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Going through President Mugabe's speech to Parliament
Tendai
Chabvuta
October 07, 2009
The President
of Zimbabwe has among other powers, legislative ones. Thus in this
regard he is able to address Parliament when it opens to give guidance
on issues to be brought to its agenda. The agenda he sets does not
necessarily bind Parliament but under normal circumstances, it must
serve as a guide. In this light, the Second Session of the 7th Parliament
of Zimbabwe opened on 6 August 2009 with a lot of expectation of
changes on positions and strategies on the part of President Robert
Mugabe. Whilst the President-s speech was crafted in a manner
seeking political correctness in the current polarized political
environment, it was largely an effort misguided, full of lies and
overly patronizing on the part of Robert Mugabe. Article 17 of the
GPA emphasizes
the need for a prioritized legislative agenda in order to reflect
the letter and spirit of the GPA (with a view to entrenching democratic
values and practices). However, the President-s speech does
not reflect this. In a nutshell, the speech and suggestions were
not fit for purpose as they do not speak to the GPA.
Indeed, as Mugabe
noted, the Second Session is quite historic for it is happening
in a Government to all intents and purposes dominated by the opposition
MDC for the first time in Zimbabwe-s history. The former ruling
party ZANU PF is in the Government because of a political deal struck
through Constitutional
Amendment No. 19 to facilitate for the continued long term incumbency
of people like Robert Mugabe who had lost the election on 29 March
2009. This article looks at some of the various issues that were
referred to by the President in his opening speech such as the constitution
making process, the economy, the humanitarian situation, women-s
rights, the signing of international treaties and many others.
On the constitution making
process, it would seem at face value that the President was sincere
in his statement that the Global Political Agreement-s Article
6 guided him. However, a closer look at the mechanics of the constitution
making process: be it the inclusivity, resource provision, political
will to carry out activities and clarity of who is supposed to do
what and when and how, shows that the President does not know what
time is when it comes to the constitution making process or he is
feigning a deliberate ignorance of the actual goings on in terms
of that process.
For example, the shambolic
event that was called the All Stakeholders Conference left a lot
to be desired. The synchronization of the rowdy behavior well known
senior ZANU PF members can only point and rest on President Mugabe-s
footsteps because of his failure to prevent it in the first place.
Obviously, President Mugabe is no psychic, and probably could not
have foreseen it, but with the way such events have occurred in
the past, he must have known about such a strategy as was implemented
on that fateful day. It might not be useful to continue pointing
fingers at him, but it is important that as the leader of his party,
First Secretary of ZANU PF, Head of State and Government and the
Commander in Chief of the Defense Forces that he has full control
of what his fellow comrades do with regards to this and other issues.
The recent creation of
the two bodies called the Steering Committee and the Management
Committee of the Constitution making process can only add more confusion
to the gridlock that is the Inclusive Government. The fact that
these two Committees have been created only puts paid to the argument
that there is so much discord in the GNU and the constitution making
process has become one of the casualties of such. It remains unclear,
what the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, the Speaker of Parliament
(MDC - M), the Clerk of Parliament, and the Ministry of Constitutional
Affairs will be responsible for in such a cobweb of institutions
all being set up to deal with the writing of a new constitution
of Zimbabwe. What this process simply shows is that Mugabe has successfully
managed to take the constitution making process to Cabinet where
he has more powers. The process had been placed under Parliament
through the Speaker-s office. Mugabe capitalized on the point
that the Minister of Constitutional Affairs had rightly so started
making complaints that he could not be a Minister of Constitutional
Affairs who did not have control or information about the Article
6 process. Due to the fact that decisions in Cabinet are made by
consensus, it becomes abundantly clear that whatever constitutional
draft will come out of this constitution making process will be
heavily compromised and negotiated to accommodate the political
parties- positions. Moreover, if the President was sincere
he would have referred to the lacuna that the Article 6 process,
which is part of the GPA is not included in Amendment 19, which
takes away any constitutional protection to the duration, process
and content of the process.
On the setting up of
the different independent Commissions to manage the elections the
media, corruption and human rights in Zimbabwe, President Mugabe
noted that there was very good progress. Unfortunately, this is
not the case. There have been contentions for example, on the issue
of the Human Rights Commission because the Government is failing
to adhere to the Paris Principles on the Establishment of National
Human Rights Institutions. The ZEC, ZMC, and ACC have been manned
by well known ZANU PF loyalists before. Thus if President Mugabe
is serious about setting up these bodies, he must be aware that
that they can only be set up when guidelines that are used internationally
are applied.
On the economic
front, the President referred to the Short
Term Economic Recovery Plan (STERP) as a stabilization program,
which is meant to create bridges for Zimbabweans to a more transformative
medium to long-term economic program. Whilst such rhetoric is most
welcome, it is fraught with serious challenges when analyzed from
the lens of the need to the right to development and citizen participation
in budgetary and planning processes. However, it is important that
Zimbabweans be consulted on what they would want to see in economic
programs meant to alleviate their plight. Real consultative meetings
with women, informal traders, miners, students, civic society, political
parties can be carried out before such programs are adopted as policy.
On an aside, it was a most welcome development that the President
found it necessary not to bore and hound citizens and the august
house with the mantra from Gideon Gono and Tafataona Mahoso to reintroduce
the defunct Zimbabwe dollar.
On the humanitarian front
and food security, it is quite astonishing that President Mugabe
continues to mislead the whole nation and even Parliament that Zimbabwe
has enough food to feed the whole population. That there has been
a 70% increase from the poor harvests of 2007 cannot be used as
a defense of such chaotic policies of agriculture. Instead the President
should have focused more on appealing to Parliament to quickly approve
legislation that addresses such issues as the financing of inputs,
and other essentials to feed the country. The brazen and continued
denial that the country is facing a humanitarian crisis in terms
of food shortage should not be underplayed in the manner the President
did in his speech to Parliament.
Interestingly, the President
noted that agricultural inputs would be distributed through commercial
banks. It is folly to think that such products will reach destitute
Zimbabweans in the rural areas some of whom have even been complaining
that they are failing to access foreign currency in their areas.
Most commercial bank branches were closed in farming and mining
areas such that it is a lie that people in such areas will be able
to access such facilities from the banks. In any case, commercial
banks need collateral before they give out such loans, unless if
the President wanted to tell Zimbabwe that collateral was no longer
needed for people to access such facilities. One only hopes that
no one will be ridiculously arrested for receiving such inputs as
has happened to a number of MPs from the MDC T who now stand accused
of diverting for their own use such inputs and implements.
The mentioning of the
Mining sector and the potential of the Chiadzwa diamonds to bring
revenue by the President without noting the hundreds of people who
perished there trying to eke a living by Zimbabwe-s security
services was most unfortunate. In mentioning this, one is fully
aware that criminal behavior as has been happening cannot be condoned.
However, just as much as the country needs to go into full throttle
with mining ventures, it will be important for the country to have
a full audit of who owns what mines and where their revenue is being
kept; whether the people are paying tax and so on. Issues of patronage
and cronyism continue cropping up and must be stopped forthwith.
There is absolutely no
need to keep white elephants such as the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission. It is almost ludicrous and laughable that the Government
would want to set up a body to monitor price trends when these bodies
can be created under a particular Ministry and do away with cronyism
and the setting up of Commissions whenever there is a problem. The
President must know that the time for finding jobs and activities
for the boys is long gone and he must move with the times.
In his reference to the
Transport and Energy sector, the President did not take note of
the pathetic public transport system in Zimbabwe. If this country
wants real development economically and at a social level, the government
needs to find ways of providing affordable and convenient public
transport to the many laborers who need to go to work. It is folly
to think that the current system of kombis will be able to deal
with the problem on its own.
Talk about Information,
Communication and Technology without noting the repressive legislation
surrounding it is an unfortunate reflection of the levels of ignorance
on the President and others surrounding him. The President must
know, that there is no way to unlock the untapped potential of the
ICTs as long as the Posts and Telecommunications Commission is incompetently
run; it is expensive to communicate; it is impossible for calls
to go through; internet is very slow letters are confiscated and
emails are intercepted by the CIO in the name of national sovereignty.
The President needs to be serious and have a clear understanding
of issues he raises in such august houses assuming that he is the
one who conceptualized the speech and or wrote it.
In progressive countries
citizens have legal entitlements to such rights inter alia, as the
right to water, life, health. It is difficult to understand how
the President cannot understand that putting legislation to control
borehole drillers is not the solution to deal with the problems
of water services, facilities and provision that Zimbabwe is currently
faced with. Hundreds of people died this year from a primitive disease
called Cholera because of untreated water in the high-density areas
of Harare and other rural areas. It is hoped that the centralization
of procurement of chemicals for cleaning water that the President
was referring to will not mean more fighting and bickering between
the MDC Mayors currently in charge of all the City Councils in the
country with ZANU PF Minister Chombo, famous for scuttling local
government projects and activities in these councils.
The National Youth Service
Program is a program that was not fit for purpose and must be disbanded
with immediate effect. Calls for such disbandment have been there
since the body was formed. Instead of the President and Parliament
wasting time and resources on such activities, it is important that
the Government finds ways of coming up with program to rehabilitate
the youths that were involved in such programs to heal them of the
violence, trauma and torture they endured during training, deployment
and other activities assigned to them.
The failure to prioritize
issues exhibited by the President in calling for the ratification
of such international treaties as the Bacteriological Weapons Convention
in 1990 is most astounding. The President noted that in terms of
defense and security this was necessary to have it enacted into
Zimbabwean law. These and other such priorities whilst very important
for Zimbabwe-s security are equally misguided. The kind of
security that Zimbabwe needs now is prevention of violence from
the police, the army and CIO and other paramilitary groups such
as the Green Bombers, the war veterans and ZANU PF supporters. The
kind of violence perpetrated by such state actors is known as torture.
Zimbabwe is party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
which proscribes torture in its Article 5 and the UN International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which does so in its Article
7. Zimbabwe is legally bound by these international instruments
that proscribe violence by state agents for whatever reason even
in situations of war. Zimbabwe has also tabled the United Nations
Convention Against Torture since 2001 for ratification without any
luck in its Parliament. Torture is not taken lightly internationally
because of the involvement of state security agents, its organization
and the support of that state. Therefore, it is hypocritical for
President Mugabe to advocate for Zimbabwe-s security in terms
of national security without looking at the human security needs
of Zimbabweans. It would have been most laudable for the President
to come up with suggestions on the speedy ratification and passing
into law of such international treaties as would be able to acknowledge,
protect, promote and guarantee non violence by state actors or politically
motivated violence largely supported by the state.
Furthermore, it does
not make sense for the President to beat his chest about introducing
the SADC Protocol on Gender and Violence without noting the retrogressive
measures that they have put in place to dismantle any protection
the SADC Tribunal would give to Zimbabweans. The Government recently
purportedly pulled out of the SADC Tribunal, a body that adjudicates
on cases brought by parties to the SADC Treaty. It is difficult
to conceive how Zimbabwe can espouse such international treaties
and then at the same time refuse to abide by rulings and decisions
coming from its adjudicatory bodies.
The President tried his
best to sound conciliatory and inclusive but overall his speech
and what he tabled on the agenda was not fit for purpose in an environment
like Zimbabwe-s. All things being equal, he must have spoken
to issues around the cessation of violence - both politically
motivated and state sponsored which has been resurgent in most rural
and urban areas. He must have been able to clear the air and given
suggestions as to how the process of coming up with a new constitution
could be carried out. The question around impunity and the investigation
of past human rights violations should have been key. The economy,
land audits, issues around Gono, Tomana, the lack of the rule of
law, selective application of the law, repressive media laws are
all issues that the President must have put on the Second Session
of the 7th Parliament.
* Tendai
Chabvuta is a Researcher with the Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition. Comments made in this piece are personal
and cannot be attributed to the organisation he works for.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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