HARARE -- Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party wants the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) empowered by an Act of Parliament to carry out its duties of monitoring implementation of the global political agreement (GPA). Launched last January, the JOMIC has dismally failed to ensure the three parties in the inclusive government implement the GPA fully, with political analysts dismissing it as a “toothless bulldog”.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said last week that turning the inter-party body into a statutory organ would give it enough muscle to enforce its decisions.
Biti said: “The fact that JOMIC is not a statutory body, the fact that JOMIC is not
recognised through an Act of Parliament is debilitating. JOMIC does not have teeth.
So one of our position point is that we would like to see JOMIC become a statutory body with teeth so that it can have effective oversight over the implementation of the global political agreement.”
The JOMIC comprises four senior members from each of the two MDC formations and Zanu (PF).
Its principal functions are to ensure the implementation, in letter and spirit, of the GPA, to assess the implementation of the GPA from time to time and consider steps which might need to be taken to ensure the speedy and full implementation of power-sharing pact.
But the committee has over the past one and half years, JOMIC largely worked in the background, with no enforcement powers, with no powers to summon a person who breaches the GPA, and relying on persuasion to deal with offenders.
A paltry budget has also helped cripple the committee whose sole function has been to issue statements — that no one seems to heed — urging GFPA parties to abide by the agreement.
Post published in: News