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Pambazuka News 352: Zimbabwe's political roller-coaster hits another deep dip
The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa
Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839
With nearly 500 contributors and an estimated 500,000 readers Pambazuka News is the authoritative pan African electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa providing cutting edge commentary and in-depth analysis on politics and current affairs, development, human rights, refugees, gender issues and culture in Africa.
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CONTENTS: 1. Features, 2. Comment & analysis, 3. Pan-African Postcard, 4. Letters
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Highlights from this issue
FEATURES: Patrick Bond and Grace Kwinjeh on the upcoming Zimbabwe elections
COMMENTS &ANALYSIS:
- Madhuku Lovemore on Zimbabwe's Simba Makoni as a spoiler
- Kodya dia Moyo Study Group on the massacres in the D R Congo
- National Constitutional Assembly condemns the Zimbabwe banning of EU and Commonwealth observers.
- Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights on voter intimidation
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: John Samuel on the nature of political parties
LETTERS: Readers' comments and announcements
Features
Zimbabwe's political roller-coaster hits another deep dip
2008-03-11
Patrick Bond and Grace Kwinjeh
With presidential elections in Zimbabwe just around the corner, Patrick Bond and Grace Kwinjeh look at who the national, regional and international players are, and consider various people-centered alternatives.
INTRODUCTION
The March 29 election in Zimbabwe is very likely to result in Robert Mugabe winning, by hook or by crook, a slim 50%+ majority, so as to avoid a run-off. In the last presidential election, in 2002, his main opponent Morgan Tsvangirai – leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions from 1988-99, but subsequently also supported by business and most Western governments - officially received just 40% of the vote.
Massive irregularities – such as far fewer urban polling stations - were noted by all honest observers, and the pre-election playing field was skewed by lack of a free press, Tsvangirai's frame-up on a bogus treason charge, and his party's inability to campaign peacefully in many regions. He nearly certainly won, but was cheated out of a democratic, peaceful regime change supported by most progressives in civil society.
Since then, core degenerative dynamics have included economic rot, sustained political repression, and two important splits in the dominant parties, Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZanuPF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)-Tsvangirai.
THE MDC AND ZANU-PF INTERNAL SPLITS
The first split was when in October 2005, key officials of the MDC – led by secretary-general Welshman Ncube and Vice President Gibson Sibanda – broke away a small faction of supporters, due to what they claimed was Tsvangirai's ‘dictatorial style’. The catalyst was Tsvangirai's insistence on boycotting Mugabe's new Senate. Ironically, in this election MDC-Tsvangirai has posted candidates for the Senate.
A brand new leader was chosen for the breakaway group, Dr Arthur Mutambara, formerly a firebrand student leader opposed to Mugabe's early 1990s structural adjustment program and state corruption, who subsequently studied at Oxford and Michigan, and by the mid-2000s moved back to the region, to take a job at Johannesburg's Standard Bank.
An effort to rejoin the two factions failed when MDC-Tsvangirai demanded too many parliamentary seats in MDC-Mutambara's Matabeleland heartland, according to the latter. Then Mutambara dropped out of the presidential race once a brand new candidate – from the ruling party (the first substantial defection since 1990) – jumped in to challenge Mugabe on February 5.
In Zanu PF's case, the split may yet become serious, but now amounts to just renegade former finance minister Simba Makoni, a long-term favourite of neoliberal forces internal and external. By early March, only two other major ruling party figures, former revolutionary Dumiso Dabengwa and parliamentary leader Cyril Ndebele, publicly supported him. Makoni hoped for backing by the powerful couple Solomon and Joyce Mujuru (Zimbabwe's vice-president), not only failed to materialise, but Joyce then endorsed Mugabe to most observers' surprise.
Although she was once tipped as his successor, a different faction in ZanuPF led by Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to reign once Mugabe finally retires.
COST OF MUGABE’S REIGN
But the damage done in the meantime, including the coming weeks of violent electioneering, will be extreme.
For example, the economic contradictions of running a growing patronage-based regime with a rapidly declining Gross Domestic Product are felt mainly in the inflation rate. Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono made a stunning revelation in January: 67 trillion Zimbabwean dollars (US$33 million at the then effective exchange rate) were in circulation but could not be traced inside the financial system.
The banks had only Z$2 trillion cash on hand. Said Gono, "The rest of the money is with cash barons who have opened mini-central banks at their houses. Unfortunately the people doing that are influential citizens with leadership positions."
One accused was the former chairperson of the Finance Portfolio Committee in Parliament, David Butau, who escaped to Britain. Butau's rebuttal was that he was about to make a stunning revelation of "shady deals" by the central bank: "Gono should publish all the payments he made to Flatwater, to Michigan as well as declare how he bought shares in Doves." At least Z$7 trillion is estimated to have been captured by these shady shell companies in recent months.
Instead of coming to grips with cronyism, Gono's solution is to print infinite numbers of Z$, using expensive imported German paper. With inflation rising far beyond the 100,000% level, amongst the highest recorded in world history, there are only a few areas Zimbabweans can dump money into so as not to see it evaporate instantly: hard currency, real estate, local stock market shares and durable consumer goods.
As a result of the cash shortage thus caused, a large proportion of Zimbabweans suffered the Christmas and New Year holiday break without access to money. The shortages of cash and basic goods – electricity, clean water, petrol, most medicines, many foodstuffs - epitomises the freefall of a once quite prosperous site for a largish middle class.
Meanwhile the tiny, kleptocratic ruling elite grew wealthy at the expense of the vast majority of people, as unemployed soared to more than 80%. Life expectancy for an average Zimbabwean dropped to 32 and 37 years for females and males respectively, and AIDS medicines that were once available have become scarce. The education system faces near total collapse.
Without growing electricity supplies, there is little hope of an upturn. Mozambique's Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa power utility recently suspended supplies over an outstanding debt of US$26 million. The South African parastatal Eskom cut Zimbabwe's power supply when in January regular 'load-shedding' electricity shortages hit home.
As for the durable political repression faced by any opposition politician or civil society activist, anyone brave enough could have remarked upon Mugabe's monomaniacal and extremely violent tendencies from at least 1982, not long after the country`s liberation from white-ruled Rhodesia. Over the subsequent four years, the Matebeleland region witnessed the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade massacre over 20 000 civilians, mostly of the Ndebele ethnic group.
THE BIRTH OF THE MDC
The West preferred to look the other way, courting Mugabe as an ally in part to persuade the apartheid government to begin gradually deracialising capitalism, the way Zimbabwe was – ever so gradually. By 1989, whites still received 97% of bank loans, though they were 3% of the population; during the 1990s white control of land actually grew thanks to liberalisation and lower state spending.
As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began screw-tightening from 1984, intensifying the loan flows and neoliberal pressure in 1991, Zimbabwe's once impressive expansion of health clinics and schools, the development of a state-based middle- and lower-middle-class, and the sustenance of the inherited vibrant manufacturing sector, all waned.
Then the inevitable IMF Riots began in the early 1990s, growing in intensity and numbers of aggrieved constituencies until 1997. That year Mugabe began the political and economic zigzagging for which he is now famous. There were new patronage payments to liberation war veterans following embarrassing protests, and a new war against Democratic Republic of the Congo rebels (with Mugabe propping up Laurent Kabila), whose high costs were offset by army elite accumulation.
Alongside deep structural economic rot, the fiscal drain and threats of radical land reform led to a late 1997 currency crash. In 2000, after losing a referendum on a new Constitution, Mugabe authorised the war vets to invade white farmers' properties (some inherited from Rhodesian days but a large share paid for in cash since liberation in 1980 after the state declined its first option to buy), causing a substantial agricultural sector collapse. By then, too, corruption was so well entrenched that inevitably, civil society turned to alternative organisations for political inspiration. A Working People's Convention in 1999 mandated the trade unions to form a new party, and the MDC was born.
Was the MDC born free? Or free-market? By early 2000, it appeared the white business elite had captured the MDC, as economic spokesperson Eddie Cross promised the privatisation of "everything", including the schools. In subsequent years a more explicitly social-democratic ideology was adopted. But how deep?
In July 2007, for example, the first drafts of the MDC's 2008 electoral programme were shown to neoliberal officials of the Cato Institute in Washington; in contrast, it was only at last month's launch that Zimbabwean civil society got its first glance at the quite uninspired manifesto. Makoni's is just as vapid. And Mugabe's will change nothing.
SOUTH AFRICA: WHOSE FRIEND? WHOSE FOE?
Some may conclude, then, that the March 29 election is only interesting from the standpoint of personalities operating within preconstrained 20th century paradigms (nationalism and neoliberalism), with little or no mass popular content or appeal. And after all, nearly all the prior contested elections – since 1990 - have been marked by rigging, state sponsored violence, and repressive legislation curtailing media and political freedoms.
For this, plus sustained repressive behaviour, Mugabe and more than 100 top officials face Western personalised "smart sanctions" - travel bans and account freezes – as well as an arms embargo. China and Russia subsequently became much more important trading partners.
But one major regional supporter of Mugabe continues to have influence: South African president Thabo Mbeki. Although displaced as African National Congress president by Jacob Zuma in December, and although Zuma's labour backers hate Mugabe and expect him to shift tack, there was no apparent change in the nurturing of the Zimbabwean dictatorship from Pretoria in subsequent weeks. South African officials continued to hope and "expect" a "free and fair election".
Mbeki had gained a mandate from regional governments to mediate the Zimbabwe crisis in March 2007, and managed to sucker both MDC-Tsvangirai and MDC-Mutambara into endless talks that gained superficial legislative changes. Late last year, amendments were made to the Electoral Act and the Access to Information and Privacy Act, but there is still no free press and highly constrained ability to even campaign for the coming election.
Worse, Mugabe unilaterally announced the 29 March election date, which the MDC desperately wanted postponed until June so as to vet the now-corrupted voters' roll and also gain more media and non-violent campaigning space. It was clear the Mbeki negotiations were a stalling and divide-and-conquer tactic, and that this worked to raise hopes of internal reform in the two MDC camps.
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
In the context of recent upheavals rocking Kenya over disputed elections, can Zimbabwe afford another stolen poll? Unfortunately, there may be insubstantial protests from the political elites who lose. A top official of MDC-Tsvangirai, Johannesburg-based former member of parliament Roy Bennett, specifically called on the party's constituents not to hit the streets, though he suggested no other recourse than more talks.
And the smaller MDC-Mutumbara seems able to stomach any level of state repression in the interests of elite participation, a matter embarrassingly obvious when Makoni snubbed Mutumbara's attempt at an alliance last month - yet the latter still endorsed the former.
In short, what was once a united opposition, one strong enough to defeat Mugabe's sponsored Constitutional proposals in a 2000 Referendum, is now deeply fractured, but on personality not substantive lines.
And sadly, a good many of those who might have insisted on the MDCs putting petty squabbling over trivial spoils behind them, in search of a common platform to not only dismiss Mugabe's government but generate a real socio-economic alternative, are no longer in Zimbabwe. A huge exodus of young Zimbabweans, the cream of the country's talent and literally millions of its hardest workers, have emigrated, desperate for survivalist opportunities further a field.
Thousands based in central Johannesburg, some have found refuge in Bishop Paul Verryn's Central Methodist Church. At any one time, says Verryn, he has 200 teachers sleeping on the church floor: "They are amongst the best teachers in Africa, Zimbabwe, until recently, has had the highest rate of literacy in Africa."
The Johannesburg metro police arrived on February 7 at midnight to arrest 1500 Zimbabweans, alleging they were illegal aliens. Police captain Bheki Mavundla bragged of his "sustainable crime-combat operations" aimed at "eradicating criminal elements from the district and building". In fact only 15 were found not to have papers, and thankfully this new version of apartheid-style "swart gevaar" – the Afrikaner's notorious fear of black immigration to the cities – was widely condemned in what is usually a quite xenophobic South African society.
Some like senate candidate, torture victim and war veteran Sekai Holland see hope in the latest political developments: "However most Zimbabweans are finally forced by this bad situation to talk to one another across all political divides, to find common ground to move on and build the country together. Mugabe continues to ignore these developments. It is a dangerous time, yet it is also a time of great opportunity if this current mood to work together continues,"
This leaves us to search for the main wellspring of hope for a Zimbabwean recovery within those courageous civil society forces who remain. In early February, reminiscent of the Working People's Convention nine years earlier, more than 5000 representatives of activist groups gathered for the National People's Convention. Key groups included the trade unions, Women of Zimbabwe Arise, the National Students Union, National Constitutional Assembly, Christian Alliance, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, and Lawyers for Human Rights.
The Peoples Charter adopted touched on many issues, ranging from constitutional reform, gender, elections, national economy- but the most fundamental statement to come out of this gathering was the resolve: “And hereby further declare that never again shall we let lives be lost, maimed, tortured or traumatised by the dehumanising experiences of political intolerance, violence and lack of democratic government.”
*Professor Patrick Bond is the Director of the Durban based Centre for Civil Society and Grace Kwinjeh is a South-African based Zimbabwean journalist.
**Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Comment & analysis
Makoni hijacking struggle
2008-03-10
Madhuku Lovemore
Madhuku Lovemore argues that Simba Makoni is hijacking the Zimbabwean struggle and will only entrench ZANU-PF type politics and suggests that no matter how flawed, Tsvangirai represents the best chance for change.
The emergence of the Simba Makoni "initiative/project" has raised justifiable questions about the direction of the continuing quest by Zimbabweans to end the dictatorship of the ZANU-PF regime and usher in a genuinely democratic dispensation.
One such question is: how should civic society relate to the initiative? More fundamentally, should it be the business of civic society organisations to pronounce their preferences among contesting presidential aspirants?
I have decided to take a few hours from my activist work and put pen to paper to address some of the pertinent issues arising from the Makoni "initiative/project".
In doing this, I am neither wearing the hat of an academic nor putting on the spectacles of the proverbial analyst. I am here articulating the views of a civic society activist who, since 1997, has been part of a movement that has certain beliefs, values and principles.
Accordingly, the views and positions expressed herein are partisan in that they are controlled by the beliefs, values and principles for which I have been an activist in the past 10 years. The starting point is to put my cards on the table. Based on the values and beliefs of the movement I belong to, the Makoni "initiative/project" is fundamentally misconceived. It will fail. It has no grassroots support. It misunderstands the nature of the responses required to address our deepening political crisis.
The founding stone of the initiative is the March 29 harmonised election. The planners believe that on March 29, Makoni will capture power from President Robert Mugabe through an electoral process presided over by none other than the President himself. To them, the reason why President Mugabe is still in power is because those who have challenged him in previous elections did it prematurely and lacked the requisite credentials, support and strategies. The time has now come, a person with the requisite credentials has been found and the support from appropriate circles is also available. According to them, President Mugabe is a democrat who respects electoral processes and will hand power to whoever is elected on March 29.
Makoni and his backers believe that peaceful street protests, stay aways and grassroots meetings advocating fundamental reforms such as a new, democratic and people driven constitution are inappropriate and misguided. All that matters is a carefully planned electoral strategy that "ambushes" (President) Mugabe and takes power away from him through the ballot.
The response to this approach is simple: the March 29, elections are being conducted under a defective constitution whose raison d'etre is to preserve the status quo. Elections under the current constitution cannot deliver change whatever the credentials of the contestants and however sophisticated their strategies.
Until Zimbabweans put their energies together and push the current regime to embrace a genuine and people-driven reform process that leads to a democratic constitution, power will not change hands through a mere election. Participation in the elections on March 29 cannot be for the purpose of winning power. It can only be for any other good reasons.
This brings me to the question of the day: if power cannot change hands under the current constitution, why are all major civic groups, including the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), urging people to go and vote on March 29?
Different civic groups may have different reasons for urging people to go and vote. For the NCA, March 29 will not deliver a new President but it provides a platform for Zimbabweans to make a statement against the Mugabe regime's sins, which include being the author of the suffering of the people and above all, its refusal to embrace democratic reforms.
Casting a vote against (President) Mugabe on March 29 is a peaceful protest against dictatorship and a key step in the post election agenda of confronting that dictatorship and advocating for genuine democratic reforms. But the vote on March 29 is not just against (President) Mugabe. It must be a statement in support of a set of values, beliefs and principles, which guide our post-election struggle for change in Zimbabwe.
It is in this context that the presidential candidature of Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) gains a windfall. The MDC was launched in September 1999 as a result of the deliberations of a Working People's Convention of February 1999. That Convention was convened by the ZCTU and was attended by most civic groups. The NCA played a key role at the Convention. At its launch in September 1999, the MDC had two main parents: the labour movement and the constitutional reform movement.
The MDC was formed as a political wing of these two movements to pursue, as a political party, the values and principles that these two movements represented. For example, the ZCTU would expect the MDC, as a political party, to fight for labour friendly policies. Similarly, the NCA expects the MDC to advocate for a new, democratic and people-driven constitution.
Thus, since 1999, there has existed a family: the labour movement, the constitutional reform movement and the political party mothered by these two movements. Each member of the family is a separate entity and independent from the others. The MDC is partisan.
The other movements are non-partisan. Like every other family, certain core family values are shared. In this particular family, the most important value is that Zimbabwe's political system must be transformed through people-driven processes and that a new, democratic and people driven constitution must anchor that transformation. The family is convinced that a "reformed ZANU-PF" is not the answer because it does not seek transformation.
The family has had its own problems. The MDC has not been consistent in defending family values. On many occasions, it has disappointed the family. There are two most recent disappointments. The first is its support for Amendment 18. It is common knowledge that the other family members were outraged by that misguided endorsement of piecemeal constitutional reforms. The second disappointment is the MDC's participation in this election under a defective constitution. The family's preference is "No elections without a new, democratic and people-driven constitution".
However, notwithstanding these disappointments, the family is agreed on the bigger picture of transforming Zimbabwe through people-driven processes. Whatever his weaknesses, Tsvangirai's presidential candidature symbolizes the founding values of our movement. Elections on March 29, being held under the current constitutional arrangements, will not make anyone other than (President) Mugabe, the president. Accordingly, a vote for either Morgan Tsvangirai or Simba Makoni can only be for other good reasons. For our family, our good reason is to support our kind of politics. It is to demonstrate that our kind of politics has the greatest support in the country and must therefore be vigorously pursued in the post-election period.
Our good reason is to use March 29 to set the agenda for the post-election period. As these elections cannot deliver a change of government, the competition between Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni is, to be blunt, "for No. 2 position." President Mugabe's "No. 1 position" is secured by the absence of a free and fair election. He has no genuine support. However, the competition for the "No. 2 position" is serious business. Making a choice between Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai is a big political statement, reflecting one's position as to the way forward in the current crisis. Morgan Tsvangirai represents the route we have been following since 1997. He is, as a person, not the answer. He represents the answer and must be supported.
A vote for Tsvangirai's presidential bid is a statement against a "reformed ZANU-PF" agenda. It is important that this statement be made against Simba Makoni and his group because their set of beliefs distorts our post-election agenda of a total assault against the system. This group does not believe in transformation – all they want is to replace (President) Mugabe. These ZANU-PF reformists have no post election agenda because they only have one plan: to win and govern. They are irrelevant in a post-election setting focusing on transformation. They do not believe in our methods. Fortunately, because of our grassroots presence, March 29 will show that the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans support a total transformation of the system presided over by (President) Mugabe and not a mere tinkering with it They will reject the Simba Makoni initiative. Makoni will be a distant third in the presidential race. The situation will remain what it is today with one solution – pushing for a genuine people-driven transformation and free and fair elections under a new democratic constitution.
*Lovemore Madhuku is the National Constituent Assembly chairman in Zimbabwe.
**Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
On the Lower Congo (Luozi and Nseke Banza) massacres in D R Congo
March 5, 2008
2008-03-11
Kodya dia Moyo Study Group
We, Daughters and Sons from the Kongo assembled in the Kodya dia Moyo Study Group, are hereby denouncing the events which took place in Lower Congo, more precisely, in Luozi and Nseke Banza.
1. For the record we would like to restate:
That the Kongo people are dedicated to peace, justice and truth;
That the ongoing massacres in Lower Congo were triggered by a legitimacy crisis which, in turn, stems from:
1. An election result achieved by corruption and intimidation;
2. A way of exercising power, by the provincial executive, under the control and partisan interests of the AMP and the Central Government through the Interior Ministry instead of the people of Kongo through its provincial Assembly;
That, subsequent to the unraveling of Kongo culture, the marginalization and pauperization of its people, since the 2nd Republic, the Bundu dia Kongo has set itself up as a body for the rehabilitation of the language, the cultural values and the conscience of the Kongo. Hence its current impact on the Kongo people;
That the rapid intervention police force is made up of former army soldiers who were once members of the Katangese gendarmes, and of the so-called Dragons and commando units from Mobutu’s days and trained as soldiers;
That the results of previous investigations have never been published and the appended recommendations never carried out;
II. We condemn:
The disrespectful treatment shown to our dead by throwing their bodies into the river;
The resorting to heavy military weapons by the police force;
The use of disproportionate repressive measures to resolve political problems;
III. We demand:
That heavy military weaponry be no longer used by the police;
That the governor act as an elected official and not as someone appointed by the Minister of the Interior;
An international investigation of the massacres by a credible organization;
The organization of a Provincial Round Table as had been recommended by the National Assembly;
That the current governor respond publicly, in the Provincial Assembly of the Lower Congo, to questions regarding the events mentioned above;
An explanation as to what happened to the 300 Interahamwe who were rejected in Bandundu, and then were sent to Lower Congo;
That the media use with utmost caution any image or language which might trigger and/or encourage the spreading of xenophobic sentiments throughout the country;
IV. We Call;
On all people from Kongo to remain calm and vigilant;
On elders to perform social catharsis by organizing a reconciliation process;
On solidarity towards those who have been affected by the massacres. We hereby call on local NGOs to act as intermediaries in this process.
We offer our deepest condolences to those families who have been affected
For the Kodya dia Moyo
Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba
Voter intimidation by Zimbabwe National Army deplorable
2008-03-11
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) deplores new public statements by the commander of a state institution which ostensibly exists to impartially protect the safety and integrity of all people of Zimbabwe, regardless of their political persuasion. This comes in the light of the intemperate and unlawful utterances made by the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), Constantine Chiwenga, which were published in The Standard on 9 March 2008.
According to The Standard report Commander Chiwenga stated that two of the presidential candidates, Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni, were “sell outs”, reiterating that:
“Elections are coming and the army will not support or salute sell outs and agents of the West before, during and after the presidential elections. We will not support anyone other than President Mugabe who has sacrificed a lot for the country”
Upon further enquiry as to the role of the army in a democracy the ZDF Commander is reported to have asked:
“What is wrong with the army supporting the President against the election of sell outs?”
These statements echo similar threats made just two week ago on 29 February 2008 by the Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Prison Service, Retired Major General Paradzayi Zimondi, which ZLHR has already condemned, in which he stated that:
“If the opposition wins the election, I will be the first one to resign from my job and go back to defend my piece of land…We are going to the elections and you should vote for President Mugabe. I am giving you an order to vote for the President.”
ZLHR again expresses its concern over a developing trend where senior members of influential state institutions such as the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Zimbabwe Prison Service and the Zimbabwe National Army resort to intimidating their subordinates, the electorate and ordinary Zimbabweans prior to elections for the purposes of manipulating their vote in favour of the incumbent President and ruling party. Uniformed forces’ influence over the electoral process is generally unacceptable under national and international law.
These statements intimidating the electorate go back as far as the run up of the 2002 Presidential elections when the Commissioner of Police and then Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Vitalis Zvinavashe made similar pronouncements.
This conduct essentially amounts to an attempt to use the cover of the electoral and other democratic processes to establish de facto military control, and are thus inconsistent with any of the principles of democratic rule.
According to Section 133B (c) of the Electoral Act, it is a criminal offence to intimidate people with the effect of compelling or attempting to compel them to vote for a particular political party or candidate. Section 134 (3) (b) goes on further to prohibit and criminalise any undue influence, whether duress or threats, upon a voter which influence seeks to make them vote or not vote during an election. The SADC Principles and Guidelines governing Democratic Elections also impart upon member states, including Zimbabwe, the obligation to ensure that elections adhere to the principles of freedom of association and political tolerance. Commander Chiwenga’s statements serve to directly intimidate both members of the ZDF and the electorate, through implied threats of violence, from voting freely for a presidential candidate of their choice, as is their right.
It is therefore clear that the ZDF Commander is in breach of the law and the regional guidelines, and should be prosecuted by the appropriate authorities forthwith.
ZLHR is also concerned by reports that members of the armed forces are allegedly being sent to their rural homes to campaign for the ruling ZANU PF party. ZLHR wishes to make it clear that the use of such a state institution as the army, which is supposed to be a non-partisan arm of the state, for party political purposes is clearly an abuse of state resources, moreso where such resources will be used to intimidate the people from voting freely.
ZLHR urges the law enforcement authorities and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to take action and speak out against these continuing statements which will surely create an environment of fear and intimidation in the run up of and during the March 2008 Elections, depriving the electorate their right to exercise their choice and cast their vote freely.
*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Zimbabwe NCA condemns barring of EU and Commonwealth observers
2008-03-11
The National Constitutional Assembly
The National Constitutional Assembly strongly condemns the arrogance being displayed by the Zimbabwean government and President Robert Mugabe for being at liberty to authorize who will come and observe elections this March.
President Mugabe has already hinted that he will invite only his friends and those perceived to be enemies of the state will not be welcome to come and observe.
The Zimbabwean leader was also recently quoted as saying those in the European Union and Commonwealth were not invited to come and observe elections. The NCA is worried that Mugabe is taking his elevating personal feelings about own foes ahead of national interests.
The NCA is worried that because Mugabe had differences with the Commonwealth he is taking those differences to an election which himself is a competitor and dictate who is supposed to come and this contradicts his gospel of patriotism as he is putting personal interests above everything.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi told diplomats in Harare on Thursday that the government had selected 47 foreign observer teams, "on the basis of reciprocity, objectivity and impartiality in their relationship with Zimbabwe."
"Clearly, those who believe that the only free and fair election is where the opposition wins, have been excluded since the ruling party, Zanu PF, is poised to score yet another triumph," Mumbengegwi said.
It is the feeling of NCA that such moves by the government already jeopardize chances of those elections being legitimized by the international community and traditional supporters of ZANU PF will obviously endorse the elections as free and fair just like in the past.
NCA wants to notify all concerned in the upcoming 29 polls that the coming elections should not be reduced to a birthday party where only friends are invited but that it is a national election which should be open to scrutiny from diverse societies.
Already signs of rigging are set in place, the voters' roll is in shambles, the delimitation of constituencies was done in a patronage base and these signs coupled with manipulation of state resources for campaign purposes such as the reserve bank, national youth militia to intimidate opposition supporters will even make this election worst and far from being legitimate.
The NCA reiterates its long standing point that only a new people driven democratic constitution in Zimbabwe will make it a point that an Independent Electoral Commission will be responsible for accrediting who comes and observe elections in the country.
Currently the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission which obviously is dominated by ZANU PF stalwarts and sympathizers is failing to independently execute its duties as there is massive interference from the foreign affairs and presidency department.
The NCA calls on SADC, AU and all concerned parties to condemn such activities which are being demonstrated by the Robert Mugabe regime in trying to secure yet another victory through controversial means.
State media said Russia was the only European country invited while 23 African and several Asian nations would also monitor the polls, along with teams from regional economic blocs.
All 13 SADC states (Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Africa, Mauritius, DRC and Madagascar) have been invited alongside 10 other African countries, namely Senegal, Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Libya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Five Asian countries -- China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran -- and four countries from the Americas -- Brazil, Jamaica, Venezuela and Nicaragua -- will observe the elections.
African regional organisations invited are SADC, the African Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, NAM, the Economic Community of West African States, Pan African Parliament, Economic Community of Central African States and East African Community.
Among the invited sub-regional organisations are the Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific, Association of South East Asian Nations, MAGREB Union, Community of Portuguese Speaking (Lusophone) Countries and Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
South Africa has indicated it will send an observer mission with 54 members drawn from government, the parliament, the political opposition and civil society.
*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Pan-African Postcard
In praise of political parties
2008-03-03
John Samuel
John Samuel argues that there is a direct correlation between the health of the political party system and the vitality and long term viability of a democracy.
Political Parties are one of the most crucial factors for the sustenance of a viable democratic system. However, political parties across the world are facing a crisis. They have been reduced to mere electoral mechanism or network to capture the power of the State. They are less and less social institutions or legitimizing agents of political process and increasingly turned in to “interest-networks” promoted by the larger economic forces and identity politics of various shades
There seems to be a direct connection between the health of the political party system and the vitality and long term viability of a democracy. The strength, limitations and the contradictions of the political party system get reflected in the process of governance and the character of the state.
Political parties are socio-political institutions, in the public sphere, that help citizens to interface and negotiate with the state. Political parties are also primary legitimizing agents of the government and governing systems of the state. The social function and legitimizing role of political parties are under unprecedented strain. In most of the countries, political parties have rather less institutional history and social roots. Many of them emerged as a corollary to the state power and an instrument to sustain the state power. In the absence of a multi-party system- with grass-roots presence, a committed cadre of leader and wide network with in the society- democratic process can be subverted and political process can be appropriated by a minority of vested interests.
In case of many of the decolonized countries, the nation states as well as political parties are the consequences of decolonization rather than causes of decolonization.
The very process of decolonizing also involved sowing the seeds of conflicts based on ethnicity, religion and identity in most of the countries. Unlike the case of India, there were not many mass struggles or wider political mobilization for freedom from the Colonial Powers. The struggle against colonialisation and imperialism was in many ways the beginning of the process of democratization and political process in most of countries in the world. The process of decolonizing also ensured the emergence of faulty and fragile democratic systems and process – more often initiated by an educated elite minority in conjunction with the erstwhile colonial powers. In poor countries, the absence of a vibrant middle class and healthy economy make political parties less viable socio-political institutions.
The vibrant multiparty system, with multiple ideological and identity base helped to sustain, stabilize and strengthen a unique brand of Indian Democratic system. . In fact, apart from the Congress party, the left parties and the parties on the right too contributed to make India a viable multiparty democracy
However, in many of the other South Asian countries, the absence of a vibrant multi-party system weakened the governance as well as democracy. During the cold war period, most of the left political forces in other parts of South Asia was subverted or eradicated by the nexus of ruling elite and western political and economic forces. The eradication of left political forces from Pakistan and Bangladesh actually had long term political impact in weakening the foundations of democratic process in both countries. The deep rooted feudal values and identity politics based on cast, religion or ethnicity and sub-nationalities shaped the very character, hierarchy of political party systems South Asia, including India. Hence the secular values, or cosmopolitan political ethos and democratic values are actually skin deep in almost all the political party system in India and the rest of South Asia
Political parties are filled with career politician with a single point agenda of getting a piece of state power and the privileges and paraphernalia that come with the package. Many of the political parties are now controlled by a “power-clique” and “fund-managers” and “telegenic leaders”, blessed by media and sustained by the corporate funds.
Elections are reduced to media stunts with “brand” slogans and empty “policy rhetoric”, devoid of any in-depth political process or social mediations. The increasing dependence on media-centric campaigning and corporate funds undermine the very character and autonomy of political party system. New political-corporate elites are in the business of subverting politics and policy framework of the state to maximize profit for few dominant economic forces in a given economy. As many social activists, writers and intellectuals choose to work within the civil society, political parties are facing an acute deficit of creative and ethical leadership.
*John Samuel is a civil society activist and International Director of Actionaid.
**Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Letters
War against women
2008-03-11
Michele N.
Thank you for this revelatory piece on violence against women in Africa (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/46280). The contents of the article both horrified me and spurred me to action. I have shared the article with my classmates in my current Media and Gender course.
My opinion is that the movement for women's rights needs to reach the same worldwide fever pitch as the movement for AIDS education or Environmental Protection. I believe this can be accomplished through the coordination of International NGOs, corporations, and governments and law-making organizations.
I believe we could start organizing a benefit walk to raise money for this cause, much like the nationwide walks for breast cancer. My question for you is: when we have money to distribute, what specific organizations should it go to, considering that we need to attack this problem from many angles (education of boys and girls, lobbying for women's political involvement, exposure through media or documentaries, pressure on governments and UN, support for physical and emotional recovery of the women)? What priorities would you delineate in this fight against global femicide?
Time for women to wage a war
2008-03-11
Stella Mlewa-Nkhoma
I read with mounting horror the atrocities that my fellow women have gone through and continue to endure. We have different wars but the same casualties [Pambazuka News 351: International Women's Day: African women speak out].
In Zambia, the war we are waging is against HIV/AIDS. Not only has it disproportionately affected women but women are the prime victims. Women are care givers and breadwinners. However, their access to education, health care and a means for survival, is usually determined by men. Furthermore, the most vulnerable "little women" the girl child, is is not even safe in her own home, as defilement cases have risen to an alarming all time high. Usually perpetrated by fathers, uncles and close relatives. So I think its time. Time for women to wage a war. We can be combatants too. We must fight this injustice, and resist being made passive spectators as the drama of our lives unfolds.Through
Pambazuka, can we consolidate a plan of action? John Donne Meditation 17 Devotions upon Emergent Occasions "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any woman's death diminishes me, because I am involved in womankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."
Ubuntu: call for solidarity
2008-03-11
UBUNTU
www.ubuntu.upc.edu
On this 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and at the initiative of the World Forum of Civil Society Networks — UBUNTU, we wish to emphasise that all Human Rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent, in full accordance with the Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights made in Vienna (United Nations, 1993).
And so that none may claim not to have heard our call, we also wish to raise our voices to proclaim that in view of the scale and gravity of the challenges faced by humanity, it is urgent to recognise and satisfy Rights emerging as imperative needs, and thus needs on which decision-making is now essential and can no longer be postponed. There is no other way to attain the fulfilment of the Right to Human Life — the sine qua non for the exercise of all other Human Rights -, a right that is daily violated through growing violence and poverty.
We encourage you to visit our web page and, if you agree the proposed statement, also to support it through our usual process: www.ubuntu.upc.edu
Kenya: The Citizen's Duty
2008-03-11
A concerned journalist
On Thursday our members of parliament will be formally called to national duty to bring to life the Harambee House Accord. Our members of parliament should not be left alone in that duty. As citizens we are also called to national duty.
First is to be informed. The mediators of Kenya's political crisis have set up a web site with links to all the agreements so far, statements and other material that is informative.
The web site is http://www.dialoguekenya.org/
Many of us publicly celebrated the signing of the Harambee House Accord, but our members of parliament have been uncharacteristically silent. Between now and when debate on the Harambee House Accord begins they will need encouragement to avoid selfishness, narrow party interests and visualise the national interest. As citizens, it is our national duty to provide that encourage, remind our parliamentary leaders that this is not just about them. It is about all of us.
For instance, the Serena Accord of 1st February, 2008 calls for politicians of different persuasions to hold joint rallies to advocate peace. A few were held the day and weekend that accord was announced. Then what happened?
The Serena Accord also states that militias need to be demobilised and disarmed. But it does not say who should do this or when this should begin or end.
But our focus as citizens should not be limited to the Annan-mediated accords.
For example, under the arrangement elaborated in the accords, there is not going to be a significant opposition in parliament. So who will act as a check on the government? Ensure that what the politicians have agreed to is implemented? As citizens we will be required to be more vigilant than before.
In the months to voting day, lots of questions were raised about the type of political parties we have. The chaotic nominations of parliamentary and civic candidates prompted many of those questions. The general sense was, "Well, that is politics for you". It doesn't have to be that way. And there's a possible answer: the Political Parties Bill.
It was passed by parliament in November and is waiting for the assent of President Mwai Kibaki. The importance of this bill is it proposes to steer our political parties to become mature organizations that are responsive to their members and have a national agenda.
For a detailed analysis of the bill you can go to http://www.capf.or.ke/document/Political_Parties_Bill_2007.pdf
Women of Liberia
2008-03-11
D Watling
I have read through Liberia Women (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46522) with sadness. God created Women as companions to men to love and cherish, not to brutalise. Do the men of Liberia not know the joy of love that a woman can give. With the love and support of a good woman man can acheive many things.
Where is the cutting edge analysis?
2008-03-11
K.S. Musomi
Often I am content with your atricles, especially when they address substance; however, the recent articles dealing with Kenya's slaughter of many people who were used as pawns by two quislings only to continue filling their coffers and kowtowing to USA imperialist interest - you can do better by exposing the actual interest of the two servile contenders.
Fahamu - Networks For Social Justice
www.fahamu.org
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