Sadc can’t decide for Zim: DPM

to facilitate dialogue and co-operation among the three political parties in the inclusive-Government, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has said.

In an interview yesterday, DPM Mutambara said people should not expect drama in South Africa at the weekend as Sadc did not make decisions for Zimbabwe.
“The duty of the Sadc summit is to help us help ourselves. The buck stops with us Zimba-bweans.

“The sooner we realise that as Zimbabweans there is more that unites us than that which divides us, the better.
“No amount of grandstanding and public posturing among us should be tolerated,” said DPM Mutambara.

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He said South Africa, Sadc and the African Union were the guarantors and facilitators of dialogue and co-operation among Zimbabweans.
“They don’t make decisions for us. We don’t expect any silver bullet to come out of the Sadc summit. We are a sovereignty nation with a sovereignty Government,” he said.

Decisions on challenges facing the country and differences among the people, he said, would come from Zimbabweans themselves.
“Zimbabweans should be masters of their own destiny and authors of their own circumstances and future,” he said.

“We can’t outsource the management of our national affairs to foreigners,” said DPM Muta-mbara.
DPM Mutambara said they were going to Sadc to share with them a roadmap, which encompassed matters ostensibly agreed upon by the three parties in the inclusive Government.

These, he said, included issues to do with the constitution-making process, the referendum, as well as electoral, political and economic reforms.
“We are going to sink or swim together. There is no winner in a losing team inasmuch as there is no loser in a winning team,” he said.

DPM Mutambara said it was important for people to understand the dynamics of national politics and concentrate on defining Zimbabwe’s national interests, which everyone should defend at all costs.
“Our efforts must be spent on leveraging and emphasising that which we agreed upon while de-emphasising and mitigating our differences.

“Consequently, we are looking forward to a very successful Sadc summit where we are going to showcase a united Zimbabwean front and we are confident that Zimbabweans are capable of solving their own problems with the help of our friends in Sadc.”
The MDC-T is known for grandstanding whenever there are forthcoming summits on Zimbabwe.

Before the Sadc meeting in Livingstone recently, the MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai approached Sadc leaders telling them that there was violence in Zimbabwe and that the security forces had assumed control of Government.

Ahead of the summit to be held in South Africa – Johannesburg on Saturday, the party’s supporters attacked and killed a police inspector Petros Matedza who was on duty leading to their arrest.
The MDC-T secretary general, Mr Tendai Biti’s house in Chisipite was allegedly petrol bombed by unknown assailants, with police investigators saying the incident raised a lot of questions.

Police also suspect the alleged bombing was an inside job.
Police and Zanu-PF have described these incidents as part of the MDC-T’s posturing ahead of this weekend’s summit.

Meanwhile, Zanu-PF yesterday said the three parties to the GPA have failed to work together.
To this end, the party believes that it was now time for a new dispensation to be put in place in Zimbabwe given that the Inclusive Government had completed its two-year duration as agreed during negotiations.

In a statement yesterday, Zanu-PF Secretary for Information and Publicity, Cde Rugare Gumbo, said although there were still some outstanding issues to be resolved, the implementation of the GPA was almost complete.

The GPA, he said, was never meant to be a permanent arrangement.
“It is a fact that the three parties to the GPA failed to work together as a team for the development of the country.

“They have failed for example to fight the illegal sanctions together, to support the agrarian reform together and have failed to speak with one voice on the indigenisation and people’s economic empowerment thrust,” said Cde Gumbo.
The continuation of sanctions, Cde Gumbo said, undermined the Sadc efforts to resolve the challenges Zimbabwe was facing.

He added that the embargo had had a debilitating effect on efforts to resuscitate the economy and consequently the well being of the people of Zimbabwe in general.
“The GPA clearly stipulates that all the three parties should call for the immediate lifting of these sanctions.
“We are disturbed that the MDC-T has strenuously refused to unequivocally call and campaign for the lifting of all sanctions.

“They have instead, urged the Western powers to keep the sanctions in place.”
On the constitution making process, Cde Gumbo said, this should have been concluded in June of last year, as provided for in the GPA.
“It is therefore 12 months behind schedule and should be concluded as soon as possible so that new elections are held this year.

“The Inclusive Government which was put in place in February 2009 and prescribed to run for two years has run its course and therefore new elections should be held,” he said.
Cde Gumbo said Copac should complete the drafting of the constitution in time for the referendum to be held by September this year.
“The constitution making process was delayed for six months after the Minister of Finance (Tendai Biti) deliberately refused to release the necessary funding.

“In addition the donor community decided to withhold their contributions despite earlier undertakings to do so timeously.
“We see this as part of a strategy by the MDC formations and the donor community to prevent the holding of elections this year.”

Turning to the election roadmap, Cde Gumbo said Zanu-PF had always insisted that the roadmap is provided for in the GPA and only adjustments to the timelines contained in the document were necessary.
Zimbabwe has already incorporated into its domestic electoral laws, the Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

And Zanu-PF says anything not provided for in these frameworks should not find its way in the proposed roadmap.
The three principles have already agreed on the key appointments to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) while the issue of hiring staff should therefore be under the purview of the ZEC itself, not interested political parties.

Cde Gumbo insisted that observers and not monitors should be invited from outside Zimbabwe for the purpose of observing the conduct of the elections as is normal practice and in accordance with the Sadc guidelines.

“We therefore totally reject the MDC formations’ call for monitors to be deployed six months before and six months after elections. As a sovereign state Zimbabwe has the right to decide on who to invite to observe its own elections.

“Any foreign pressure to influence the choice of observers to participate in the forthcoming elections or any other election for that matter would be a violation of both the Sadc guidelines and Zimbabwe’s Constitution,” he said.

Cde Gumbo said contrary to MDC-T claims that the prevailing situation was not suitable for the holding of elections, Zanu-PF strongly believed that there was peace and stability in the country.
“It is always the MDC-T’s strategy to brew troubles before summits dealing with Zimbabwe as way of painting a negative picture about the political situation in the country,” he said.

The Zanu-PF spokesman said elections could not be delayed simply because MDC-T was not ready and was making frivolous claims of violence in the country.
He said police and other law enforcement agents were in full control of the situation.

Cde Gumbo said the recent cowardly and dastardly murder in cold blood of Inspector Mutedza highlighted the violent nature of MDC-T.
“The party’s violent behaviour was demonstrated before, during and after the Bulawayo congress where factions of the party fought running battles against each other,” he said.

Cde Gumbo also took a swipe at the Livingstone Troika Summit saying it deliberately chose to ignore the critical issues of the illegal economic sanctions and procedures which effectively worked to prevent Zanu-PF from making any contribution to the Troika deliberations in the context of the facilitator’s report.

“The resultant communiqué clearly reflected the position of only one party to the GPA. In this regard, Zanu-PF sincerely hopes that similar procedural errors will not be repeated at future Sadc summits.
“While Zanu-PF has absolute faith and trust in Sadc’s facilitation role, we believe the substance of the Livingstone communiqué requires a serious review since the serious procedural flows clearly affected the final outcome of the summit,” he said.