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Civilian-military relations
General Agricultural & Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe [GAPWUZ]
February 25, 2010

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Further to the letter sent to the ZCTU regarding the interrogation of the General-Secretary and staff of GAPWUZ by members of the Joint Operations Command [JOC], GAPWUZ would wish to point out that this harassment is contrary to both the Global Political Agreement [GPA] and Constitutional Amendment 19 [see Appendices 1 and 2].

The intention of the Parties to the Agreement, that the military and the security forces be placed under full civilian control, was expressed in the GPA, codified in Constitutional Amendment 19, and finally expressed in the Zimbabwe National Security Council Act, passed by the Zimbabwe Parliament on 9 February 2009. As the Bill stated, the intention of the legislature was as follows:

• Reviewing national policies on security, defence, law and order and recommending or directing appropriate action;
• Reviewing national, regional and international security, political and defence developments and recommending or directing appropriate action;
• Considering and approving proposals relating to the nation's strategic security and defence requirements;
• Receiving and considering national security reports and giving general or specific directives to the security forces;
• Ensuring that the operations of the security forces comply with the Constitution and any other law;
• Exercising any other function that the Cabinet may delegate to the Council;
• Generally keeping the nation in a state of preparedness to meet any threat or security.

It is absolutely clear that all the Parties intended that the security forces be placed wholly under civilian control under a committee set up by law with the security forces reporting to this committee, and that therefore there would be no independent existence of any other body, such as JOC, except with the authority of the National Security Council [ZNSC]. This was a critical development in the aftermath of the violence in 2008, and the uncontested evidence that the security forces had been involved in human rights violations since 2000.

It is therefore an obvious breach of all these understandings, and the Zimbabwe National Security CouncilAct, that the Joint Operations Command summons, under duress, a civilian organisation, no matter which organisation, and then interrogates that organisation about issues that are evidently not within JOC's mandate, and were not apparently authorised by the ZNSC.

The issue does not concern GAPWUZ or the labour movement alone. Unless the security forces are placed wholly under civilian control, as is clearly envisaged by the creation of the Zimbabwe National Security Council, and the Joint Operations Command is disbanded, then situations, such as that experienced by GAPWUZ last week, will persist. This is a situation of extreme seriousness and requires urgent action by the political parties, the labour movement, and civil society.

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