ZANU PF Hamstrung By SADC Resolution
President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai seem to be drifting further apart.
Nathaniel Manheru, thought to be a senior government official close to President Mugabe who writes under that pseudonym, suggested in his weekly vitriolic column in The Herald last Saturday that the President could appoint a 15-member cabinet without including the opposition.
Under the power-sharing agreement signed on September 15, ZANU PF was allocated 15 ministries, MDC-T 13 and MDC- Mutambara three.
MDC Mutambara has indicated it would not participate in a government that excludes the Tsvangirai faction, which is demanding an equitable distribution of power and ministerial portfolios.
“He only needs a nucleus of a cabinet which could very well turn out to be 15.
“Those men and women will proceed to run government, including serving in an acting capacity for all those ministries assigned to other parties,” said Manheru.
“I doubt whether cabinet has a quorum; I know that cabinet decisions are by consensus.
“True, the cabinet will be incomplete but that cannot not make it illegitimate for as long as the invitation for other parties to join government is not rescinded.
“And he can run the affairs of the state until the next poll with only 15 ministers and a standing hope for others to join later.”
But analysts who spoke to The Financial Gazette this week were unanimous that it would be folly for President Mugabe to inaugurate a new cabinet, which excluded Tsvangirai and members of his formation of the MDC.
They said a compromise could still be reached to save the power-sharing arrangement from total collapse after SADC mandated the three political parties to immediately form a coalition government.
“SADC made a ruling that all the three political parties should form the new inclusive government.
“If President Mugabe decides to go it alone as suggested by ZANU PF, he will be thumping his nose at SADC,” said Ernest Mudzengi, a Harare-based political scientist.
Mudzengi pointed out that President Mugabe has previously said he had no qualms about appointing a cabinet without the involvement of the MDC but was now unable to do so because of the SADC resolution.
After the Sandton meeting during which regional leaders failed to break the impasse between ZANU PF and the MDC, SADC resolved that an inclusive government must be formed immediately in Zimbabwe and that the controversial ministry of Home
Affairs must be co-headed by ministers appointed by ZANU PF and MDC T.
The SADC resolution also directed the three parties to the September 15 Global Political Agreement to urgently introduce Constitution Amendment Number 19, which formalizes the posts of Prime Minister and two deputies.
Under the agreement Tsvangirai will be Prime Minister and Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe will be his deputies.
“President Mugabe is in a very difficult situation right now.
“He knows the consequences of forming a government without Tsvangirai,” said Mudzengi.
Takura Zhangazha, another political analyst based in Harare, said the Zimbabwean leader recognised that he was tied down by the SADC resolution and would now concentrate on fine-tuning Amendment Number 19 Bill.
“President Mugabe is not going to exclude the MDC. He is not that daft. What he is doing now is to see how he can out-manoeuvre the MDC-T by legal means. He is using a multi-pronged approach such as asking for names of ministers and pushing for the speedy passage of amendment Number 19,” said Zhangazha.
“However, the MDC-T is also holding out as it first wants to see what is contained in Amendment Number 19,” he said.
Tsvangirai, who incurred the wrath of government officials this week by travelling to France to attend a European Union (EU) meeting using an Emergency Travel Document, is seen to hold the key to the return of financial donors Zimbabwe badly needs to revitalise the economy now entering its ninth year of recession.
“If President Robert Mugabe goes ahead to form a government without Tsvangirai, he knows it will backfire. SADC said these people should proceed together and form a government.
“They must now compromise on the contentious issues,” Mudzengi said.
But statements in the government media and from the MDC-T information department suggested President Mugabe and Tsvangirai were still sticking to the positions they held prior to the SADC summit in South Africa.
The state media said this week President Mugabe would soon constitute an inclusive government and that he had asked the MDC political formations to submit names of candidates they wanted appointed to ministerial positions. But the MDC-T dismissed these claims.
While SADC has advised President Mugabe to go ahead and form an all-inclusive government, MDC-T, which met at Harvest House in Harare last Friday without Tsvangirai, resolved not to participate in any coalition government until all outstanding issues were addressed.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the MDC, said reports in the state media were “distortions” and “fabrications” that did not reflect the MDC’s position regarding the formation of an inclusive government.
“On Friday, November 15 2008, the MDC’s supreme decision making body, the national council, met in Harare and unanimously resolved to reject the SADC Troika’s resolution and ruling,” said Chamisa.
“This statement by the state media is totally misleading and the MDC is concerned that the state media is in violation of the global political agreement signed on September 15 2008, which states that the public media should provide balanced and fair coverage to all political parties.
“The misrepresentation of facts by the state media is very mischievous as the people of Zimbabwe would like to know the truth concerning the formation of an inclusive government,” he said. Chamisa said the MDC executive council also resolved that the party would have nothing to do with any illegitimate government formed by ZANU-PF and will peacefully, constitutionally and democratically mobilise and campaign against such a government.
“The MDC, I am sure will read the finer print of Amendment Number 19 because that is where I think the catch will be. Right now President Mugabe is preoccupied with Draft Number 19, trying to restructure his party and has his eyes on his party’s conference.”
(Source)
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