Africa's convulsions reverberate, on aged Somali skiffs, and in deadly Gripens.
Why the MDC is taking a stand against SADC
I had two disturbing experiences this week. I visited the Head Office of the Ministry of Education and then went to the Government Pensions office. I was asking after the pension of a friend who had been retired for two years and had not received his pension.
The Ministry of Education was a shock - there was no one at work. Floor after floor was almost deserted. 'Where is the clerk who deals with Bulawayo?' I asked. 'She is at the bank' was the reply. Today I went back to find the office deserted except for a solitary employee who told me they had not seen the clerk for several days - did not know when she would be back at work, 'try the pensions department' she said.
I had 30 minutes before my next meeting so I went over to the building where the pensions department was and again walked in on a department where out of 30 employees there were two in attendance - one the supervisor and the other a data clerk. They told me they had 300 000 pensioners in their data base and the supervisor told me without any reluctance that she earned Z$2 million a month - US$4.00 at today's exchange rate.
If this is representative of what is going on in government departments then the situation is pretty dire. In a recent survey, people were asked if they had tried to leave the country. 53 per cent responded that they had tried to leave Zimbabwe in the past year. Do you blame them? Today I was told that all State hospitals in the capital had closed down and were not accepting patients.
When I attended a Parliamentary caucus this week I told a fellow legislator what I had seen in the government offices - he laughed and said, 'we are a dressed up Somalia'. I thought that was very apt. 4 hours later the Parliament was closed for a month - there was no money for expenses and no water in the building. The last time I looked, I was getting Z$50 000 a month - enough to buy half a loaf of bread.
In my pigeon hole at Parliament was a glossy document - the annual report of a State controlled institution. The lay out and contents were very professional - it could easily be taken as an annual report for a big company. However, when I studied the balance sheet and did some number crunching, I found that the main customer of the organisation - another State controlled institution, had not paid its bills for two years and technically, the organisation was broke - even with money in the bank.
On Friday we finally gathered to hear what had transpired last Sunday at the SADC summit in Johannesburg. It was both intriguing and disappointing - the 14 States had spent 12 hours debating two regional problems - the conflict in the eastern Congo and the political crisis in Zimbabwe. In the end they fudged both. Angola and Zimbabwe both offered troops - the Angolan offer is unlikely to be taken up, as the Congo does not trust Angola (with good reason). Our offer was an empty gesture unless Kabila or Angola was going to pick up the tab of about US$1 million a day.
On Zimbabwe they fudged the whole issue, clearly supporting Zanu PF and more particularly, Mugabe. The final communiqué (see here) could not have been more one sided.
The MDC leadership spent the rest of the week talking to those SADC leaders who are sympathetic to the MDC and have some democratic credentials. After those consultations, our leadership met in Harare and finally today, we called in our National Executive and Council.
After an all day meeting we finally resolved (see here) - unanimously, to reject the SADC decision, reaffirm our commitment to the Global Agreement and clearly stated what our conditions are for participation in any new inclusive Government. Our demands are well known to all SADC States and to the Secretariat in Gaborone. They are: -
We reject the agreement signed on the 15th of September in front of 23 Heads of State and with great fanfare supervised by Mr. Mbeki as not representing the actual agreement negotiated and signed on the 11th September in Harare. We insist that the new inclusive government be based on the original agreement and that the way it is implemented also be in accord with the earlier version.
We demand the allocation of ministerial portfolios on the basis of equity between Zanu PF and MDC. By no stretch of the imagination can the Mugabe/Mbeki allocation be considered as anything but biased and partial.
We demand the recall of all 10 Provincial Governors, unilaterally appointed by Mugabe in defiance of the MOU and the Global Agreement and the allocation of these posts on the basis of the Parliamentary majorities in each Province (5 MDC, 4 Zanu PF and 1 Mutambara).
We demand the appointment of all Permanent Secretaries and Ambassadors on the basis agreed in the original version of the Global Agreement.
We demand full prior agreement between the Parties to the constitution and membership of the National Security Council to which the armed forces and security service are to be accountable to ensure they are not controlled and directed on a partisan basis.
We demand full agreement by all Parties to a draft version of Constitutional Amendment number 19 referred to in the Global Agreement and intended to give full expression to the Agreement in legal terms and on the basis of which it will be implemented. The Draft Bill to be jointly proposed and supported by all Parties to the Agreement when it comes to Parliament and is passed into law.
Finally, we resolved that since it was obvious that neither Zanu PF nor Mugabe can be trusted to act in the interests of either the country or the Agreement, that all these conditions must be met in full and implemented in clearly defined legal terms before we would participate in any inclusive government. We further stated that we would not recognise any government appointed by Zanu PF in the interim and would continue to hold that no Ministers currently in office have any legitimacy or legal standing and that Mr. Mugabe can only become State President by agreement.
That is a big spanner in this particular works - we wait to see what the region and the regime do in reaction. For the rest of us, it's 'vasbyt'.
The Zanu PF propaganda machine is working overtime. 'MDC agrees to join inclusive government' was the headline this morning in State newspapers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Zanu PF thought that the SADC decision would put us in an impossible situation with no real options. They now know better. If they want to see Zimbabwe put back on the road to recovery, if they want to get out of the hole they are in, then they have to have our approval and participation. If not, they are going nowhere.
Eddie Cross is MP for Bulawayo South and the MDC's Policy Coordinator. This article first appeared on his website www.eddiecross.africanherd.com/ November 15 2008
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Comments
True liberation of Zim will only come when the interest of the people of Zimbabwe takes the center stage in the body politics of tha great country , Zim is, but so long as ZANU-PF with its Leader Mugabe continue to hold the people of Zimbabwe on gun . .more
by Mpho on November 17 2008, 11:09
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Economic activity is pointless - the people are starving - the only hope people have is to leave the country - Zanu PF created the mess and they have no solutions to solve it - yet Mugabe and SADC leaders behave as if nothing is wrong - it is totally . .more
by Sad Days on November 17 2008, 11:15
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r.g. mugabe is a knob.
by jaxon browne on November 17 2008, 12:51
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charge them with genocide
by GungetsTuft on November 17 2008, 13:51
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Can someone out there advice me how to press charges to Mugabe with his ZANU-PF and SADC for genocide? these ruthless murderers have to be stopped, and it has to be now....Please someone out there, we need a plan to stop this musacre beyond comprehension.
by Mpho on November 17 2008, 16:33
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and if it talks like a silver back and if it looks like a silver back IT IS A SILVER BACK.
by zamugo on November 17 2008, 18:07
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I wish there was something I could say, but words fail.
Zim is held in a vice-like grip by a madman. But our country's leaders have blood dripping off their hand because they simply refuse to do the right thing.
Contempt. Complete and . .more
by Bruce on November 17 2008, 18:13
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In Africa, the politicians simply do not care for their people - as much as they say so during the "revolution", in the end they care zero and poor Africans die in their millions. As the one guy above succintly says- "rg.mugabe is a knob" - Correction, . .more
by Dave on November 17 2008, 20:13
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You are going to DIE - it's as simple as that - Shame on you African politicians - you blame all but yourselves - but you do it to your own people. Shame on you that I have to travel around and see your own people dying, shame on you. You disgust me as a . .more
by Dave on November 17 2008, 20:17
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"In Africa, the politicians simply do not care for their people" but Ian Smith did and he was an african politician. The people of Zimbabwe however decided they liked starvation and R. Mugabe more so they chased away their white slaves and are now . .more
by andrewa on November 17 2008, 20:26
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Obviously there is no political solution so what's left? All this waffling about is not helping anyone. Can somebody please put a bullet in Mugabe and get it over with?
by JZ on November 18 2008, 07:25
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I guess SADC says it all SADLY AFRICANS DESTROY COUNTRIES.
by rhodendrum on November 28 2008, 08:11
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