Faith Zaba/Brian Chitemba/Paidamoyo Muzulu
THE two MDC formations yesterday told South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team that the Global Political Agreement (GPA) should be fully implemented first before fresh elections are held to ensure intimidation and violence-free polls.
Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC and smaller MDC formation led by Welshman Ncube and the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) met separately with Zuma’s facilitation team.
A Jomic member who declined to be named said Zuma’s facilitation team said they were concerned about the sluggish approach in implementing the GPA’s outstanding issues.
“The facilitation team is keen on seeing improvement in interaction among parties to the GPA,” the Jomic member said. “They want the GPA to be implemented fully and urgently.”
MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told the Zimbabwe Independent after a two-hour meeting with former cabinet ministers Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and South African ambassador to Zimbabwe Mlungisi Makhalima yesterday that they demanded some guarantee from Zuma’s team that the process of drafting the roadmap to elections would not be “another talk-shop and futile exercise”.
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The facilitation team is in Zimbabwe gathering information regarding the elections roadmap.
“The roadmap must be an agreed document,” Chamisa said. “But we made it clear that the GPA must be implemented to the full first before we can have elections in Zimbabwe. Non fulfillment of the GPA undermines the roadmap to elections. The GPA is a prescription to a free and fair and violence-free election,” said Chamisa, who attended the meeting with MDC-T negotiator Elton Mangoma.
MDC-T has 21 minimum conditions for a free and fair election which they presented and these include drafting a new constitution, guaranteeing the security of people, an end to violence, the introduction of a biometric voters’ roll, a transparent and impartial delimitation process, full audit of electoral processes, Sadc monitors six months before and six months after the elections and security sector reforms and its realignment to prevent political abuse by the military, intelligence agencies and youth militia.
It also wants media freedoms, prevention of Zanu PF abuse of state resources, in particular diamonds in Chiadzwa, and an impartial and professional Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
MDC-N secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Moses Mzila-Ndlovu met the South African facilitation team on Wednesday and made it clear that the full implementation of the GPA was paramount to ensure a credible, free and fair election.
“We told the team that the outstanding 23 GPA agreed points should be implemented first before any fresh elections,” Mushonga said. “We also proposed that a team be set up to come up with a road map that would be forwarded to facilitators and Sadc, the guarantors of the agreement.”Some of the outstanding issues include media reforms, deregulation of broadcasting, operationalising the Human Rights Commission, electoral reforms, security sector reforms and constitutional reforms.
Sources close to the meetings said the facilitation team told them that conducting free and fair elections was Sadc’s mandate and they would not support anything short of a credible and undisputed poll.
“They were very clear – they told us frankly that Zimbabwe’s instability was a threat to the region and they would want to make sure that elections are free and fair and they would not accept anything less. They also told us that we are destroying our own country and economy through violence that erupted in recent months and they want it to stop,” the source said.
“We asked them for a reassurance to ensure that this whole exercise is not a futile one where we agree on a roadmap and Zanu PF refuses to implement. They told us that it will be implemented without any doubt, but they couldn’t tell us how they will make sure Zanu PF implements the GPA and roadmap.”
Sources who attended the meeting with Jomic said Zuma’s facilitation team said Zimbabwe was not ready for elections this year due to several critical electoral and democratic reforms that needed to be implemented first.
The team –– led by Zuma’ international affairs advisor Lindiwe Zulu, insisted that elections were not feasible this year.
Co-Jomic chairperson Mangoma confirmed that Zulu and her team agreed that the roadmap for elections could not be fully implemented this year.He said Zuma’s facilitation team said there was an urgent need for reforming state institutions such as the army and the ZEC to make them non-partisan to avoid officials tilting poll results in favour of certain political parties.
“The facilitation team was clear that it was impossible for Zimbabweans to go for elections this year given that we need a new constitution, reforming State institutions and establish laws that give power to institutions like the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission,” said Mangoma.
Last week, Zulu said Zuma was concerned about the wave of political violence gripping Zimbabwe, adding the current political climate was not conducive for free and free elections. Mangoma said Zulu and her team said they feared a repeat of the 2008 orgy of politically-motivated violence if critical reforms were not put in place.
He said Jomic and the South African facilitation team agreed that a voters’ roll was in shambles and needed an overhaul. Earlier this year, it emerged that the voters’ roll was shambolic with babies and the dead appearing on the register.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa has said US$20 million is required for a new voters’ roll. President Robert Mugabe has reiterated that he wants elections this year with or without a new constitution and has once threatened that he would dissolve parliament and call for elections.
Zanu PF has already launched its campaign across the country code-named “Operation Ngatizivane”.
“The facilitators want to see the crucial reforms implemented before elections and as Jomic we support that,” said Mangoma.
Zanu PF met Zuma’s facilitation team, but the Independent could not get details of the deliberations at the time of going to press last night as the party’s negotiators Nicholas Goche and Patrick Chinamasa were not answering their mobile phones.
