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Zimbabwe Briefing Issue 45
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (SA Regional Office)
September 28, 2011

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GPA comes under scrutiny

The Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum (ZSF) in collaboration with Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition yesterday held a meeting with other civil society organisations (CSOs) to discuss the challenges they are facing and ways of dealing with such challenges against the backdrop of seeking lasting and useful strategies of managing Zimbabwe's transition.

The general consensus at the meeting was that three years on after the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in Zimbabwe, there still remained several obstacles in the path to reform. And, with talk of elections escalating both within and outside Zimbabwe, there seems to be an urgent need to address issues affecting a successful transition as outlined in the GPA. Elections are seen as the only logical conclusion to both the GPA and the Government of National Unity (GNU) formed as a result of the agreement. The GNU is made up of former ruling party, ZANU-PF and two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The multifaceted Zimbabwe crisis has attracted the attention of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and various international institutions and bodies. As a result, the crisis in Zimbabwe will not be for Zimbabweans alone to resolve although they need to take centre-stage in all processes. These sentiments were also echoed by the various organisations represented at the seminar and drawing from various SADC countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe itself.

Summing up the deliberations of the day, Richard Smith from ACTION Support Centre, CSOs need not work alone but must continue to engage each other and in order to successfully influence political, social and economic policies that favour ordinary citizens. Smith also encouraged the need for a "regional expression" that is informed by solid strategy and is a shared reality between all CSOs operating especially in the SADC region. In this regard, the meeting agreed that there was an urgent need to impress action upon CSOs in the region, reaching the bold consensus that although meetings, seminars and conferences were necessary, ultimately it was the common people on the ground who could make things happen and make the necessary demands for reforms.

Presenter at the seminar, Professor David Moore of the University of Johannesburg reminded the CSOs of the words once spoken by South African former president, Nelson Mandela, who remarked that the burden of keeping governments honest and in check lay with CSOs. Moore also questioned the benefits the GPA had been said to bring in Zimbabwe, asking more about what would have happened if no such agreement had been there in the first place. Could the Kenyan scenario have obtained instead, he asked? In Moore's view, negotiated outcomes such as the GNU have only fortified the Western view that Africa is not yet ready for democracy. Representing the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, Pius Wakatama observed that although Zimbabwe was not yet ready for a revolution, it would only seem at present that civil disobedience was the only way to bring about reforms. According to Wakatama, the economic stability, credited to the GNU, had unwittingly forced CSOs to take their eyes off the ball and relax their strategies of demanding respect for the rule of law and human rights.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition presented its minimum conditions for the holding of democratic, free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, highlighting ten critical points which range from constitutional and institutional reforms to transitional justice and national healing.

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