Mugabe denies ZPF failure in unity government

By Alex Bell
26 October 2009

Robert Mugabe has denied that his ZANU PF party has played any part in the failure of the unity government, insisting that his party has abided by all the conditions set by the Global Political Agreement.

In his first public comments since the MDC announced it was ‘disengaging’ from ZANU PF last week, Mugabe said this weekend that his party had fulfilled its part of the agreement and he would not to yield to MDC pressure. This was according to the state’s mouthpiece The Herald newspaper, which quoted Mugabe as saying that the MDC was acting ‘emotionally’ and not in ‘national interest’.

“The inclusive Government and the hiccups . . . you will always get people in any arrangement who are guided by little emotional thoughts and act in accordance with them and who would want things to go their way, and not the national way, and not the agreed way,” Mugabe was quoted as saying.
“There is nothing in the GPA that has not been done by ZANU PF, nothing at all. We have fulfilled everything that the GPA wanted us to fulfill,” he said.

The MDC announced it was ‘disengaging’ following the re-arrest and jailing of Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, Roy Bennett, who is still to be sworn in to his position. Mugabe and ZANU PF have used the MDC reaction to Bennett’s arrest as a weapon against the opposition, accusing the MDC of putting ‘national interest’ at stake over Bennett. But the jailing of the MDC Treasurer General was merely the final straw for the party, which for months has been trying to urge change from ZANU PF. That party has instead openly violated the standards of the GPA, including but not limited to, the renewed offensive against the commercial farming community.

But Mugabe this weekend, while denying that ZANU PF had violated the terms of the GPA, also accused the MDC of not fulfilling its role within the unity government. He claimed once again that the MDC has not delivered on the lifting of targeted ‘shopping’ sanctions and the banning of ‘illegal’ radio stations, and therefore ZANU PF was not obliged to adhere to the agreement either.

“They (MDC) are not doing anything about sanctions, they are not doing anything about, you know, illegal radios, and other forms of communications which are daily undermining the principles of unity and other principles that underlie the Global Political Agreement. They are not doing anything about that,” Mugabe said of the MDC.

Mugabe’s statements make it clear ZANU PF still have Zimbabwe in a vice-like grip of power, which is daily tightening to shut out the MDC. With the weight of state media on its side ZANU PF is also still able to publish and broadcast anti-MDC rhetoric and propaganda at will.

“The matters the people are complaining about in the MDC are that we should now voluntarily...give away aspects of our authority. We will not do that,” Mugabe said.

With Mugabe and ZANU PF now refusing to budge from its position, what choices are left to the MDC now? Political commentator Professor John Makumbe on Monday said ZANU PF has no legitimacy outside of the unity government, and argued that the MDC disengagement is actually a threat to Mugabe and his party. He continued that the MDC needs to stick to its guns by refusing to engage with ZANU PF.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was touring the Southern African region to explain his position and trying to garner support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). But ZANU PF has openly dismissed the MDC ‘disengagement’ as being of little consequence, and most regional leaders in SADC are too quietly supportive of Mugabe to stand firm against him. SADC has for months remained completely silent on all the many violations of the GPA, despite being guarantors of the unity accord in Zimbabwe.

Worryingly DRC leader Joseph Kabila, who is the current chair of SADC, is now expected to fly into Zimbabwe to mediate between the principals of the unity government. Kabila is well known as a Mugabe supporter and is widely acknowledged to be the dictator’s protégé. It was under Mugabe’s protective wing that Kabila took shelter when he replaced his assassinated father Laurent Kabila at the helm of the DRC in 2001. At the time of his father’s death, Joseph Kabila was reported to be undergoing ‘special training’ at the Morris Depot police training college in Harare. He was then whisked away to be installed as acting DRC leader, under heavy protection by Zimbabwean army troops, by orders of Mugabe.