DRC summit victory for Mugabe

The coalition has, indeed, been a marriage of convenience. The partners in the unity government have never gone on honeymoon ever since they tied the knot seven months ago.
At the centre of the acrimony threatening to rip apart the inclusive government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been a catalogue of unresolved issues arising from the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed in September last year.
None of the main political parties — ZANU-PF and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that are party to the GPA — accept responsibility for the multi-faceted challenges blighting the union.
The MDC-T, which has more to lose should the power-sharing agreement collapse, points an accusing finger at ZANU-PF.
The party believes President Mugabe has been dragging his feet on key government appointments and has unleashed state agents on MDC-T legislators in order to weaken Tsvangirai’s leverage in the House of Assembly where the combined MDC factions wrested control from ZANU-PF for the first time since 1980.
But President Mugabe, who has ruled the country since its independence from Britain in 1980, has stuck to his old tune — sanctions.
The veteran nationalist — a politician through and through — says the MDC-T is not doing enough to influence its “allies” to lift sanctions, which he said are the only outstanding issue remaining.
The sanctions were slapped on President Mugabe and selected members of his previous government in 2002 for alleged human rights violations.
ZANU-PF has been adamant that the measures which include travel restrictions and trade embargoes were meant to punish President Mugabe’s administration for seizing land from the minority whites for redistribution to the majority landless blacks.
And on Tuesday last week, President Mugabe’s prognosis was echoed by fellow Heads of States and Government from the 15-member SADC bloc.
The MDC-T was left licking its wounds after the summit and will now have to wait for the SADC Troika to be held in Mozambique sometime next month to see if the issues stalling the implementation of the GPA can be resolved.
Analysts told The Financial Gazette this week that by sweeping the Zimbabwe issue under the carpet at the DRC summit, SADC leaders had relayed a strong message to the MDC-T: That it cannot meddle in human resource issues of the inclusive government.
The MDC-T had fought tooth and nail to have Zimbabwe on the SADC agenda but in the end President Mugabe, who by virtue of being one of the grouping’s founding fathers knows its ins and outs, prevailed.
Knowingly or unknowingly, SADC strengthened President Mugabe’s hand, while at the same time dragging the entire MDC leadership on the edge.
The outcome of the summit, according to the same analysts, gave credence to allegations that the regional grouping was biased against  some parties in the inclusive government.
“It should be stated that SADC leaders are disadvantaging ordinary Zimb-abweans. People expected SADC to reprimand the government of Zimbabwe over the SADC Tribunal for instance but instead turned on the West,” said Reverend Useni Sibanda, coordinator of the Chri-stian Alliance of Zim-babwe.
Sibanda said SADC’s inaction over Zimbabwe might also encourage President Mugabe to further frustrate key media and political reforms currently in the pipeline knowing fully well that his counterparts in the southern region are solidly behind him.
“It strengthens President Mugabe’s hand in any future dealings with Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the MDC in the power-sharing pact,” he said. “The danger with the SADC stance is that President Mugabe and ZANU-PF might not see the need to speed up the reforms as they see that they have the support of SADC who, mind you, are the guarantors of the GPA,” added Sibanda.
He said by narrowing down on sanctions, SADC leaders were barking up the wrong tree.
The West, Sibanda said, can only be cajoled into lifting sanctions once considerable progress has been made in dealing with the so-called Zimbabwe crisis.
He cited the alleged selective application of the law and the on-going farm disruptions as some of the democratic deficits emb-oldening the international community into tightening the noose around the inclusive government’s neck.
“SADC’s focus and emphasis should not be on the West and its allies but actually putting pressure on the unity government to fully implement the GNU (government of national unity) in its totality, including swearing in of governors, among other outstanding issues. What is holding the removal of the restrictive measures is simply the failure to fully implement the GPA,” said Sibanda.
Members of the European Union (EU) Troika who were in the country at the weekend courted the wrath of ZANU-PF when they dismissed its sanctions mantra as misplaced.
Head of delegation, Gunilla Carlsson, said the MDC-T had no power to remove sanctions because the party had nothing to do with their imposition in the first place.
“The restrictive measures are decided in the European Union,” said Carlsson. “It is not up to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to take them away. That is a European Union responsibility.”
Karel De Gucht, the EU commissioner for development and human assistance, weighed in saying it was premature for ZANU-PF to talk about lifting sanctions adding “these can go away if there are noticeable improvements for instance in media reform and return of the rule of law.”
ZANU-PF has been breathing fire and brimstone over the EU delegation’s views.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa accused the mission of siding with President Mugabe’s rival.
“They seem to want to undermine the inclusive government. They speak as much as the MDC. They just swallow, hook, line and sinker what the MDC says,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying.
Analysts feel the support the MDC got from the EU delegation might not do much to stop the ZANU-PF roller coaster, buoyed by “the diplomatic coup in the DRC”, from riding roughshod over its partners in the GPA.
Fambai Ngirande, the spokesperson for the National Association of non governmental organisations, said the “diplomatic victory won by ZANU-PF in Kinshasa” dampened the MDC’s spirits adding its supporters will have to wait a little longer to see the “real change” being promised by the party.
He said ZANU-PF now sees itself as having the carte blanche to do as it pleases and will not be pushed by the MDC-T to make any concessions.
“SADC are acting blindly on all these issues. This has the adverse effect of encouraging President Mugabe to do as he likes, probably frustrating other reforms due, under the GPA. No-one can fault him because of the latest SADC stance. Yes, the issues of the removal of sanctions are important, but SADC should have at least said something about the other outstanding issues being raised by the MDC,” said Ngirande.
Because of the political bickering between ZANU-PF and the MDC formations, the inclusive government has gone for a year now after signing the GPA without achieving its key deliverables.
For instance, the drafting of a new constitution to replace the compromise document agreed to at the Lancaster House conference in 1979 had been inexplicably delayed due to sharp differences between the political parties in the GPA. Despite forwarding names to President Mugabe of people selected to sit on the much awaited Zimbabwe Media Commission by Parliament, very little progress has been made on the anticipated media reforms. Addressing his party supporters in Bulawayo on Sun-day, the premier said he would not stand idle while ZANU-PF continued violating the GPA with impunity.
The MDC-T leader said while his party had played its part in implementing the provisions of the GPA the party was concerned that the agreement had not been fully implemented over seven months down the line.
“That is why the people should be given an opportunity to express their views on what they think about the performance of the inclusive government and we are going to respect the people’s views,” said Tsvangirai.
“The coalition government requires certain compromise on policy.
“However, the MDC has never, and will never, compromise on issues of principle.
“For the past seven months, we in the MDC have shown respect, conciliation and understanding of ZANU-PF and what did we get in return? Nothing.
“This must stop now. The MDC wants partners in this government but ultimately our mandate is to deliver good governance to the people — and for this all we need is the trust and support of the people,” said Tsvangirai.