The MDC has left for the talks to take further its compelling case
following the national council’s rejection of the SADC recommendations
of 9 November 2008, which skirted the major sticking issues that have
scuttled the negotiations.
The negotiators will raise issues regarding the facilitation, Zanu PF’s
lack of sincerity in the dialogue as well as the reductionist tendency
to reduce and narrow down the sticking issues to the ministry of Home
Affairs, and lately to Constitutional Amendment Number 19.
The MDC national council met on Friday, 14 November 2008 and rejected
the SADC resolution which sought to reduce the sticking points only to
the Ministry of Home Affairs. The MDC notes that Zanu PF initially said
the only sticking issue was the Ministry of Finance, and then changed
it to Home Affairs and now to Constitutional Amendment Number 19.
The national council, the MDC’s supreme-decision making body, resolved
that the party will not join the inclusive government until all the
sticking issues are addressed. The sticking issues include the
equitable distribution of ministerial portfolios, the composition and
powers of the National Security Council, the outstanding issue of the
provincial governors, the appointment of Permanent Secretaries and
ambassadors, the correction of Zanu PF’s fraudulent alteration of the
Global Political Agreement of 15 September
2008 and the enactment of Constitutional Amendment Number 19.
The MDC notes with concern Zanu PF’s intransigence and its continued
lack of sincerity which have stood in the doorway of an amicable
political settlement; a settlement which does not reduce the MDC to a
junior partner when it is the MDC which won credible elections on 29
March.
There is a further threat to the talks. Despite undertaking to respect
citizens’ rights as enshrined in the Global Political Agreement signed
by the political principals in Harare on 15 September 2008, 14 MDC
activists from Banket, including a two-year old c in Mashonaland West
province are missing after they were abducted from their homes in
pre-dawn raids a month ago.
The State is in contempt of court after it failed to bring the activists to court despite a High Court order to that effect.
MDC Information and Publicity Department