The document is rightly called a “draft”; it is a typical ZANU-PF document, vague, imprecise and quite likely inaccurate. For a start, it is a strange use of language to say you want to impeach someone for growing old. “Impeach” carries a sense that someone has committed a crime. You don’t impeach your grandfather; you buy him a nice rocking chair and a supply of tobacco, put it in a shady corner, put him in it (don’t forget his pipe and matches) and let him tell stories to his little grandchildren while they climb all over him. Oh, and if he has a cellphone, you give it to a needier member of the family.
But corruption and neglect of duty are impeachable offences. They are mentioned, but as if they were written by someone who had been smoking something more than tobacco. If you want a legal process, you have to spell out how much he stole, whether it was by armed robbery, picking pockets or fraud and when and where the crime was committed. I may be missing something, but I don’t see those details in this document. Of course it may really be only a draft. In that case, they should not expect parliament to vote on it, but to help them write something that would stand testing in a court of law. I see difficulties here. One: how can a ZANU parliament be expected to agree on who can testify as to when, where and how a crime was committed; point a finger and either another finger will be pointed at the accuser or someone will arrange a convenient car crash for him or her. Two: when did you last see a Zimbabwean court and judge work according to internationally-accepted standards of good legal practice? (Maybe when your local magistrate’s court was hearing a dispute between two non-members of ZANU about whose cattle ate whose maize, but do you get as far as the magistrate’s court if you don’t have that party card?)
In short, let them play their games. What happens to the accused or to his accusers is of no interest to us, the majority on the outside. We know “ZANU ndeyeropa” and “A looter continua” and until those change we are not going to lose any sleep about the outcome. Don’t expect us to give these hearings as much attention as we would give to a football match between Ayema Street Wanderers and the Methodist youth.
Don’t call us again until they choose an assembly of “stakeholders”, of every political, religious, social and economic shade to discuss credible steps toward forming a truly representative government and guarantee that no more than one or two out of 200 delegates (but not any of the important ones) disappear before the first sitting
Meanwhile, there is a football match on the Shawasha grounds this afternoon. Don’t try to distract us from that.
Post published in: Faith