Dumisani Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and other leaders of the main political parties, including Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, this week received South African President and Sadc facilitator, Jacob Zuma’s damning report which has angered Zanu PF officials and triggered a major diplomatic row in the region.
This came ahead of Sadc’s extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for May 20 in Windhoek, Namibia. The meeting has been called to deal with the simmering political problems, particularly in Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
The Zuma report, seen by the Zimbabwe Independent, contains an introduction, a detailed assessment of Zimbabwe’s political and security situation, recommendations and the way forward.
The introduction warns Sadc leaders of the dangers of taking people for granted with reference to uprisings in North Africa and elsewhere on the continent.
The assessment section deals with the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and Government of National Unity (GNU) issues. The recommendations section focuses on what needs to be done now and maps the trajectory towards free and fair elections.
The Zuma report was largely based on findings of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) documents submitted to him.
Chairman of the Sadc Troika of the organ on politics, defence and security, Zambian President Rupiah Banda, read extracts from the introduction to the report in his opening speech at the recent summit in Livingstone.
The report also deals with GPA and GNU issues, including the constitution-making process, the referendum and elections. Some of the report’s contents on political violence, intimidation, harassment, hate speech and other violations of the GPA were captured in the Livingstone summit communiqué. It also addresses the need to appoint new Sadc officials to beef up the facilitation team.
Other issues covered in the report include lack of progress on agreed issues, including political reforms and commissions on human rights, corruption and the media, particularly failure to open the airwaves to allow new radio and television players. It recalls previous Sadc resolutions and the facilitators’ meetings.
The Zuma report further highlights the need to reinforce the implementation matrix, have a review of the GPA, strengthen the review mechanism, craft an elections roadmap and have a workshop for negotiators and facilitators before principals endorse guidelines leading to free and fair polls.
Although Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao was unreachable for verification, officials at the Sadc headquarters in Goborone, Botswana, confirmed yesterday that they sent copies of Zuma’s report to Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC-N leader Welshman Ncube.
Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba could neither confirm nor deny that his boss got the report. “I don’t really know but I can confirm that the principals got packages from the Sadc secretariat. I have no idea about the contents,” he said. “What I do know is that Foreign Affairs got a summary of President Zuma’s presentation (to the Sadc Troika of the organ on politics, defence and security summit in Livingstone).”
The summit was held on March 31 in Livingstone, Zambia. The Troika, which comprise Banda, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique and Zuma, shocked Mugabe by coming up with stern resolutions on Zimbabwe. Sadc chair, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, also attended the Troika summit.
Mugabe, the leader of Zanu PF for almost 34 years, reacted furiously to the Troika communiqué, causing a diplomatic uproar. The volatile row is likely to explode at the forthcoming Sadc extraordinary meeting.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka confirmed his principal, who leads the MDC-T, received the report. “Yes, I can confirm that the prime minister got the report,” he said.
Ncube also said he got the report this week. Ncube said Mugabe and Zanu PF have “failed to appreciate that the GPA gave them a lifeline to work with others” and want to behave as if they have an “exclusive mandate” from the people to lead on their own. He said Zanu PF’s attempt to rush the country into elections under conditions of violence and intimidation on an uneven playing field would plunge Zimbabwe back to a full-blown crisis.
“There is no point in rushing to elections before conditions for free and fair polls are created,” Ncube said. “With what is going on around the world, the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere on the continent, no one will accept the 2008 situation. Zanu PF must learn from what is happening in other countries.”
Jameson Timba, Minister in Tsvangirai’s office, described as “blatantly false” Zanu PF claims that Tsvangirai or the MDC-T had submitted a report to Zuma before the Livingstone summit. He said no one submitted a report to the facilitation team, except views on the roadmap.
“To begin with it is false to say we submitted a report to the facilitation team because there is no Tsvangirai or MDC-T report as some Zanu PF officials claim. It is nonsensical and blatantly false to say Zuma’s report is similar to that of Tsvangirai or the MDC-T when the prime minister or his party compiled no report at all,” he said.
“This is a simple issue. The facilitator was appointed by Sadc and he reports to the Sadc Troika of the organ on politics, defence and security which in turn reports to the main Sadc summit. The facilitator does not report to our principals or parties.”
Timba said there was nothing confusing about what Zuma is doing because his mandate was clear.
“The facilitator’s mandate is clear: he facilitates dialogue among GPA parties and as such part of his duty is appraise Sadc leaders on the GPA implementation and the general political and security situation in Zimbabwe,” he said. “The resolutions and communiqué of the Troika were based on the report of the facilitation team and that of Jomic.”
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