwise to project the Premier as an emissary of the President in relation to any request or demand for sanctions to be reconsidered because as soon as the request or demand is believed to be from President Mugabe the imposers would want to check how far he has moved away from the behaviour that caused the imposition of the sanctions.

Clearly the claim that the Premier is running errands for the president is disingenuous especially coming from reporters who genuinely want to be relieved of the sanctions effect.

But then the same reporters may be yearning for the continuation of the sanctions to find reason to spike the leader of the coalition government who is not by any means their preference for leadership.

The premier however is not as daft as the Herald reporters have been indoctrinated to believe he is.

The Premier is a seasoned politician who does not rely on vindictive retribution of opponents to have his way but rather who salvages hopeless political predicaments and turn them into advantages and leave his detractors with egg all over when he triumphs against adversity.

That asset of the Premier only becomes evident in matters he believes in whole heartedly. He will do anything to get the sanctions lifted if he believed that the targets have reformed but they continuously display exhibit latent hangovers of behaviours that are consistent with the reputed culture of impunity that Zanu PF is renowned for.

That is why the premier will tread with extreme caution when confronted with the sanctions question.

He will do everything to avert restrictions targeted at the coalition government if it displays symptoms of a homogeneous and cohesive administration guided by legal principle but will not travel the extra mile for those in the coalition government that are bent on using the laws selectively against perceived and or real foes.