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Zimbabwe Briefing - Issue 78
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (SA Regional Office)
June 13, 2012

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Attempts to Distract Zuma/SADC Must be Countered

On Thursday 8 June, a policy and civic research institute, Sapes Trust, hosted a public discussion that included as speakers, three of the Government of National Unity (GNU) negotiators and government Ministers Tendai Biti, (MDC-T), Priscilla Misihairambwi- Mushonga (MDC-N) and Patrick Chinamasa (ZANU PF) to speak on the on-going SADC mediation process and status of the GNU. Also in attendance was South Africa Ambassador to Zimbabwe Vusi Mavimbela. The discussion was meant to focus on the future of Zimbabwe in light of the recent SADC Luanda summit at which SADC spoke with one voice on the need for the three GNU parties to complete the constitutional review process, agree on an election roadmap and thereafter hold a general election.

The decision by SADC has not gone well with hawks in ZANU PF who were hoping for SADC support for a 2012 election. This frustration is boiling over as seen by a frontal attack on the South Africa Ambassador and President Zuma by ZANU PF Politburo Member Jonathan Moyo and others like Goodson Nguni. The two were puffed by the Ambassador's explanation that the SADC Heads of States Summit had essentially adopted the SADC Troika report which explains in detail the steps the Zimbabwe GNU parties must take towards getting SADC endorsement for an election.

Jonathan Moyo accused the Ambassador of not only being unschooled in diplomacy but failing to read the SADC communiqué well. Twice the clearly irritated South African Ambassador explained that the SADC Communiqué does not have to be a ten-page statement and that if the Troika report is not disputed either in part or whole then it is officially adopted as part of the SADC summit resolutions. ZANU PF representatives at the meeting went overboard in their attacks on South Africa. Minister Chinamasa was the first to state that South Africa's President Jacob Zuma is merely facilitating and cannot dictate to the GNU parties what to do. In the public discussion Moyo and Nguni went for Zuma and South Africa, declaring Zimbabwe's sovereignty and right to self-determination. Nguni who Chinamasa later disowned in the same meeting was particularly scathing on Zuma and South Africa, openly accusing the South Africans of siding with the MDC parties and being biased towards western powers views on Zimbabwe.

Chinamasa who felt embarrassed by all this later attempted to reverse his statements saying that he had not attacked President Zuma nor South Africa. The question is what does ZANU PF's open attack on South Africa means for Zimbabwe, the SADC mediation process and Zimbabwe relationship with South Africa? President Robert Mugabe set the tone a few months ago when he stated that his party could reject Zuma and ask SADC to nominate a new mediator. The attacks on Zuma and South Africa by ZANU PF are the execution part of Mugabe's call. The likes of Moyo and Chinamasa are well aware that it is only South Africa that stands between them and stampeding Zimbabwe into another election. ZANU PF is spoiling for an open confrontation with Zuma and South Africa so as to draw in SADC to discuss the relationship between Zuma, as the mediator and ZANU PF. This will likely result in Mugabe's allies in SADC asking Zuma to step aside or softening his tough stance on Mugabe's demand for a 2012 election.

ZANU PF is throwing everything at Zuma in an attempt to continue widening divisions in SADC on the question of a 2012 election more so with a view at getting SADC to endorse that election demand under the barest of electoral reforms. The push by SADC for far reaching electoral reforms is not going well with ZANU PF as this will threaten its well known and rehearsed strategy of violence and manipulation of electoral systems. The other strategy by ZANU PF is to minimise the influence of South Africa not only on SADC but in China and Russia by labelling South Africa a lackey of western powers and a regime change advocate in Zimbabwe. The support of these two international powers is key to ZANU PF's international strategy and survival.

While ZANU PF is sticking to its script of a demand for an election, this script has nothing on electoral reforms nor a guarantee of peace. ZANU PF will continue making this demand and even more vociferously so in the coming few months in an attempt to elevate elections as the only issue that SADC and the GNU must deal with ignoring the re-form agenda. There is need for civil society and the MDC parties to ignore ZANU PF on its election call and demand and concentrate on the demand for reforms whether elections will be in 2013 or whatever period. The underlying issue is that there should be far reaching reforms before elections are held. There is equally a need to bolster the South African mediation with support as well as awareness raising and advocacy with other SADC member states, more so targeting unhinged leaders like Zambia's Michael Sata. There is need to support Zuma/SADC to stay the course on Zimbabwe.

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