Financial Gazette (Harare)
31 August 2008
editorial
Harare — On Monday, The Herald had a screaming headline "President appoints ministers". This was in reference to the surprise appointment of eight provincial governors and resident ministers in the midst of talks on power sharing with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
And yesterday, the state-run daily had a two-deck headline that removed any doubt one might have had on whether ZANU-PF was to go it alone after the negotiations to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis hit a deadlock. It read: "President in process of forming new government."
While we had hinted about this the previous week, we had not anticipated that the incumbent would move this fast to reconstitute government given that the inter-party dialogue stalled only about three weeks ago.
The appointment of non-constituency senators and governors -- all aligned to ZANU-PF -- fly against the spirit of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last month by the three parties involved in the negotiations. We hate to say these latest developments, while making President Thabo Mbeki's work a lot more difficult, are the clearest signs yet that ZANU-PF is determined to bulldoze its way through regardless of the consequences of its unilateral actions on the tottering economy.
This kind of bravado will certainly come at a huge cost to the ordinary man and woman in Zimbabwe toiling right round the clock to make ends meet under very difficult conditions.
If anything, these unilateral actions, including the arrest of MDC parliamentarians (no matter how hard the police might try to justify their actions, might harden Morgan Tsvangirai's position in the talks, thereby playing into the hands of those in ZANU-PF who are trying by all means to scuttle the negotiations in order to maintain the status quo for selfish reasons.
The biggest question that might never get answered is: Why the hurry? Is there sincerity in these negotiations? And where does the Southern African Development Community (SADC) stand in all this?
Given this latest twist to the political events in Zimbabwe, are there still any prospects for a successful conclusion of the talks?
The curiosity among Zimbabweans to know what is motivating these unilateral decisions gets more aroused if one looks at President Robert Mugabe's candid assessment of the performance of his Cabinet ministers.
He was quoted saying: "This Cabinet that I had was the worst in history. They (ministers) look at themselves. They are unreliable, but not all of them."
Could it therefore be that the incumbent now has suddenly found a wider pool of candidates to chose from following the 18th constitutional amendments and is now in a hurry to test his new team?
While there are no easy answers to these questions, the truth of the matter is that Mbeki is now in a more difficult situation than before. Only a week ago, SADC, which he now chairs, gave tacit approval for President Mugabe to reconvene parliament after a five-month delay. It now looks like Mbeki and his colleagues in SADC shot themselves in the foot because, in ZANU-PF's view, there is nothing anymore to stop it from going all the way.
But with ZANU-PF and the Arthur Mutambara faction of the MDC failing to prevail in their choice for the Speaker of Parliament, President Mugabe will have to perform a Herculean act to make his plan work.
What makes his task an unenviable one is that an impression that had been created that Mutambara has the people behind him has been blown off too early into the political gamesmanship.
This is not to say that Mutambara and his secretary general Welshman Ncube have no role to play in Zimbabwe's body politic. Just like every other Zimbabwean, both can contribute positively to rebuilding Zimbabwe but unfortunately, they have been dwarfed by the task at hand and the more ZANU-PF tries to elevate their standing by forging ahead with the unity government in the absence of the other party, the more it exposes them as lacking the mandate to represent their purported constituencies.
It is now clear that other than adding the numbers and bloating the taxpayer's bill, there was nothing to justify the inclusion of the Mutambara's faction in the talks.
ZANU-PF can do itself a favour by accepting this reality, abandon petty political projects and negotiate with Tsvangirai with sincerity.
Mbeki now has his work cut out.
He has stated time without number that the solution to the Zimbabwe crisis lies with the major political parties, that is ZANU-PF and the MDC agreeing on the way forward. While ZANU-PF and the MDC appear to agree with Mbeki's assessment of the Zimbabwean crisis, they have not translated their rhetoric into action.
Tsvangirai clearly has a genuine concern in arguing for role clarity in the unity government and refusing to be shepherded into signing something he doesn't agree with. It is quite surprising that the other parties in the negotiations think the MDC leader is asking for too much.
With ZANU-PF having failed to turn around the fortunes of the country's economy in the past nine years, the powers-that-be might need a helping hand in the form of Tsvangirai to perform the difficult task of courting international capital while at the same time giving him the opportunity to fuse new blood capable of moving the country forward.
Clearly the country needs to do away with the deadwood in Cabinet and this dialogue, in our view, offers President Mugabe a perfect opportunity to get rid of non-performers.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Financial Gazette. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
