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Dingilizwe Ntuli
SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma has expressed his deep frustration at the exceptionally slow pace of negotiations in the Zimbabwe political crisis and has sought closer cooperation between the three parties involved for a speedy resolution to all outstanding Global Political Agreement issues to break the stalemate.
In his report on the Zimbabwe inter-party political dialogue tabled at the 31st Sadc Summit held in Luanda, Angola, from August 17 to 18, Zuma, who is the regional bloc’s appointed GPA facilitator, said the failure and slow pace in implementing key agreements between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations was the major stumbling block to his mediation efforts.
Although Zuma has previously described the negotiations as “encouraging” and stressed the importance of patience in the process, and in particular the necessity of dealing with difficult issues even if this delayed clinching an agreement, he has now called on the three parties in the coalition government to help overcome the present disputes and reach a consensus by showing more flexibility in their positions.
He said a recurring problem throughout the talks was the dispute over key elements required for free and fair elections such as the rule of law, freedom of association and assembly, electoral and media reforms.
While disputed issues were referred to the political principals for intervention, Zuma seemed to express surprise and frustration that unresolved issues were left to the three principals instead of a wider cabinet organ to ensure that the GPA was promptly implemented.
The principals comprise President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
“The parties have not established an implementation element within government to ensure decisions that are taken by the inter-party negotiators and endorsed by the political principals are implemented by line ministers,” Zuma said in his report.
“Many of the unresolved matters are shifted to the political principals which, at times, takes too long before a resolution is found. To that extent, there are a number of outstanding matters that the political principals were supposed to resolve.”
Zuma said it was important for the elections roadmap to ensure that all stakeholders in Zimbabwe’s election process enjoy freedom of speech, association, movement and assembly, and that the electoral process itself has all the necessary building blocks in place for a successful and credible poll.
The timing for the adoption of a new constitution ahead of elections has also remained a major obstacle and has suffered some setbacks since Zanu PF continuously outlines a series of its conditions for such a move.
The parties have insisted to go on with talks until a lasting solution is reached, but Zuma is concerned by various disruptions which “continue to poison the political atmosphere in Zimbabwe and put an unfortunate strain on the effort to move to the next level where the GPA would be fully implemented, thus paving the way to a free and fair election”.
These disruptions, Zuma pointed out, made it difficult for the parties to focus on certain concessionary demands needed to reach a lasting agreement paving the way for a credible election and ushering in a new government.
“One of the most unfortunate incidents in recent times was when some people went to the Zimbabwe parliament (on June 23) and disrupted a hearing organised by the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs and the Thematic Committee on Human Rights to debate the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill,” Zuma said.
Parliamentary Speaker Lovemore Moyo wrote to police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri requesting for a speedy investigation of the matter, but Zuma said in his report violence, intimidation, harassment and arbitrary detentions in the country continued unabated.
He said the political principals had promised to meet the Attorney General, police Commissioner General and heads of other security organs and the intelligence service to ensure full commitment to operate in a non-partisan manner consistent with the GPA. Zuma said no dates have been determined for these engagements.
Zuma also informed the Sadc summit that reports from Zimbabwe indicated the presence of conflict in the country and this was sometimes highlighted by some harsh exchanges between politicians and members of the armed and security forces.
The exchanges were triggered by Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba’s outbursts that Mugabe and Zanu PF should rule forever.
Nyikayaramba had defiantly said the armed forces would not accept, let alone support or salute, anyone without liberation war credentials.He had further insisted that elections should be held this year to end the power-sharing government saying the MDC formations were a security threat to Zimbabwe.
Zuma said this matter was before Jomic but added that it may require the intervention of the political principals.
He said he would arrange an interface programme with the political principals to discuss how best to expedite the full implementation of the GPA and help create conditions for a smooth election in the country.
“It is our view that such interactions will help to move the process forward and resolve some of the matters that still remain in dispute,” said Zuma.
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