MEDIA,CIVIC SOCIETY :IMPROVE THE SHINING HOUR

When i received the news that the constitutin making process has finaally resurrected,i began to question why the constitution making process had become an anathema to the top echelons in the ZANU PF camp and why it was met with stiff opposition among Mp's.The answer to this is not hardfind.When you have a senior member of the Parliamentary Select Committee Paul Mangwana,reiterating every time that he doesn't want to cut his term of office short because the new constitution will have ushered in a time for new elections,it prevaricates and contradicts the Committees commitment to the constitution making process.There is a high posibility that he will not dedicate himself fully to the success of the process because of his own parochial interests.For several months the arcane maneuvres of the committtee has left the population in the dark in terms of full comprehension of the process which has roared back into life.Many people still have a hard time defining Machiavellian terms such as "thematic sub committee" and their function in the constitutional making process.Honestly who is going to break it down for the ordinary person what a constitution entails,its contents,what a draft bill is and what voting a yes would mean.There is a lot of obfuscation surrounding the constitution making process itself and a lot of people are not informed.The same applies to the sycomphantic retort by the Parliamentary Select Committee that the outreach teams will be deployed in the next 2weeks to "educate" the populace on the process.History has taught us never to trust politicians to lead the educational process.Of course the Parliamentary Committee has reassured the population that the teams will comprise of members from churches,farmers,youth,women,human rights,traditional leadersetc.The question however is that are these groups autonomous from political interference?Zimbabweans are still in the throes of struggling and the untimely process gas offered the media and civic society a chance to wake up to the blowing of the trumpet and take their positions.Gone are the days when they were always engrossed in petty issues such as more workshops that at times are crippled by absenteeism of politicians.They must now rechannel their focus and resources on the constitution making process,educating people and sell the content of the bills and not names.The time for living in a fool's paradise is over.A simple mistake especially especially in choosing a favourable constitution might plunge the country back into the abyss because the media together with the civic society would not have neglected their role.The truth of the matter however is that an arduous task lies ahead of the media and civic society and in their bid to educate people on the constitution,they are going to be labelled agents of regime change.ZANU PF has made it clear that the independent media and civic society remain a whimsical western proxy for regime change so they must expect harassment,detention but this is all part of the struggle.Political power is an extreme aphrodisiac and most of what ZANU PF has rolled up on its sleeves boarders on inanity because the time for people to decide has come and there is nothing that they can do about it because in the end it is the people who are going to vote.The rhetoric by ZANU PF that they want to adopt the Kariba Draft as the basis for the new constitution is rather escapist and misleading.Political parties are also going to use their rallies to propagate their own gospel of what a suitable bill is.There is going to be a lot of polarisation among the population especially when it comes to suitable bills and the media and civic society have to work on efficient strategies on how best they can educate people.The whole process of the constitution process will involve training of outreach teams for a week and the second week will see the trained teams being deployed.The outreach teams willl be comprised of 8 people who will work closely with Councillors and District Councils.The public will also have a represantation of 3people and the other five will come from civic society.No peace loving Zimbabwean wants to see the debacle of the constitution process but the pyrrhic victory that the media and civic society are yet to bring,is no easy task.The media and civic society must educate people to choose a draft bill that at least represents their views and opinions on how they want to be governed.The opaque that lies ahead of the constitutional making process is a caveat of the high levels of polarization where once people's perception on the bills is biased,it really becomes difficult to get them back to their soberly habits.One wonders the next step that the media and civic society is going to take.Is the surreal silence of the media and civic society going to continue or come to an end?We just have to wait and see.BY Rawlings Magede

ARE WE THERE YET?

The recent visit by SADC mission really raised hopes and optimism in every peace loving Zimbabwean but what a lot of people dont understand is that their happness and expectations are shortlived because as already proven ijn the past,SADC is a toothless dog that is incapable of monitoring the regions peace.It's chairmanship is currently being hold by the inept and youthful Kabila who is  heavily indebted to Mugaber in terms of loyalty after his father was helped by Mugabe to consolidate power.Mugabe might surely agree that the communique has a bounding effect but him granting concessions to the MDC that are likely to secure the MDC's victory in the next elections is a lie.He will always manouvre his way out knowing that SADC can do nothing even if he defies their ruling

IS SADC THE ANSWER?

To honestly think that SADC or the AU can bring an end to the deadlock in inclusive government will be a lie.What these organisations lack are selfless leaders who do not have parochial interests.For example the new SADC chairman  the inept and youthful Kabila is indebted to Mugabe very much.He has a loyal obligation to fulfil by remaining less critical to Mugabe.His late father and himself have Mugabe to thank for their continued plutocratic rule in the DRC.Mugabe has foresight in 1998 when he sent our troops there and what Joseph can do is to pay the loyalty and support back.For comments and alterations please you are free to leave your comments.

THE VIPER IN MDC’S BOSOM”

 ZANU PF’s plutocratic rule many thought, was the main prognosis of the ailing Zimbabwean economy. This assertion was somehow true but with the coming into effect of the inclusive government, the MDC, many, thought was yet to challenge and reverses this anomaly. But were the parties going to stick to the provisions of the GPA? Was ZANU PF’s terror campaign coming to an end? Only time was going to tell. However this did not turn out to be the case because hardly a month after the deal, Jestina Mukoko was abducted by state agents from her Norton home only to later appear in court later in December even if the state had denied having abducted her .This was to injure and cripple the new marriage. Several journalists were also arrested further enlarging the dent on the agreement When the inclusive government was formed in February 2009,many anticipated media reforms, the return of the rule of law and new legislation as agreed when the GPA was signed. People’s hopes were never high like this for the past decade. All they had been accustomed to was poverty, mediocre education and health services, and a worthless currency that would just be changed overnight leaving a lot of people crying foul. Those who had foresight already predicted the future of the inclusive government .As if this was not enough more violations to the inclusive government continued to manifest themselves at times in the form of illegal detentions,torture,unilateral appointment of Media boards, farm invasions, the list is endless. These cases caused a major dent in the image of the inclusive government. The recent rearrest of Roy Bennet sparked unrest in the MDC camp and a day after he was rearrested they resolved to “disengage” from the inclusive government. According to Tsvangirai Bennet’s issue was not the real outstanding issue but it was among them. The continued use of hate speech against the MDC in the public media, 16000 ZANU PF militia who are on government payroll list, the issue of Gono and Tomana among others made them reach at such a decision. For sure one can only say ZANU PF has been the viper in MDC’s bosom. The way it handled the implementing of the much needed reforms was suspicious right from the start. Retrogression reigned supreme ever since the inclusive government was formed. Now that the Inclusive government has failed where do we go? Does SADC have enough pedigree to tackle this acrimonious task? The game that ZANU PF has been playing is not new but it dates back into history. A clear example is the Unity Accord that was signed between ZAPU and ZANU in 1987.While this was a welcome development in that it put to an end years of fighting in Matebeleland,they were a lot of shortcomings in the agreement because one party,ZANU PF emerged with absolute control of everything while ZAPU was relegated to the role of a puppet Vice president in the form of Joshua Nkomo.Right from independence abductions, torture and murder tangible or evident peace of mind in any embraced people who had just thought were free from white minority with open arms. The Gukurahundi atrocities caused a major dent on the image of the new government. For the first time blacks were now governing themselves. The fissure on the new government horizon was far from being mended. The 1987 unity accord fell short in doing justice in that it never addressed the issue of reconciling opposing groups. So it was just an agreement that overlooked a lot of unresolved issues and the new government never offered some form of assistance to the victims of this genocide. Given the fact that Matabeleland is a semi-arid region, the people there continued to live under dire conditions because the government never sought to address the issue of food and water in that region. Zimbabweans never enjoyed the taste of true independence that most of them have dreamt of. The victims of the massive killings were left to paddle their own canoe while the leaders who had entered into a unity government were busy settling in their newly found positions. Then in 2000, came the compensation for the "gallant sons" in the form of Z$50,000. At the centre of this acrimonious move was the transparency of the whole "compensation" issue. The whole process was marred by cheating and faking on who the bona fide heroes of the liberation war were. Most of the real mbuyas and sekurus in the back of beyond never got any money because they didn't have witnesses in high office despite the fact that they participated in the liberation war. Any honest Zimbabwean would agree with me that if you travel to the rural areas you will meet an old relative who would tell you about how bad the war was but never received any form of compensation and might be living in sheer poverty. The controversial land reform was characterized by Mugabe's diatribe against the former colonizers who were keeping the Agricultural sector productive. The land reform was a bane of unthinking egocentricism pushed by the top echelons of ZANU PF. The nobodies, illiterate and inept in society launched their political careers in a short period of a violent campaign against the whites and among these were controversial “war veteran” Chinotimba. Mugabe went on to sing his new song of "blacks being landless”. Well, what must be understood is the definition of the "landless blacks" he referred to...There was never any black empowerment but ZANU PF empowerment. Most of the few Zimbabweans who claim to have been empowered actually have unproductive land with most of them having been resettled in plains. Most of these stalwart supporters of the land reform are actually ZANU PF loyalists and apologists. Mugabe even tried to impose and extend his rule in this same year which the people refused through a referendum. With the 2002 presidential elections in sharp focus, Mugabe had to act quickly. He had to hire the services of a “new kid on the block”, a spin doctor, Jonathan Moyo, who went on violent campaign against the independent media. With Moyo’s legislation of draconian laws such as AIPPA and POSA, many publications were closed down. Who was going to give the innocent Zimbabweans a voice? For the first time satire died with the closure of independent dailies such as The Daily News. The attrition of the independent media was now at full scale. The furore over the closure of the Daily News reached critical levels but still the spin doctor continued his violent campaign against the independent media. Now it is the same political chameleon in the form of a repentant Jonathan Moyo who is back once again to haunt the media and to finish some “unfinished business”. One question now lingers in the mind of every Zimbabwean who had found new hope in the form of the inclusive government, as to what the spin doctor has up his sleeves this time. After performing dismally in the 2005 parliamentary elections, Mugabe was determined to punish the urban folk for voting against him. He unleashed Murambatsvina especially in Harare where thousands if not millions lost their homes and left destitute. The MDC's victory in the 2005 parliamentary and 2002and 2008 presidential elections was not because it had any political clout but because ZANU PF's promises after independence were null and void and the disappearance of universal principles such as rule of law compelled many people to support the MDC which promised to bring sanity on the political scene. It seems as if every time people's hopes begin to gather momentum, ZANU PF always takes away that hope. For example the strict stance taken by Mugabe that his party wants the Kariba Draft adopted as the basis of the new constitution proves this. So evil and cunning and calculating is Mugabe. He allows people to hopes to be raised and before it materializes into reality, he takes it away. He has reunited with his protégé and servant, Jonathan Moyo once again and the peace, hope and optimism the people now had in the inclusive government is starting to fade away every day. What a life we Zimbabweans have. Another issue that the inclusive government has overlooked is the issue of national healing. It needs a holistic approach and attention. All the instigators of violence in the past have to be apprehended so that society can be consoled and dwells in true peace and harmony. ZANU PF’s insidious and subtle stance on outstanding issues in the GPA is opium for the failure of the inclusive government. Mugabe plutocratic rule has finally been threatened by the formation of the inclusive government that has seen more MDC leaders coming on board. In key Ministries such as Finance the authorities there are facing an arduous task in clamping down arcane activities of ZANU PF leaders. Well the whole story to it is that the MDC must continue pushing for more electoral reforms and make sure that the constitution process reflects the will of the people. It must also pay particular attention to detail and do away with parochial interests especially among most of its inept leaders. Its Ministers must also sing from the same hymn book for example Giles Mutsekwa blunders have caused many to question his role in Home Affairs. It seems as if Kembo Mohadi is the viper in Mutsekwa’s bosom because on the issue of John Moxon he only realized the blunder he had made but it was too late. In the inclusive government there is no room for incompetency and mistakes because people’s hopes are up and they want to see it succeed. A lot of misdemeanours have transpired in the past and the inclusive government must not only learn from them but address them to avoid recurrence in the future. The main Achilles heel of the Inclusive government is ZANU PF’s continued dragging of feet in implementing agreed reforms. Zimbabweans and the world at large want to see the inclusive government succeed but its success lies with the principals to the agreement. The inclusive government has an arrow in the quiver to make the new government succeed and this one way, is to implement all they agreed on when they signed the agreement.

GONO AND TOMANA:ARE THEY THE REAL OUTSTANDING ISSUES?

How can the MDC say that Gono and Tomana are really the outstanding issues in the inclusive government?What the MDC should do is shift its focus from such parochial sentiments and focus on rather important issues such as the Constitution making process..The removal of these two wont get them into power as long as Mugabe's powers remain intact.The new constitution which in my own view will seek to reduce Mugabe's powers and bring the much needed reforms in justice and defence will surely create a conducive environment for free and fair elections.Gono and Tomana might go but this wont guarantee reforms and the much needed reforms.