No changes on the ground as Zanu PF manipulates talks

By Lance Guma
23 November 2007

As Zimbabweans debate the progress of talks between Zanu PF and the MDC in South Africa an analyst working for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says Zanu PF is playing games with the opposition. Pedzisai Ruhanya, the group’s Programmes Manager, says months of talks have gone by with the MDC having nothing to show for their participation. He argued that in contrast Robert Mugabe has managed to use Constitutional Amendment 18 to solve his own succession dilemma. The act allows him to handpick a successor.

He said there was an urgent need to deal with the administrative body that will run next years election including the creation of a conducive electoral environment for all parties. Nothing substantive has happened in this regard. To make matters worse the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission which is packed with Zanu PF sympathisers has gone on to appoint soldiers, CIO’s and other party supporters to the Delimitation Commission. The commission is meant to redraw electoral boundaries and has in the past been used to manipulate voting patterns in favour of Zanu PF. A lot of issues to do with the composition of the ZEC, the voter’s roll, ballot papers and polling stations still remain unclear.

In fact what has happened is that Zanu PF has ignored all the concerns raised by the MDC, Ruhanya said. Asked why the MDC was still participating in the talks despite such a gloomy picture, he said it looked as if they wanted to see how the process will end. He however reiterated that as long as state institutions were not demilitarized, structures like the Border Gezi militia disbanded and a free media created, participation in the election was ill advised. Violence in the country continues unabated, opposition rallies and meetings are disrupted, as are protest marches, which are brutally crushed by riot police.

Behind the scenes Ruhanya’s pessimism seems to chime with information coming from those close to the talks. It’s alleged that one senior Zanu PF delegate to the talks privately confessed they were just buying time by engaging the MDC and had no real desire to change the political environment. Pressure from SADC regional leaders culminated in Thabo Mbeki being appointed to broker a negotiated settlement between the two parties this year. His closeness to Mugabe has however fuelled speculation the process is meant to legitimise another rigged election in favour of Mugabe.