Don’t be misled, Tsvangirai told

The Herald

By The Herald Reporter

15 June 2013

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is being misled into believing that the Sadc Extraordinary Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, today will overturn the proclamation of harmonised elections set for July 31,

Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara said yesterday.

MDC secretary for legal affairs Mr David Coltart also added his voice, saying Zimbabwe was a sovereign state that should solve its problems internally.

DPM Mutambara and Mr Coltart made the statements in the wake of PM Tsvangirai’s utterances on Thursday that he would leave for Sadc to brief regional leaders on what he called a “crisis” in Zimbabwe.

DPM Mutambara said Mr Tsvangirai was being vexatious by threatening to approach the courts to reverse the proclamation, saying he should accept the reality that the elections would be held without fail.

Mr Tsvangirai threatened that he would instruct his lawyers to file an application to stop the elections that would be held on a date that the same court ordered President Mugabe to call for elections.

The President proclaimed July 31 as the date for the harmonised elections after the Constitutional Court directed him to hold the polls by that date when Zaka-registered voter Mr Jealousy Mawarire argued that the elections were due by June 29.

“We must now concentrate on working within the election framework we now have in the country,” said Prof Mutambara.

“Elections are now on the 31st of July 2013. There is no point in taking legal action against this dispensation by appealing to the same judges we have been insulting. Neither is it prudent to expect Sadc to overturn our constitutional democracy.”

Prof Mutambara said Mr Tsvangirai was “confused” in attempting to seek relief from the same judges he was insulting for ordering President Mugabe to hold elections by July 31.

“More significantly, you do not achieve much by insulting the judges of the Constitutional Court and then proceeding to file numerous counter, but vexatious urgent court cases in the very same Court,” he said.

“What outcome do you expect from the court system through such reckless and contradictory efforts?”

Prof Mutambara said Mr Tsvangirai was calling for the absurd in expecting Sadc leaders to do to Zimbabwe what they could not do to their countries.

“This business of banking and waiting on Sadc without concentrating on internal processes also leads us astray,” he said. “What is it that Sadc will tell us to do that we already do not know? Why wait for Sadc?

“Within individual Sadc member states they respect their own laws. They value their sovereignty and defend their territorial integrity. Why would they want to prescribe to Zimbabwe what they do not accept internally? Does the Sadc constituting law allow that? These are questions we choose not to answer.”

Addressing the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday evening, Mr Coltart said the habit of taking domestic disputes to Sadc, which the MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is fond of, was embarrassing.

“We are a sovereign country and I am a proud Zimbabwean. I do not believe that as a nation we should be guided by any outside country in solving our problems,” said Mr Coltart, who is also the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

“It is not worthwhile to be running to Sadc all the time. The irony of it is that when we take our problems to them, we attract criticism and embarrass ourselves.”

Mr Coltart said although Sadc was the facilitator to the Global Political Agreement, the onus was on Zimbabweans to determine their destiny.

He acknowledged that President Mugabe acted according to law, adding that the Constitutional Court ruling was binding.

Mr Coltart, however, noted that there was room for parties to go back to the Constitutional Court, not Sadc, to argue their case citing reasons why they feel July 31 was not feasible.

“I am not one of those who say we should ignore the Constitutional Court ruling because it is binding. I also do not criticise the content of the ruling.

“The correct procedure in my view would be to go back to the Constitutional Court and say it would be difficult to comply with the ruling,” said Mr Coltart.

While the inclusive Government has been fragile, said Mr Coltart, party leaders should work together to ensure that what has been achieved during the transitional period was not destroyed.