SA urged to heed warning that Zim is not ready for elections

Posted by on Thursday, March 7, 2013 in Elections, Zimbabwe politics | 9 comments

Lindiwe Zulu, President Zuma’s International Relations advisor

By Alex Bell
7 March 2013

The South African team in charge of facilitating Zimbabwe’s political process is being urged to heed warnings from officials in the unity government that the country is not yet ready for elections.

This warning was made by Finance Minister Tendai Biti in his capacity as the chief negotiator of the MDC-T, during a meeting with the South African facilitation team on Tuesday. President Jacob Zuma’s international relations advisors Lindiwe Zulu and Charles Nqakula also met separately with negotiators from ZANU PF and the MDC led by Welshman Ncube.

Biti was quoted by the NewsDay newspaper as saying that Zuma’s team “wanted to know the state of our readiness on the referendum and elections.” Biti reportedly said they told the South Africans that although the country was ready for the referendum, the time was not right for fresh elections.

“We pointed out that the security situation was deteriorating, giving the death of Christpowers Maisiri as an example,” Biti said. 12 year old Christpowers died almost two weeks ago in a suspected arson attack in Headlands. It is widely suspected that he was a victim of a politically motivated attack.

SW Radio Africa was unable to get hold of Biti directly or members of Zuma’s facilitation team, who travelled back to Johannesburg on Thursday afternoon.

But members of civil society said Biti’s warnings must be taken seriously. Thabani Nyoni, the spokesperson of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said that Biti’s warnings echo the concerns of civic groups across the country.

“We have always insisted that Zimbabwe is not ready for elections,” Nyoni told SW Radio Africa.

He explained that chief among a host of reasons why the country is not ready, is the lack of key reforms dictated by the Global Political Agreement (GPA). He said this has left the country in a fragile state, with increasing levels of violence, persecution of civil society, and a “generally non-conducive environment for a credible vote.”

Phillip Pasirayi, the head of the Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe, agreed that the failure of the unity government to fully implement the GPA was preventing any chance of a credible election.

“We have repeatedly raised concerns about the political environment, which is characterised by harassment and persecution. With such an environment it will be almost impossible to hold a credible election,” Pasirayi said.

He added that as the guarantors of the GPA, SADC and Zuma “need to play a more active and intervention role in Zimbabwe.”

“There is clear evidence that some players in the GPA are trying to derail whatever progress there has been and derail an election. SADC is supposed to play a more assertive role now,” Pasirayi said.

Meanwhile, despite his warnings to the South African team, Biti will be addressing a meeting in that country this weekend to encourage Zimbabweans to return home and vote.

Biti will be in South Africa to launch the “Come Home and Vote Campaign,” and will address a rally on Saturday the 9th March.

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  • wilbert_mukori

    People like Pasirayi must explain what exactly they want or expect SADC to do insread of just making sweeping statements like Zuma “need to play a more active and intervention role in Zimbabwe”. Pasirayi has already acknowledged that the reforms should have been implemented and it is MDC, not SADC, who should have had the reforms implemented.

    Many of Zimbabwe’s NGOs have been too close to MDC and they have refrained from saying anything critical of PM Tsvangirai and MDC. What these NGO must now realize is that they cannot seat on the fence on this issue. If they believe the reforms are necessary to stop the repeat of the 2008 violence then they must say so and tell the people to vote no before it is too late! Hiding behind SADC or President Zuma intervening will no cut the ice. They do not want to come out in the open and say the people must vote no but expect President Zuma to do so?

    SADC showed us the roadmap, implement the reforms. Now it is up to us, Zimbabweans, to implement the reforms or not. President Zuma or SADC will NOT intervene or tell us how we should vote!

    • Yepec

      Your ignorance on what you say is surprising since you are called a Political Analyst. For your information read the items below:
      (i) What Reforms in the GPA roadmap, could the MDC-T have implemented or as legislation without the President?
      (ii) Any Parliament legislation, not only the House of Assembly, needs the President’s signature, in order, to be implemented by the GNU. Tsvangirai was forced to return from Botswana in order to sign the GPA document.
      (iii) The GPA roadmap or ‘Reform areas” to which the signatories must agree to be implemented by the GNU, must first have been agreed by Parties to the GPA document and in a form of legislation, otherwise the GNU cannot implement the Reforms mentioned in the GPA document.
      (iv) The MDC-T, calls on SADC and its facilitator Zuma in order to point out that Zanu PF, is not agreeable to any Reform mentioned in GPA, therefore, the unworkability of the document of which it is one of the guarantors and forced the MDC-T to sign.

      When people say Thabo Mbeki wrote a document that guarantees Mugabe’s power, international recognition and legitimacy, they are not waffling. The GPA is like “mbiradzakodo”, most commentators would support you if that was your criticism .

      • wilbert_mukori

        Mugabe did not veto power on the implementation of the reforms. If MDC had proposed reforms in pursuance of the implementation of the reforms and Mugabe refused to sign the proposals into law then MDC had the opportunity to ask SADC to assist in making sure that the reforms were implemented.

        What proposals has MDC produced and Mugabe refused to sign? None, not even one! And the reason why that is so is incompetence on the part of MDC.

        What MDC are doing here is putting the cart before the horse. Having failed to implement the reforms necessary to ensure free and fair elections – free of violence, forget all the other niceties like free media, a clean voters’ roll, etc.; MDC have then decided to go into elections, knowing Zanu PF will have a free hand in using all the usual dirty tricks including violence, hoping that MDC will still win and then they can revisit the reforms. There are three basic weaknesses with this strategy:

        1) The nation will have the repeat of the 2008 violence; no one should have to risk life and limb to exercise their basic right to vote

        2) Even if MDC was to win, which is a big IF, Zanu PF will have greater political influence than they deserve because they used the dirty tricks and this undemocratic element will determine what the new government can and cannot do. If one was to say in the GNU we had half a glass of milk (MDC) and half sewage (ZANU PF) the end product was a glass of sewage (which is way the GNU was totally dysfunctional). What will emerge after these elections will be, at best, a full glass of milk plus a teaspoon full of sewage and the end product is still a glass of sewage.

        3) The Copac constitution is no different from the African Charter; it lists all the rights and freedoms but grants those in power to take
        them all away in the name of maintaining law and order.

        We have a dictatorship already on the ground, hence the need for implementing the reforms; this Copac constitution pretence that we do not, had to because Mugabe refused to implement the reforms. And so the GNU partners in crime painted the dictator’s creed with democracy paint. It is no more than a whitewashed tomb, all the rottenness and foulness of the dictatorship is still there and it is already coming out. Before the nation has voted in the referendum, it is already clear the Police, the Judiciary, the thugs, all the ingredients for a repeat of 2008 are there. As soon as Mugabe has the yes vote safely in the bag the true nature of the dictatorship will emerge behind the whitewash.

        The nation will be stuck with this Copac constitution which will never deliver the people’s basic rights and freedoms for decades to come.

        I do not expect you Yepec nor Tsvangirai to understand this; your intellect is just too dull for that! The real tragedy is that the nation’s destiny should be in the hands of such a man as Tsvangirai but there we are. Life is full of surprises, in this case a nightmare surprise!

        • Yepec

          The MDC-T approved the Draft in July 2012 while Zanu PF Politiburo as a disapproved made 266 amendments to a signed Copac Draft. Additionally, Mugabe told a press conference that the Draft would not move an inch to the Second All Stakesholders Conference unless it had first incorporated the 266 amendments. The MDC’s had approved the Draft for the Referendum such that the Second All Stakesholders Conference and Parliament were to note it but not to alter the July 2012 Draft..

          Did the Copac Draft not go to the Second All Stakesholders Conference? Who gave in? Furthermore, are the people of Zimbabwe not going to be their own judges of the Draft in the coming Referendum?

          Finally, in reality, who does not understand the values and aspirations of the Zimbabweans and who is out of touch with the masses? You talk of the tragedy and destiny of the nation as if you were Jonathan Moyo, Wilbert, if you are that elitist, you better join Zanu PF while there is still time.

          • wilbert_mukori

            In July 2012 I said at the time that the 266 amendments were a good-cop bad-cop trick to force the gullible accept the draft without looking at it and it worked. I also said at the time that the draft would not deliver free and fair elections and that is exactly what has happened.
            This Copac constitution is NOT going to deliver free and fair elections free of violence. It is pathetic that the nation should accept such a document. The only reason why Tsvangirai is out there campaigning for a yes vote is because having failed to get even one reform implemented he now sees the Copac as his only achievement.
            Zimbabweans should vote no and force the reforms to be implemented; just because Tsvangirai failed in having this critic task carried that does not mean no one else can.

  • Chimbwidos Warvets

    Oh boy, Biti is a coward and like a cockroach, anotiza akangonswa chati kwatara. The South African team will not listen to this nonsense and neither is it their terms of reference in a foreign country. In any case, the person who is qualified to make a decision on this matter is R.G Mugabe. He has the constitutional right to decide on the day elections are to be held in Zimbabwe. His word is final in this instance and should be the one to be consulted by Tendai Biti.

    • wilbert_mukori

      Well MDC and the nation at large should know that a yes vote in the
      referendum is not just an approval of the Copac constitution itself but the
      starting gun for the election process. Neither the Copac constitution calls for any reforms to be implemented nor is the yes vote a qualified “on condition that reforms are implemented” one.

      Mugabe is not going to brook implementing any reforms after the
      referendum or delays in holding the elections. SADC or SA cannot and will not interfere at that point

      The only way Zimbabweans can avoid being dragged into yet another violent election process now is if the no vote win the day in the referendum!

      • Yepec

        Wilbert, if the person in power does not respect the Constitution, despite how nicely it is written, will throw it in the dustbin or ignores it then what will be the next thing for you to do? The answer is nothing but violence as before, “Vakuru vakati, shiri inemuriro wayo haishaikwe or the leopard spots cannot be washed away”.

        Tthe Reforms you are crying about, must be agreed upon by the Parties (Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-N), put into legislation and passed by Parliament (House of Assembly and Senate), plus or then signed into law by the President. In your wildest dreams, do you ever see that happening? Then, why cry about “implementation of Reforms”, as if Zanu PF, is out of the picture?

        The GPA only stipulates areas from which Reforms must come meaning agreement first by the signatories either legislation or Commissions? The GPA cannot be substituted for an agreement between/among the GNU Parties and legislation to be signed by the President. Is Mugabe now and in future ever going to be forced to sign such legislation (BIll), into law? Will the MDCs ever have 3/4 votes in the House of Assembly and Senate to over ride the Presidential veto or none signing of a bill?

        Moreover these Reforms are in the Copac Draft as functions of positions or issues, thereby finding a way of getting around Zanu PF and the President that does not require their involvement – instead, a Draft Constitution and a Referendum?

        • wilbert_mukori

          I would agree that Mugabe is not one to respect the rule of law but the solution is not to have a law so weak that he can ride over us rough shod without breaking the law which is what this weak and feeble Copac constitution does. The solution is to have a watertight law that, if he disregard, he will be held to account and punished.