Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Tichaona Zindoga
9 July 2009
Harare — There appears to be some form of blackmail directed by civic organisations at Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over the former's opposition to the Government-initiated constitutional reform process.
PM Tsvangirai, at his party's annual conference that was held earlier this year, said it would be "suicidal" to emphasise "on the importance of the (constitution-making) process instead of content at this strategic moment".
This was something that the National Constitutional Assembly, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, certainly did not want to hear.
For these two NGOs, Government should more or less have no say in the constitution-making process and yet it is the very one that shall have the task of drafting the document and holding a national referendum.
Perhaps realising that he had antagonised his NCA and ZCTU allies a little too much, PM Tsvangirai went on to conciliatorily pledge "to work with the civil society in reaching some understanding on the process".
As it turned out, the "strategic moment" happened to be the Premier's visit to Europe and the United States, which turned out to be a de facto fund-raising campaign for these very same NGOs.
The trip, the first visit by PM Tsvangirai following the formation of the inclusive Government in February, was supposed to secure funding for the State and pave way for the removal of sanctions unilaterally imposed on Zimbabwe by the European Union and the United States.
However, during PM Tsvangirai's three-week trip, he publicly confirmed pledges worth around US$200 million (he says the figure is closer to the region of US$500 million) from various countries, which they earmarked for non-governmental organisations and civic bodies that fall under what the American government calls "forces of reform".
As a matter of fact, the US Senate has pledged continued support for these organisations as the other side of the coin of the sanctions package on Zimbabwe.
And it would seem other civic organisations -- apart from the NCA and ZCTU -- took PM Tsvangirai's statement seriously, if not altogether for their survival, which action to the contrary would not guarantee.
Needless to say, attacking anything with a hint of Zanu-PF and President Mugabe in it has been just how their bread has been buttered over the past decade.
Already, there has been some "strategic" positioning and grandstanding in the civic society as they ready their paunches for whatever money PM Tsvangirai brought from his trip.
A local weekly newspaper, in highlighting this lip-licking, recently said civic organisations were in a "jostle to outwit each other for the money to bankroll the constitution-making process".
Last weekend, about 234 organisations under the banner of what is known as the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations, held a convention in which they purported to support the Government-led constitution making-process.
One Fambai Ngirande reportedly said the convention was meant to "focus on developing a robust, meaningful and well co-ordinated civic society engagement with the constitution-making process".
The convention resolved that individual groups willing to engage the parliamentary constitution reform process as part of the sub-committees envisaged under the Global Political Agreement will be allowed to do so.
It also held that organisations not willing to take part would "carry out civic education".
A second such convention has been slated to take place after the Parliamentary Select Committee holds the all-stakeholder conference this weekend.
But what is perhaps more striking than "crisis" organisations, busybodies and fifth columnists characteristically jostling over foreign donations, is the resolve by two of their number to have nothing to do with them.
The ZCTU and NCA have distanced themselves from the combined effort of the other civic organisations, apparently upset by the latter's support for the Government-led process.
They argue, by way of that tired, most commodified, corrupted and vague phrase, that the process is not "people-driven", hence they will not partake of it.
But it would seem ZCTU and NCA have other ideas that they would like to make the world see.
They think it is the sole prerogative of the NCA to be in charge of any writing of the constitution, which the NCA has not made a secret of.
This underlines their indignation with those trying to butter their bread on Lovemore Madhuku's self-appropriated constitutional platform.
In turning down the Nango invitation to the convention, ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe wrote in part: "We further submit that we are now worried to see the supposedly umbrella organisations performing or encroaching in areas which are the responsibility of specific organisations."
He was also "extremely worried" that Nango and Crisis Coalition "want to snatch the baton from the NCA and unfortunately head for the mountains instead of heading for the finishing line".
For his part, Madhuku typically said he was in the process of "consulting like-minded societies with a view to call for a people-driven constitution".
At face value, it appears the two organisations, which have been around for longer than many dubious organisations that have cropped up only lately, and are trying to steal Madhuku's God-given constitution-making mandate, simply have no seat on this gravy train.
Only just recently, Madhuku admitted that his organisation was in financial dire straits and would go all the way to the rural areas to encourage folk to sell off their chickens and goats to support the cause for a "people-driven" constitution.
Which really brings out the irony in Chibebe's statement about "snatching the baton and heading to the mountains and not the finishing point".
Or perhaps NCA and ZCTU really bought the idea that donor countries are toying with the idea of forming a political party involving the leadership of the two organisations?
In that case, ZCTU's cleaving to NCA is understandable, least for their common pipe dream, as for its own low morale.
True, NCA is made up of unelected nobodies, just like the gold-digging "civic society" which they feel they are bigger than, but constitutionalism has now better currency than labour politics (unemployment is over 90 percent, we are told) and it might be the indefatigable Madhuku's chance this time around.
It was not easy not to recognise NCA's ambitious satisfaction of some conditions laid out by Alfred Stepan, an authority in "democratic transitions" -- such as "guarding its zones of authority", and "offering a democratic alternative" through its "people-driven" mantra.
Another condition that the NCA has tentatively satisfied lies in its disputing the legitimacy not only of Government plans but those of its former dialectic partners.
But then there is something inherently out of the groove for NCA and its newfound supplicant, ZCTU.
They simply, whether they are right or wrong, have lived too long under the aegis of an orientation that they wish to supplant.
Unless they can begin to tell the world that they are "the few who have stayed the course", in the words of a certain politician who wrote about what he felt was opportunism in a particular struggle in a certain African country.
No one would really begrudge Lovemore Madhuku that, considering how he has, in his wisdom, turned down "myopic soft landings" such as the current constitutional process in his pursuit of his super people-driven constitution.
Only people, even his University of Zimbabwe colleague John Makumbe who feels constitution-making process is bigger than Madhuku, feel his brand of constitution is "as illusionary as a mirage".
This writer started this piece on the premise that there are people who are trying to blackmail PM Tsvangirai.
The inescapable impression from all that the NCA and ZCTU have been doing is that they are trying to put him in a corner on the constitution issue on the basis of their past affiliations.
It is hoped that the PM can reject this pressure and stay true to the course charted by the GPA.
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