ZANU-PF drives hard bargain

The fractious party,  forced to enter into a unity government with the two formations of the MDC at the behest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after an inconclusive presidential election run-off, passed teak-tough resolutions that, on the surface, have the potential of scuttling the 10-month-old power-sharing arrangement viewed as the only post-conflict solution to Zimbabwe’s multi-faceted crisis.
At the congress, President Robert Mugabe, who rode out a vicious battle for his succession and successfully forestalled a major fallout within the party over last month’s nomination pro-cess, was asked by the party to ensure that the negotiators quickly sorted out all outstanding issues under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed in September last year but has been dogged by misunderstandings between the parties over its implementation.
Didymus Mutasa, the party’s secretary for administration, said it was unanimously resolved at the ZANU-PF indaba that there should be no more compromises on the long list of the outstanding issues drawn up by the MDC until the  former opposition parties honour their part of the bargain.
ZANU-PF has driven a hard bargain by insisting that the MDC lobby for the removal of targeted sanctions slapped by the European Union and the United States on President Mugabe and other party loyalists.
Mutasa said the party also resolved not to comply with any further demands from the MDCs until they stopped foreign radio into the country.
“There should be no movement on the concerns of the MDC formations without corresponding and simultaneous redress of ZANU-PF concerns such as the illegal Western sanctions and Western-funded pirate radio stations,” he said. Another resolution passed at the congress emp-owers the party’s leadership not to entertain any discussions on the appointments of central bank governor, Gideon Gono; Attorney General, Johannes Tom-ana and provincial governors as “these fall outside the purview of the GPA and have their solid statutory origins that protect them.”
MDC insiders say the resolutions annoyed their party’s leadership and dampened the optimism that had been invested in the on-going negotiations.
This comes hard on the heels of revelations by this paper last week that the chief negotiators from ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations had reached compromises on certain outstanding issues, including the appointments of provincial governors as per an agreed formula endorsed by the three parties.
Analysts this week said the resolutions passed by ZANU-PF were a slap in the face of the MDC, which maintains that it has no control over the operations of foreign broadcasting stations run by exiled journalists and other media personnel who left the country following the closure of independent radio stations and newspapers between 2001 and 2005.
While acknowledging that ZANU-PF’s unyielding position could be part of political grandstanding to improve its chan-ces during the negotiations, the move has certainly piled up pressure on the MDC formations as the talks enter the homestretch tomorrow.
Takura Zhangazha, the director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Zimbabwe Chapter) who doubles said ZANU-PF’s bravado was meant for delegates to the congress, which came at a time when the party was still smarting from heavy drubbing at the hands of the MDC in the March 2008 polls.
“Through the resolutions and statements aimed at the MDCs, ZANU-PF wanted to present itself as a party that was functional and able to deal with its internal issues against the backdrop of expectations of factionalism getting the better of the party,” said Zh-angazha.
“After its main business of selecting its leadership for the next five years, the resolutions were intended at emphasising that the party’s position on the GPA issues has the endorsement of the highest decision-making body. It was meant for the eyes and ears of the delegates. I don’t see it affecting the current stage of the talks on outstanding issues. “It is too late,” he added.
Zhangazha said the resolutions, which resonated with the more than 10 000 delegates that were bussed into the Harare Inter-national Conference Centre — the venue of the congress — were meant to get the party faithful into an election mood considering the party’s poor performance in March last year where for the first time since independence in 1980, ZANU-PF surrendered its parliamentary majority to the MDC.
He said it was folly to believe that these resolutions would be tabled at the next round of talks between the three political parties as they grapple to resolve the outstanding issues.
“I do not think they (the resolutions) will actually be tabled during the negotiations but they would be used strategically by the ZANU-PF negotiators to put pressure on the MDC formations on what has already been declared as outstanding issues,” he said.
 SADC leaders, especial South African President Jacob Zuma, who fears the unresolved crisis in Zimbabwe could affect the successful staging of the  FIFA World Cup in June 2010, are anxious to end the political bickering in Harare before the end of the year.
Lawton Hikwa, a dean at the National University of Science and Technology, said strong sentiments at such a high level indaba were expected, coming at a time when some within the party viewed the ZANU-PF leadership as having sold out to the former opposition by entering into the power-sharing pact.
“Such statements should ordinarily be read within the context of the political party holding the congress and the ideology it upholds,” said Hikwa. “Whatever is said there is what the majority of the membership of the party wants to hear but it does not necessarily translate into policy to be implemented within a government whose formation has other influences,” he said.
Abel Chikomo, the executive director of the Human Rights NGO Forum, said it was obvious from the onset that ZANU-PF would raise the issues contained in the resolutions read out by Mutasa.
“Its more of grand-standing than agreed party policy as it relates to the negotiations,” said Chikomo.
Some critics point out that the resolutions showed that the MDC formations has been naïve in their dealings with ZANU-PF adding that the position adopted by President Mugabe’s party would lead to the collapse of the talks.
Hikwa, however, said there was potential for cooperation among the protagonists in the Zimbabwe crisis, saying top of which was the constitutional-making process which, he said, if pursued to its logical conclusion should be able to address the outstanding issues.
President Mugabe hinted at the congress that the next elections would be held within two years, a move which has raised fears of renewed political violence among the supporters of the three political parties.
“Elections are not too far away,” said President Mugabe, who was outpolled by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the March presidential race.
Tsvangirai, however, failed to garner enough votes for him to be declared president of the republic leading to a presidential run-off which he eventual boycotted citing violence against his supporters.
President Mugabe went on to win a one-man presidential race whose outcome was declared a sham by regional leaders and the international community.
Zhangazha said the election statement should be viewed within the context of the uncertainty  surrounding the way for ZANU-PF.
“He (President Mugabe) had to mention the elections for the purposes of his party as well as to indicate to the MDC’s, of course in a congress mood, that his party ZANU-PF is not afraid of elections,” he said, adding that elections, were, however, still a negotiating item and were dependent on the constitution-making process.