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South Africa's facilitation team in Zimbabwe
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (SA Regional Office)
November 28, 2012

As Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, we commend the South Africa facilitation team which is currently meeting political players in Zimbabwe, to get an appraisal on the constitution making process among other related issues, and advise on a progressive way forward. This comes in the midst of undisputed media reports that indicate that the three Principals (President Mugabe, Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara) agreed to set up a cabinet committee, made up of three cabinet ministers, one each from ZANU PF, MDC-T and MDC, to reconcile the divergent views raised during the second all stakeholders' constitutional conference held last month.

Our position is unequivocal: we do not support the setting up of another executive wing to reconcile the differences from the second all stakeholders' conference. In essence this cabinet committee will have a drafting mandate. First, there is already the management committee that was working closely with COPAC and to create a new creature is simply unreasonable. The differences are not entirely new and the management committee and COPAC have been working to reconcile these differences from day one. Second, we respect the doctrine of the separation of powers (the trias politica principle) among the branches of government that is the judiciary, executive and parliament. The executive should therefore not write how they should govern us. Third, Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) is clear on how the constitution making process should proceed that is from the second all stakeholders' conference to parliament and from there to a referendum. Fourth, Zimbabwe is running out of time to afford the luxury of setting up committee after committee as the next election looms rather the watchword should be implementation of what is already agreed.

It is our conviction that some hard-liner political players are buying time to push Zimbabwe to hold a general election without a referendum and substantive reforms so that Zimbabwe can have a flawed transition. A flawed transition will put to waste all SADC's long-term efforts to ensure a successful and democratic transition in Zimbabwe. Such a failure will mirror democratic regression in the region, a situation of one step forward and two steps back with devastating consequences for the ordinary suffering people of Zimbabwe.

We call upon progressive forces in Zimbabwe and across the region to unite and push for a referendum so that Zimbabweans can finally decide their own destiny toward a successful and democratic transition and an end to their misery. We thank South Africa's facilitation team for a hands on approach to the Zimbabwe crisis.

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