Join the dance – MDC told

ZimOnline
By Juma Donke
Thursday 11 December 2008

CAPE TOWN – The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has no option but to accept the flawed September 15 power sharing agreement with ZANU PF for it to start reversing the deleterious effects of the humanitarian crisis that is spreading across Zimbabwe.

Political commentator John Makumbe on Tuesday night railed against the MDC leadership for agreeing to the “very bad deal” which essentially hands back all the levers of power to President Robert Mugabe.

However, the agreement was “the only game in town” and the MDC should dust off its best apparel and go to the “dance”.

“This is a bad deal: a very bad deal. I wonder where these guys were when they signed this deal. Perhaps they were in a stinking toilet. But even a stinking toilet stops smelling if you stay in it for a long time,” Makumbe said.

He likened the Zimbabwean agreement to an equally defective Kenyan power-sharing pact hastily cobbled together to end widening civil strife that left an estimated 1 500 people dead. Kenya spiralled into political violence after opposition leader Raila Odinga’s followers suspected fraud during last December’s presidential poll.

Makumbe said: “Like the Kenyan agreement, this deal hands the levers of head of state to the loser. But that doesn’t surprise me because Thabo Mbeki (the facilitator) is not given to achieving much as the ANC realised after Polokwane.”

He was addressing a seminar organised by The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation on the current situation in Zimbabwe in Cape Town.

Makumbe shared the podium with MDC senator David Coltart. Coltart said the MDC should push for speedy resolution of the sticky points that were holding up implementation of the agreement in the hope of unlocking frozen international development aid.

Despite the agreement’s inherent shortcomings, the MDC should not walk away from the negotiations as that would dash the expectations of millions of hungry Zimbabweans whose hopes of survival are pinned on Morgan Tsvangirai assuming the premiership in the proposed Government of National Unity (GNU).

Makumbe, a professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe, described the deal as “clumsy, with top heavy structures” that gave power to the so-called Council of Ministers to “supervise” the Prime Minister. In a functioning democracy, the prime minister supervises Cabinet ministers.

Additionally, the agreement was bereft of an implementation timeframe, gave too much power to the office of the president, which powers included appointing the prime minister; was silent on the sharing of governors’ posts and crucially, failed to allocate ministries to the feuding political parties.

Said Makumbe: “The President exercises too much executive power, and now is not the time that Robert Mugabe will start being a gentleman. We know Robert Mugabe uses his powers; even that (which) he doesn’t have.”

The shoddiness of the whole deal was typified by the current battle between ZANU PF and the MDC-T for control of the ministry of home affairs.

While ZANU PF has shown willingness to share this portfolio in line with the November 9 SADC Extraordinary Summit resolution which endorsed this idea, the larger faction of the MDC has refused to join government on these terms.

The MDC’s argument is premised on the fact that ZANU PF has allocated itself the ministry of defence and ministry of state security – the other two security ministries in the triumvirate.

Both speakers criticised the SADC for kowtowing to Mugabe and turning a blind eye to his brinkmanship.

Coltart charged that the SADC November 9 Resolution was an “impractical” and “ridiculous decision”.
Makumbe, added that the DNA of liberation parties in southern Africa made them “allergic to handing over power” to people like Morgan Tsvangirai, who have “zero percent liberation credentials”.

This is why they ganged up against Tsvangirai at the November 9 summit. Coltart, however, argued that an MDC takeover of the ministry of homes affairs – which controls the police and the Registrar General’s office – was bound to be meaningless as both Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede were unlikely to serve an MDC minister in good faith.

“In a crisis, both Mudede and Chihuri will side with ZANU PF because they belong to that party. The MDC will be left high and dry. It’s a nonsense (the agreement),” said Coltart.

The senator for Khumalo, however, encouraged his colleagues in MDC-T to join the GNU and seize the opportunity to outshine ZANU PF in service delivery and to steady the flailing economy.

As Prime Minister and head of the government, Tsvangirai’s office would be the entry point of all development and humanitarian aid destined for Zimbabwe.

This and the fact that MDC would control the Ministries of Finance, Health, and Education which between them control the national budget and gobble up a large chunk of the finances would place the MDC in the driving seat, said the Senator.

He was sceptical about recent calls by the international community for the ouster of Mugabe. “There is no political will in Britain to oust Mugabe and an uprising is unlikely in Zimbabwe.”

In practice, an international humanitarian invasion of Zimbabwe would be stalled by China and Russia which routinely back dictators.

The former Communist states which wield the veto power in the United Nations Security Council, have unfailingly used their political and legal standing to block attempts to slap UN sanctions on Mugabe and members of his inner circle.

Zimbabwe is also unlikely to implode in same manner as Kenya because there was “no pressure cooker effect” in the country.

Young people who are the vanguard of such uprisings, chose to leave the country for either Botswana or South Africa when they reached “the end of the tether”, handing the ascendancy in the political stalemate to ZANU PF and its military generals.

Also, a small “hardcore” in the military which was bankrolling its operations by fleecing the newly discovered diamonds in Chiadzwa, was prepared to reduce Zimbabwe to the same level as fragmented and rudderless Somalia.

The horn of Africa nation imploded after the 1991 ouster of former dictator Siyad Barre. Repeated attempts to repair its democratic institutions and restore it to full statehood have flopped.

“There are more Zimbabwean activists in Hillbrow (Johannesburg). The majority (of people) left (in Zimbabwe) are physically weak and are inclined to queue the whole day to withdraw ZW$500 000 which is only enough to pay for a one-way ride into town,” said Coltart.