NCA accuses MDC of ‘act of treachery’

resident Robert Mugabe’s emissaries promised SADC chief negotiator, SA President Thabo Mbeki, that the elections in March would be free and fair, the Government, together with the opposition agreed to pass through parliament a watered-down Constitutional Amendment Act.
In return for the opposition support, Mugabe has agreed in SA-mediated talks to amend a repressive security and media law that has been used to stifle opposition activity.
The opposition would also be allocated airtime on the national broadcaster to articulate its policies. If lucky, Mugabe might assent to the Diaspora being given the right to vote. But analysts were cautious about this concession. The talks are also said to have agreed that the Electoral Commission (ZEC) in charge of next year’s planned elections should be truly independent.
Civic society has however slammed the opposition for cutting deals with Zanu (PF), charging the opposition’s move to go along with Mugabe’s Constitutional Amendment was an “act of treachery.”
The National Constitutional Assembly, a key ally of the MDC, indicated it was cutting its ties with the opposition because it had sold out Zimbabwe’s fight for democracy and a new people-driven constitution to Zanu (PF).
The NCA accused the MDC of being complicit in perpetuating Mugabe’s 27-year grip on power by assenting to piecemeal amendments instead of a new constitution.
NCA chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku charged that the move by the MDC showed that it had absolutely no respect for the constitution.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is representing the ruling party at the talks roundtable in Pretoria, reiterated promises this week, made to the MDC during diplomatic meetings in SA last week, to allow at least some international election monitors and media to observe the elections.
Zimbabwe, which once had one of Africa’s strongest economies, has been racked by political violence in recent years since the fledgling MDC began to mount a fierce challenge to the ruling Zanu (PF) party.