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Diversionary legal suits meant to frustrate the implementation of the 31 May Constitutional Court ruling ordering President Mugabe to proclaim election dates and have them held by 31 July were beginning to surface. Reports say two were this week filed at the superior court — one in Harare and another in Bulawayo. Both litigations have been interpreted as part of that multi-dimensional strategy by MDC-T to ensure elections are not held by 31 July. As that happens, MDC-T and four other political parties — MDC, Zapu, Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn and Zanu Ndonga — were writing to President Mugabe pressing for the same. Pressure is being put to bear on Sadc as well. So the strategy was, or still is to put together political, legal and diplomatic pressure on the President.
His response to these approaches was simply to abide by the Constitutional Court ruling. On Thursday, he proclaimed 31 July as the election date as well as fixing other dates on which key processes and activities would take place.
He had no choice but to refuse to create circumstances that would have brought contempt of court charges on him. And contempt of court charges against the President who is sworn to upholding and defending the constitution and rule of law are unthinkable.
While it is common cause that he and his party Zanu-PF have always wanted elections, their quest to uphold the tri-partisanship that the inclusive government demands, meant that going it alone was not an option.
There is no doubt that President Mugabe had wanted to engage his partners in government over the election date, but because of changed circumstances, he had no reason to offend the court by going along with the MDCs which are hesitant about holding elections. Therefore, his action is sensible and constitutional although his partners in government sought to force him to do otherwise.
We must assert here that President Mugabe has bent over too much so many times in his defining and statesman-like disposition of always eschewing disagreement and seeking consensus as long as it protected the national interest. History shows that he has tolerated even hopeless reactionaries like Ian Smith and on a number of times, MDC-T and its leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
His first post-Independence government incorporated a few Rhodesians. He pursued the “turning swords into ploughshares” policy even as it was justifiable for him to make proper use of swords and ploughshares. He did not do that.
More recently he did that on the Kariba Draft Constitution, Copac outreach and the drafting of the constitution itself. We have also watched as Finance Minister Tendai Biti who is MDC-T secretary general, deliberately went out to frustrate government programmes on agriculture, youth development and so on.
In addition to that, Zanu-PF had wanted elections on or before 29 June when the five-year term of parliament expires, but the revolutionary party listened to its partners who wanted them after that date.
The President was doing all this in good faith. Many thought he was conceding too much space to his opponents who, in all the cases, sought political advantage for themselves over Zanu-PF. But there comes a time when one would say “No.” President Mugabe has refused to defy the court.
As a momentous week for Zimbabwe ends, the issue of her elections will top the agenda at the Sadc Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, today. We expect Sadc leaders to respect Zimbabwe’s inviolable sovereignty and that of her courts. It is difficult to imagine any Sadc leader seeking to incite anyone to disregard court orders to achieve nothing but benefit political figures who are afraid of elections.
MDC-T and the four others say they want elections on 25 August. Even this date is subject to so-called security sector and media reforms being accomplished. It is strange what sort of reforms MDC-T and its allies really want. On the public media for instance, we wonder what other reforms must be done when the new constitution says practitioners must exercise editorial independence. In our view, the country’s public media outlets — Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and New Ziana — have done exceptionally well in that regard particularly at election time (which is the most crucial political moment anyway) when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission enforces regulations for equal coverage of all contesting political parties. What we suspect is that, perhaps MDC-T wants to stretch the constitutional provision to include strategic appointments in the public media, down to the shop-floor.
Assuming that were important and legal, we don’t see any material difference any such appointments would make within 70 days or so, if, as MDC-T wants, elections are held on 25 August.
It is good the court has settled the matter about elections and the President has complied. There are no any other outstanding issues from the MDCs’ side that can prevent elections happening. The most important outstanding matter, adoption of a new constitution has been resolved. We reiterate that the only two or three outstanding issues are the sustenance of illegal western sanctions which have not been lifted as the Global Political Agreement demands, the continued existence of pirate radio stations and Anglo-Saxon interference in our internal affairs.
Even with the illegal sanctions causing mayhem in the economy, pirate radio stations churning their acrid anti-Zanu-PF propaganda and the US openly hand-holding Mr Tsvangirai, Zanu-PF still wants an election.
Events of this week demonstrate that we are firmly on the road towards elections.
But going forward, we expect a lot more nefarious activity from MDC-T, apart from the ongoing legal, political and diplomatic pressures. This will not be a problem if Zimbabweans commit themselves and actually proceed to defend their constitution and hard-won democracy.
Online Reporter