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Can apples be reaped from a thorn tree? Report summary
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
September 04, 2009

2008 was a defining year in the history of post-colonial Zimbabwe. For the first time in 28 years, ZANU-PF lost its political dominance following its defeat in the parliamentary and presidential election held on 29th of March 2008 to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai. The historic electoral outcome also put to bed any ideas which sought to characterize Zimbabwe as moving towards an entrenched one-party State.

However, despite the evident twist of fate, ZANU-PF intensified its bid to retain political power at the expense of the MDC, banking on a controversial and highly disputed delayed election result, and a presidential election run-off. This run-off was marred by intense and vicious pre-poll violence and its outcome was discredited by regional and international election observation bodies. The farcical election and the political crisis which followed resulted in an African Union resolution calling for dialogue between ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations. After months of negotiations, the parties signed the Interparty Political Agreement (IPA) on the 15th of September 2008 and consummated it in February 2009.

Zimbabwe is currently trudging on the road to transition. The Coalition firmly believes it is important for civil society to closely monitor the progress of the inclusive transitional government in implementing the IPA in order to ensure that the country transits smoothly to a democratic and peaceful state, rather than regressing to a more authoritarian state.

Human rights protection and promotion is the soul of the Coalition's existence. Ideally, the role of civil society is to be a 'watchdog' of state activities, ensuring that the state complies with domestic, regional and international requirements for the successful transition to democracy. This is moreso in the context of a coalition government in which there is no effective political opposition and where transparency, accountability, addressing the needs of citizens, and ensuring their rights, can be overlooked by those more intent on consolidation of power. The role of civil society in such a context thus becomes key.

The report, Can Apples be reaped from a Thorn Tree? Zimbabwe's Road to Transition, critiques the provisions of the IPA and the work of the inclusive transitional government since its formation in February 2009. It specifically analyses issues like transitional justice, the state of the media, the land reform program, the constitutional process, judicial independence, the state of the economy and the legacy of impunity in Zimbabwe.

It is a shadow report on the activities of the government which seeks to provide citizens and the regional and international community with a balanced analysis of the performance of the government. It will allow Zimbabweans and the international community to comparatively analyze what the government says it has done and what watchdogs such as The Coalition think about the performance of this hybrid political union. In addition, as the primary duty of any responsible government is to protect its own citizens, and realize that its legitimacy is undermined where the government itself becomes the perpetrator of arbitrary violence against its own citizens, the Coalition intends to use this report to remind the authorities of their obligations under the agreement and to ensure that they retain their legitimacy through responsible action.

One such obligation under the agreement is to bring to book individuals who were responsible for the wanton human rights violations that led to the domestic, regional and international condemnation of the 27 June 2008 presidential election run-off fiasco.

The report establishes, amongst other things, that critical issues of transitional justice - especially the retributive aspect of it - have been conveniently ignored in the first seven months of the inclusive government, thus fuelling impunity, in the same manner that selective application of the law has continued unabated under the direction of a partisan Attorney-General's Office.

Apart from pointing to the shortcomings of the inclusive government, which are intended to encourage the authorities to take corrective action, this publication also notes the initial progress that has been made in the areas of education and health which two systems had effectively collapsed prior to the formation of the inclusive government.

This report compliments our efforts with the rest of civil society to analyze the government's compliance with, and digression from, the IPA which all parties in the inclusive transitional government agreed to and undertook to implement. We hope it will encourage debate in all sectors, and spur the government to seriously reflect upon - and take action to address - the areas and issues in which progress remains limited or non-existent.

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