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Election 2011: Is Zimbabwe ready?
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
November 05, 2010
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Recently, the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition issued a press statement directed at
the African National Congress (ANC).
In the presser,
the Coalition called upon the South African ruling party and its
allies, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and
the South African Communist Party (SACP) to "insist that political
parties in Zimbabwe, particularly ZANU-PF which controls the country's
security forces, must strictly adhere to principles of democracy
and respect for the basic rights of all Zimbabweans."
Addressing the
ANC was not out of place. Indeed, the crisis in Zimbabwe has effectively
become South Africa's domestic problem. Zimbabweans still
cross the Limpopo in search of a normal life with bare necessities,
the proverbial greener pastures. A lot more are making their stay
in the country quasi-permanent, only going back as far as the Beitbridge
border post to renew their visitor's permits when they expire.
Some have even stopped doing that altogether.
That the South
African government has introduced a new visa regime targeted at
Zimbabweans alone shows a significant recognition of the problems
and challenges the crises (social, economic and political) in Zimbabwe
have presented on Pretoria's doorstep.
Whilst this
new regime has been widely welcomed, especially by the Zimbabweans
who have been granted amnesty and are currently being issued with
permits visas allowing them to work, study or run businesses in
South Africa, greater premium needs to be placed on seeking a lasting
solution to the Zimbabwe crisis so that none of these Zimbabweans
ever have to find themselves in this position again.
As the Coalition
put it in the press statement; "it is in South Africa and
the southern Africa region's interest to ensure that the situation
in Zimbabwe is resolved before it leads to regional instability."
With all parties to the Global
Political Agreement (GPA), signed two years ago expressing exasperation
and seeking ways out of the current arrangement, negotiated outcome
of the March 2008 poll, all indications are that Zimbabwe will go
to the polls at least once in 2011 - for the referendum following
the writing of a new constitution. But then again, President Robert
Mugabe has equivocally stated that he would call for an election
with or without a new constitution.
Violence and
politically motivated arrests marred consultations on the new constitution
which ended this past week. process of making consultations on the
Last time around, the Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac) which
was charged with running the process, at one time suspended the
exercise after incidents of violence occurred in Harare and Bulawayo.
This violence
and intimidation witnessed during this consultation process are
sure indicators of things to come in Zimbabwe. It is clear the machinery
for violence are still running, well-oiled and serviced. It has
been the Government of National Unity (GNU) most glaring failure
- to effectively expose the operators of such machinery, their
locations (militia camps) and unmask their identities. Now they
have engaged fifth geared and put foot to pedal in a bid to bludgeon
anyone who does not subscribe to their school of thought into 'line'.
It has also been the Southern African Development Community's
(SADC) failure. There has been no sense of urgency in dealing with
the Zimbabwe crisis from this body. Yet they have a key role to
play, especially in ensuring that Zimbabwe holds a free and fair
poll that will result in a democratic retention or transfer of power
to the eventual winner.
SADC still has
an opportunity - a huge one. Hence, this body must insist
on full compliance of its guidelines on elections. Secondly, SADC
needs to understand that the absence of gunshots does not mean the
absence of conflict. Therefore, the body needs to make preparations
to send 'peace-keeping monitors' - well ahead
of time - to Zimbabwe so that they can monitor the situation
and prevent the prevalence of violence and intimidation.
Lastly, SADC
should be appalled by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's
(ZEC) position that it is ready to conduct elections in Zimbabwe.
There is no possible way that ZEC can deliver a credible poll under
the current circumstances. Capacity constraints hampered by a lack
of technical support mean that efficiency will suffer in the whole
process. Just recently, the Zimbabwe
Electoral Support Network (ZESN) urged the "complete overhaul
and restructuring of ZEC secretariat with a view to reform the institution
into a professional body that is non-partisan."
ZESN further
called for ZEC to be "capacitated and resourced to improve
its ability to manage elections efficiently and effectively."
At the end of the day, what Zimbabweans really want is a credible
process that can restore the confidence and trust which has been
lost at every election in the recent past.
Can Zimbabwe
truly and honestly give that to her people under the current conditions?
No.
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