adminHebert Zharare Political Editor
THE Lancaster House Constitution, the Global Political Agreement and all its derivatives including the inclusive Government died a natural death yesterday as the new Constitution fully came into force, with the inauguration of President Mugabe as the Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
The new Constitution had been operating alongside the Lancaster House Constitution since May 22 this year, the publication date when eight of its sections came into force, with the rest of the law becoming effective yesterday with President Mugabe’s inauguration.
The sections that came into force had mainly to do with electoral matters among them electoral boundaries, allowing aliens to register to register vote and to prepare for harmonised elections waiting for the full implementation of the law upon the swearing of a new President.
Following the inauguration of President Mugabe yesterday, the effective date, Zimbabweans immediately began enjoying the benefits of their homegrown Constitution that took over four years to make, culminating into the historic referendum that endorsed the document.
As the President took the oath of office yesterday afternoon, the posts of former Prime Minister Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and his two deputies Ms Thokozane Khupe and Professor Arthur Mutambara ceased to exist.
Another creation of the Global Political Agreement, the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee that was formed to monitor the implementation of the GPA, also suffered the same fate yesterday.
The inclusive Government was formed in February 2009 after the harmonised elections of March 29 2008 produced a hung parliament.
In his inauguration speech yesterday, President Mugabe said following the elections, the MDC-T disputed the results, insisting there was violence perpetrated on its supporters and Zanu-PF listened to Sadc’s voice and agreed to create the inclusive Government with MDC formations.
Sadc was the guarantor of the inclusive Government under the facilitation role of former South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki, which was concluded by his successor Mr Jacob Zuma this year.
The inclusive Government was supposed to last for 18 months only, spearhead the constitution-making process within that period and go to polls to usher in a new Government.
However, after finding comfort in Government, the MDC formations started playing delaying tactics in desperate attempts to remain in Government by raising some unsubstantiated claims that the country was not yet ready for polls saying the political playing field was in favour of Zanu-PF.
Mr Tsvangirai together with his western financiers continued parroting the same argument that the country needed to implement security and media reforms before conducting the poll. This resulted in the inclusive Government that was supposed to administer the country for only 18 months ended up enjoying almost a full five year term illegally.
Online Reporter