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Zanu is negotiating in bad faith
Arnold Tsunga, SW Radio Africa
July 31, 2008

http://swradioafrica.com/pages/zanubadfaith040808.htm

Zanu (PF) has no intention of transferring power to the MDC. The following reasons substantiate this opinion:

1. Organised violence and torture continues. No effort to offer security to perceived opposition and to offer protection to internally displaced persons is being made. While negotiations are taking place, Zanu (PF) is decimating the opposition party structures and driving human rights defenders from remote areas.
2. Humanitarian assault on the poor continues unabated NGOs and humanitarian groups remain officially. The World Food programme estimates that over 2 million people are in need of food assistance and that this number will shoot to around 5.1 million people around Christmas and new year.
3. Institutions of checks and balance are crippled Parliament has not convened for over 6 months in breach of the constitution. The Judiciary is severely weak and unable to effectively check the JOC driven excesses.
4. JOC is running country as a military Junta.JOC has long replaced parliament and the executive as key policy formulation and implementation institutions in Zimbabwe. JOC are not represented in the negotiations even though everyone knows that they are the authors of the Zanu (PF) negotiation strategy.
5. Government or public service departments are ZANUFIED completely.Nothing shows that there is any genuine desire to credibly deal with this issue. Mbeki was taken seriously when he told Zimbabweans that he was handling the mediation. Now both SADC and Pan African Parliament have condemned the recent June 27 elections.
6. Macro economic destruction of Zimbabwe continues unmitigated. Unconscionable printing by Gono of ZB100 (worth 7p!) as an effort of hiding or rigging inflation shows the determination to hold on and not a desire to reform.
7. Expropriation strategy continues under guise of fighting the West and black economic empowerment. While the negotiations were taking place the Sunday Mail of July 20 said Zimbabwe had begun auditing the ownership of Western firms in the country as part of a black empowerment drive "and to counter the possible withdrawal of investment under sanctions imposed and proposed by Britain and the U.S."
8. Exclusion of CSOs and the wider society in the mediation process. It gives the impression that the problem in Zimbabwe is between Zanu (PF) and the MDC. It ignores the fact that the crisis is one of governance and therefore an issue for all Zimbabweans.
9. The Normalization strategy is the current phase of the Zanu (PF) strategy. Domestically it was to climb down from general widespread violence to merely mopping up. It also entails letting humanitarian groups begin to feed people in a manner that portrays Zanu (PF) as caring. The government has not yet formally withdrawn the notice by Nicholas Goche (representing Zanu (PF) in the negotiations) of June 4 that banned operations of NGOs and humanitarian agencies. Diplomatically Zanu (PF) would create a sense of urgency in wanting to be accommodative and to talk to the MDC. Mbeki would be the natural target to lure the MDC into this discussion and create a "photo moment" involving Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara so that Mugabe would look normal and capable of being reformed. JOC expects this pact to slow down the pressure on Mugabe and buy him time that they so desperately need to further entrench themselves.

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