Delay tactics stall GNU

The three signatories to the coalition government, generally known as the GNU, are supposed to meet weekly. There is no explanation as to why they have failed to do so. Mugabe has made it clear that he has no intention of honouring the terms of the power-sharing agreement and nobody appears willing or able to do so. He has dragged his feet on virtually every aspect of the agreement, even where his negotiators have agreed.

The MDCs repeated calls for the guarantor, SADC and the chief mediator SA President Jacob Zuma to intervene have fallen on deaf ears.

Given this background, it is highly unlikely that, even after tomorrows meeting, anything substantial will change.

Mugabes unilateral appointment last week of controversial former Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairman, George Chiweshe, the Judge President of the High Court, has incensed Tsvangirai who learnt of the appointment, on which he should have been consulted, via the columns of the state-controlled Herald. In a strong letter to Mugabe delivered on Friday, Tsvangirai made particular reference to Article 20.1.3 (p) of the constitution, which says the president shall make key appointments required under and in terms of the constitution in consultation with the Prime Minister.

“We are faced with a political, legal and constitutional problem that needs to be addressed,” he wrote. The negotiators, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche for Zanu (PF), Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma for the MDC-T, and Welshman Ncube and Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga for the MDC-M, concluded seven months of wrangling on April 3, and presented a report on areas of agreement.

Areas of Agreement

These include:

– a formula to break the deadlock over the appointment governors,

– amendments to the Electoral Act,

– the issue of targeted measures,

– media reforms at the state-controlled media to remove the pro-Zanu (PF) bias,

– what to do about Zimbabwean-owned external radio stations,

– land issues, including the land audit and security of tenure,

– the role of NGOs,

– freedom of assembly and association.

Given the limited lifespan of the GNU, which at its inception was supposed to be two years, these inordinate delays in implementing what was agreed to during the protracted negotiations of 2008 and 2009 demonstrate Zanu (PF)s intransigence.

Outstanding issues on which no agreement appears to have been reached include Mugabes unilateral appointments of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney General Johannes Tomana, his continued refusal to swear in Roy Bennett, the Zanufication of national hero selection, and the position of the permanent secretary of Media, Information and Publicity, George Charamba, who doubles as Zanu (PF) and presidential spokesman.