Heckling mars landmark JOMIC meeting

The JOMIC meeting which was called to update the provincial leadership of the three main political parties in the inclusive government broke down as members felt words being used at the meeting were improper. Frank Chamunorwa of the MDC-M, a member of the JOMIC, who was chairing the meeting, attracted the ire of the Zanu (PF) members when he said President Robert Mugabe had stood alone in the Presidential run-off in 2008 and naturally he won. Chamunorwa was giving a background of how JOMIC came into being. Mugabe stood alone and hence he emerged victor. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the race owing to unprecedented violence against his supporters, Chamunorwa had said.

After a series of meeting with African statesmen the Global Political agreement was signed and JOMIC came into being to look into its progress.

After a 45-minute interruption of the meeting due to the ensuing disruption from Zanu (PF) members, Chamunorwa withdrew the statement and normalcy returned. As if that was not enough, Zanu (PF)s Patrick Chinamasa, who chaired the meeting later, spoke of the so-called sanctions on Zanu (PF) members as marring the work and progress of the inclusive government and JOMIC. This did not go down well with the MDC members who felt the issue of sanctions was being blamed on the MDC-T and wanted Chinamasa to withdraw the statement.

The report-back meeting was delayed and interrupted further as the heckling took another half hour. Despite the disturbances some members of JOMIC and others who attended it felt it was a breakthrough. Elliot Mangoma, another member of JOMIC told The Zimbabwean they had managed to reach out to many people judging by the turn-out of participants from all political parties. While there were some problems at the beginning we are glad we have managed to bring together people from various political persuasions. What is left is for the people to carry the spirit back to the grassroots, said Mangoma. Enock Porusingazi, a central committee member for Zanu (PF) in Manicaland, said more meetings of similar nature had to be arranged for unity among the people. He said it was disturbing to note that members of JOMIC did not speak with one voice. He said disturbances at the meeting could have been avoided if they spoke as a unit, adding such unity has to start from the top going down.

I have no doubt in my mind that if there had been more meetings like these where people are brought together there would less if zero reports of violence amongst our people, Porusingazi said. Oppah Muchinguri, a former provincial governor for Manicaland and member of Zanu (PF)s womens league, cautioned people who committed murder in the name of political party activism. Kana ukauraya munhu in the name of Zanu (PF), kana party ipi hayo ngozi yacho haiuyi kuparty asi inouya kwauri iwewe unenge wauraya munhu, she said. Literally translated this means: If you kill a person in the name of party politics, the avenging spirit of the deceased will target the murderer and not the political party.

Mangoma chronicled the challenges JOMIC faced in ensuring the inclusive government fulfilled some of the outstanding issues.

He said the MDC-T was still awaiting the swearing in of Roy Bennett, Agriculture Deputy Minister-designate, the appointments of provincial governors, the Reserve Bank Governor, and the Attorney General, as well as ambassadors. He said the party was also unhappy with the lack of respect and the partisan reporting from state-controlled media on the office of the Prime Minister. Chinamasa said Zanu (PF) was unhappy with the issues of foreign radio stations broadcasting on Zimbabwe, and foreign funding of the MDC for running a parallel government. MDC-Ms Chamunorwa said his party wanted fair media coverage on its programmes, the respect of rule of law.