Zimbabwe: The Centre Has Moved

Source from:  Financial Gazette (Harare) 20 September 2008 09/22/2008

THE landmark power-sharing deal signed in Harare on Monday catapulted the country into a complex political reconfiguration and healing process that would undoubtedly take a giant leap of faith to execute. Confusion is likely to characterise the implementation of the historic deal as the unity government tries to find its feet while 'deZanufying' state institutions and organs, a process which will undoubtedly claim the scalps of many political heavyweights aligned to President Robert Mugabe's party. The political earthquake, with its epicenter in ZANU-PF, might claim its first victims among the 10 provincial governors appointed recently by President Mugabe, who will however, remain Head of State and Government but with substantially reduced executive powers. A 30-page power-sharing agreement signed between Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders -- Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara -- and ZANU-PF leader and first secretary President Mugabe makes no mention of their fate but President Thabo Mbeki, who mediated during the negotiations, said their future was a subject for further discussions. President Mugabe would have to re-assign at least five of the governors to make way for MDC governors in the Matabeleland, Harare and Manicaland provinces where Tsvangirai's party enjoys considerable support. Essentially the deal has effectively whittled down much of ZANU-PF's unbridled powers and shed some of the executive powers from the President to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. In the last government, ZANU-PF held all the cabinet and ministerial posts, which totalled 62 including the 10 provincial governors' posts. But in the new government, the party, which has ruled the country for the past 28 years will now have 26 posts while the two MDC formations will have a combined 26 posts in the all-inclusive government. In 20 minutes President Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara had all but sealed an arrangement, which, while it has far reaching effects on ZANU-PF, sets the stage for the restoration of Zimbabwe's battered economy, image and people's confidence. Mutambara described succinctly the challenge confronting the unity government in his speech as a signatory when he said: "What we have today is a compromised document, flaws, warts and all." "It is a limited document, which is the best short-term measure to extricate our country from its worst situation...This government will have to make some very painful decisions to drive this country forward." And as the signing ceremony proceedings were underway at the Harare International Conference Centre a dark cloud hung over the area where the ZANU-PF elite and other top civil servants were seated. With their jobs on the line and a comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land audit in the pipeline, the agreement threatens to add more misery since many of them had acquired multiple farms through the controversial land reform programme. Analysts said this week the leaders of the country's major political parties would have a tough time to make the agreement work. Noting that the country requires a huge injection of foreign currency to stabilise the economy, a top banker with a local merchant bank who declined to be named said Mbeki should have sought financial backing from key multilateral institutions to underwrite the agreement. "As it is, the agreement is incomplete. We have a humanitarian crisis and all political settlements throughout the world are underwritten by institutions with capacity to turn their economic fortunes," said the banker. "South Africa has no capacity to do it except to give maize seed given the problems at Eskom and elsewhere," added the top banker. Immediately, the three parties would have to agree on their line up of Ministers and the distribution of line ministries, another area that will test their commitment to the agreement. Analysts said President Mugabe's presence could hamper government's efforts to push through a reform programme aimed at fixing the seemingly unfixable - an economy blighted by an inflation rate of more than 11 million percent. In addition, the fact that the President's 28 years in power have not ended with his ousting means Tsvangirai's international supporters are loath to get involved just yet. "In a power-sharing government, the architects of the economic implosion are still partly in the driving seat," observes portfolio manager Roelof Horne at Investec Asset Management, South Africa in an interview with BBC. "And therefore neither generosity nor austerity will be delivered as enthusiastically as they might have in the case of a fresh start." Foreign investors are sitting on the fence, even though many of them are eager to gain access to Zimbabwe's platinum and diamond mines, as well as to the grain and tobacco farms that were allocated to President Mugabe's cronies during the early 2000s. And both the US and the European Union say they are reluctant to lift sanctions. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) political will, rather than mere appendage of signatures to paper and rhetoric, is necessary to ensure a new and improved method of governance. "It will require much dedication and non-partisanship from both ZANU-PF and MDC to roll back the disastrous authoritarian policies of the previous government and replace them with people-centred policies and action," said Irene Petras of ZLHR. "Such commitment will be required not only from political party representatives, but also those in control of state institutions, which continue to exhibit a lack of independence and professionalism, as well as an ingrained mindset and modus operandi steeped in intolerance for criticism, lack of transparency and accountability, and subscription to political patronage," she added. The era of Cabinet rubber-stamping ZANU-PF's Politburo decisions has been replaced by the dawn of a Council of Ministers comprising all cabinet ministers and chaired by the Prime Minister (PM). The Council will, among other duties, assess the implementation of Cabinet decisions. All parties to the Monday agreement, including the facilitator, Mbeki, acknowledged that the implementation process of the entire deal will be a real challenge, which they are prepared to confront as a team. Ultimately the President, who will chair the Cabinet and the PM, are key in extricating the country from its current economic crisis as espoused in the declaration of commitment to "work together to create a genuine, viable, permanent, sustainable and nationally acceptable solution to the Zimbabwe situation". The parties constituted a gender balanced Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) comprising four senior ZANU-PF members and four senior members from each of the two MDC formations. The committee's first hurdle to clear will be to monitor the distribution of agricultural inputs, implements and fuel promised by Mbeki as South Africa's immediate contribution to reviving Zimbabwe's devastated economy. The onset of the country's agricultural season has for the past decade been characterised by shortages of seed, fertiliser and fuel as well as rampant looting, misuse and abuse of inputs by senior ZANU-PF officials. And as has been often the case, the vultures are already circling over key government institutions tasked with the distribution of agricultural inputs to farmers. During the first phase of Zimbabwe's farm mechanisation programme government ministers, senators, Members of Parliament, service chiefs, senior civil servants, traditional leaders, and war veterans shared amongst themselves 353 tractors out of the total of 925 while the rest of the country shared the remainder. Of the 35 combine harvesters the group also got 23 as well as 172 ploughs while millions of peasant, resettled and commercial farmers split amongst them the remaining 414. In the case of seed, fertiliser and fuel, distribution was also biased towards this group disadvantaging communal farmers who could not even plant enough to feed themselves. JOMIC will be a critical reference point on the progress of the new dispensation. But with ZANU PF's past history plagued by corruption, intimidation, disregard for the rule of law, arrogance and downright abuse of authority especially in the agricultural sector, the party's nominees to the committee will face intense and hostile public scrutiny. The committee also has the unenviable task of serving as a catalyst in "creating and promoting an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding between the parties". And hopefully its efforts should trigger a healing process cascading down to the grassroots who have been experiencing the worst sting of sanctions, violence, intimidation, shortages of food and cash. Under Article VII /7.1 (d) of the agreement, the political parties agreed to "strive to create an environment of tolerance and respect among Zimbabweans and that all citizens be treated with dignity and decency irrespective of age, gender, race, and ethnicity, place of origin or political affiliation". In the agreement signed on Monday, there are provisions seeking to address issues of national healing, cohesion and unity. So, too, are the provisions acknowledging the need for the police, other enforcement agencies, and the uniformed forces to properly interpret and implement security and other legislation, as well as build their understanding of and capacity in the area of human rights, while at the same time ensuring that there is an attempt to ensure no future impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations. ZLHR said much will depend, however, on who controls the law enforcement agencies, and how willing they are to reverse the status quo. There are also provisions committing the parties to allow free political activity, as well as respect for state institutions and the rule of law. "Again, however, these provisions remain broad and general, and the government must take immediate measures to ensure that they "walk the talk" in this regard. In any democracy, and for peace to be achieved, the rule of just law is essential and non-negotiable," said Petras. Enditem