|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
Talks, dialogue, negotiations and GNU - Post June 2008 "elections" - Index of articles
MDC
Position Paper with regard to the Zimbabwe Global Political Agreement
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
January 19,
2009
Download
this document
- Word
97 version (62.5KB)
- Adobe
PDF version (43.1KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader
on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here.
Introduction
In March of 2008, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the
majority of national assembly seats and the majority of votes in
the presidential elections. Zimbabweans and African Observer missions
rightly dismissed the June re-run of the presidential election as
an election that was neither free and fair, nor met the standards
of both SADC and the African Union. Therefore, the MDC had a legitimate
claim to be the party with the electoral mandate to form the new
government of Zimbabwe.
Nonetheless,
at the behest of the African Union and SADC, the MDC entered into
negotiations with Zanu PF and the smaller MDC faction, in good faith
and in the national interest with the aim of establishing a power-sharing
arrangement
leading to a transitional inclusive government that could address
the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
When the MDC signed the
power-sharing agreement on 15 September, we did so believing that
the settlement would result in the MDC having an equitable share
of government power and we remain deeply committed to implementing
the agreement in its letter and spirit.
In this regard, the position
of the MDC has not changed in that we remain committed to the letter
and spirit of the agreement subject to the resolution of the five
outstanding issues detailed below as per the resolutions of the
party's National Council. The detailed resolutions are attached
as Annexure 1 & 2.
These issues must be
fairly, transparently and comprehensively addressed prior to the
formation of an inclusive government. This is the firm position
of the MDC.
Status
of the talks
After the signing ceremony of the 15th of September 2008, the SADC
Troika on Politics, Defence and Security met in Harare on 28th October
2008, to deal with implementation issues of the global political
agreement. The Troika meetings did not resolve the outstanding issues
and referred the same to the full summit of the SADC, which met
on November 9th 2008, in South Africa. The summit urged the parties
to form an inclusive government. The Summit also made a recommendation
that the Ministry of Home Affairs be co-ministered by Zanu PF and
the MDC. This recommendation was not accepted by the negotiators
and the National Council of the MDC. On November 25 & 26 2008,
the negotiating parties met and without prejudice negotiated and
initialled a draft Amendment to the Constitution of Zimbabwe to
give legal effect to the inclusive government agreement. On December
25, 2008, the President designate, Robert Mugabe sent a letter accompanied
by a passport to the President of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai purportedly
appointing him Prime Minister. The President of the MDC responded
to the letter of appointment (See attached response marked Annexure
3 ).
In an attempt to bring
about a quick resolution to the outstanding issues, the MDC has
requested that South African President and SADC Chairman, Mr Motlanthe,
convene a meeting between Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe. Only if the
two principals meet and agree on the resolution of the outstanding
issues can this process move forward. See attached letter to President
Motlanthe marked Annexure 4.
The key challenge
to this agreement has been its implementation. The implementation
of the Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) and the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
required honesty, good faith and goodwill to be displayed by the
parties to the agreement. Regrettably, following the signing of
the agreement, ZANU PF has acted in a manner that is contrary to
the spirit of the agreement and has displayed duplicity and bad
faith in regard to the implementation of various aspects of the
agreement.
The
outstanding issues & the MDC position
National
Security Council
The question of the composition, function and constitution of the
National Security Council is a critical issue in view of the dangerous
and partisan role that has been displayed by the security services
in Zimbabwe. In this regard, our position is that an Act must be
enacted by Parliament which will must regulate and oversee all State
security and intelligence agencies. This Act must seek to balance
the need for accountability and transparency with the competing
principles of national security and sovereignty. More importantly,
is the principle that national institutions and state security agents
cannot be partisan and cannot be an extension of any political party.
Download
full document
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.
TOP
|
