Zimbabwe’s inclusive government, established in terms of the GPA, has just turned two. Its two years of existence have been fraught with difficulties, some of which have threatened to rip it asunder. In addition to the catalogued 27 outstanding issues which supposedly have an implementation matrix, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s refusal to relinquish his government post following an ouster at his party deals a further blow to an inclusive government tottering on the brink of collapse.
But the signatories to the GPA had made provisions to “ensure full and proper implementation of the letter and spirit” of the GPA through the establishment (in terms of article 22 of the GPA) of a Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) to be composed of four senior members of Zanu-PF and four senior members of each of the MDC formations. Most of the Jomic members also double as government ministers and negotiators on behalf of their parties with the effect of further undermining their ability to discharge the monitoring mandate.
The constitution of Jomic from members of the parties who are subordinate to party principals was the kiss of death to any effectiveness that the monitoring body could have achieved. Jomic members are expected to monitor and mediate over the work of their superiors making it a completely unworkable arrangement that cannot achieve its intended purpose.
It is akin to appointing minor children to mediate over bickering parents and monitor a plan to make the marriage work. Jomic’s hands are tied; it cannot, as was intended as one of its functions, “ensure the implementation in letter and spirit of the GPA”. Neither can it “receive reports and complaints in respect of any issue related to the implementation, enforcement and execution of the GPA”.
No wonder why clause after clause of the GPA continues to be violated with impunity without the slightest protest from Jomic – it is a dog which neither barks nor bites. Jomic is a paper tiger; it has no power over the party principals, and as such cannot push them to act to fulfill their obligations in terms of the GPA.
If Zimbabwe’s political leadership is genuinely committed to fully implement all provisions of the GPA in order to put an end to “the polarisation, divisions, conflict, violence and the intolerance that has characterised Zimbabwean politics and society in recent times” then it should let Sadc take over the monitoring of the GPA.
Sadc, as an external guarantor of the GPA, is best placed to provide effective monitoring of the GPA. It has the political clout and credibility to receive reports and complaints in respect of any issue related to the implementation and enforcement of the GPA. It is logical that respected neighbours should take on the task of mediation and monitoring of talks when parents fight, and not leave that task to hapless children.
The terms of reference for the Sadc GPA monitoring committee must clearly indicate powers to recommend appropriate action by Sadc in the event of non-compliance by Zimbabwe’s political principals in executing GPA provisions. Monitoring alone would be useless unless it is backed by relevant remedial action.
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And so far SADC has been failing to prescribe appropriate remedial action in the face of failure to meet set benchmarks.
The monitoring role that SADC should take on would bolster South Africa’s mediation and facilitation role, as it would be in a position to regularly get information on the ground of the various challenges related to the non-implementation of the GPA. As it is, SADC may well be in the dark about the suspect deployment of the army across the country, a resurgence in political violence which now threatens to engulf Zimbabwe once again, or of the stalled constitutional reform process and threats to go for elections in the absence of adequate reforms and in the context of a prohibitive environment of total fear and intimidation.
What is most alarming about the resurgent violence is not the scale or the brutality, but the unwillingness of the police to intervene. But in the absence of a robust monitoring mechanism all these pertinent issues remain concealed from SADC and the wider international community.
Dewa Mavhinga, Regional Coordinator, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
