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Zanu-PF confidential document leak scorns unity government
Alice Chimora, Afrik.com
January 28, 2010

http://en.afrik.com/article16854.html

A secret Zanu-PF working document that has been leaked reveals that President Mugabe's party wants "an all-powerful presidency" and has no intention whatsoever of sharing power in the future.

A perusal of the 41-page thick document, a comparative analysis of Zanu-PF and MDC constitutional positions, gives an insight into the party's grand plan to retain an authoritarian centralist government.

Zanu-PF claims that the experience drawn from the current the inclusive government shows that having two centres of power was unworkable.

"It is much easier for executive power to be streamlined into one office, that of the President. The experience of the people of Zimbabwe with the inclusive government since February 2009 has shown that a sharing of executive power by a President and Prime Minister will result in there being always a fight for power rather than progress.

"If there has to be a Prime Minister, he does not have executive authority. He is only a senior minister appointed and accountable to the President. In the SADC region, the prevalent arrangement is Head of State and leader of government." The document reveals.

However, this is in sharp contradiction with the premier Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC's desire to have executive authority shared between the President, the Prime Minister and cabinet.

Extracts from the document reveal Zanu-PF's position:

• President: All-powerful presidential system retained.
• System of Govt: Vested in the President and Cabinet. The President takes precedence over all other persons in Zimbabwe. He is the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
• Cabinet: Appointed by President, he presides and it consists of the President, the Vice President or Vice Presidents, and such ministers as the President may determine. A minister holds office as a member of the Cabinet at the President's pleasure.
• Parliament: Only has power to pass a vote of no confidence in government through two thirds of MPs at a joint sitting of both Houses.
• Appointments: President to have exclusive power to hire and fire. All service commanders appointed by the President in consultation only with the Defence Forces Service Commission and the minister of Defence. The same applies to the commissioner-general of police, commissioner of prisons.

Sanctions

Meanwhile, Mugabe's party has repeated its vow of not giving in to further concessions in talks with MDC until sanctions imposed by Western nations are lifted.

"The Zanu-PF politburo, therefore, instructs its negotiators on the global political agreement to desist from making concessions in the negotiations until the sanctions are removed," the party said in a statement today.

Zanu PF has repeatedly accused Tsvangirai of supporting the sanctions imposed by the West on Mugabe and his inner circle. Calling Tsvangirai's party "a tool of the British and Western imperialism", Zanu-PF said the party had called for the sanctions and should callfor their removal to restore trust among the parties in the government.

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