Way forward in Zimbabwe stand-off

Way forward in Zimbabwe stand-off

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By Janah Ncube

MORGAN Tsvangirai dropped a bombshell on Sunday, announcing his withdrawal as a candidate to the Presidential runoff elections scheduled to be held on June 27, 2008.

This certainly cannot have been an easy decision for Tsvangirai who recently got the majority vote of 48% over President Mugabe’s 43%.

The first time he contested as a candidate in 2002, the elections were marked by significant irregularities and he lost. This time, he does know for a fact that the majority of voters wanted him to be the next President but due to a recently introduced Constitutional clause, the next President of Zimbabwe must have 51% of the voters electing him.

His decision has caused much chaos and confusion and a lot of people have been left perplexed and some feel betrayed by this move. Tsvangirai, in his statement states his reasons for withdrawing as being state sponsored violence, his crippled campaign, the decimation of his party’s structures, the partisanship of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the media blackout of the MDC, the threats of war by the Zanu PF candidate and the backing they have received from the leaders of the army and the police and the planned rigging by Zanu PF.

The whole world has been following events in Zimbabwe since March 29 when the country held its harmonised elections whose results took over two weeks to be released in drips and drabs. The situation has continuously deteriorated to be grim, tense and unbearable for Zimbabweans. There is so much blood that is being spilt in Zimbabwe right now in the call for patriotism and change.

As said by the Feminist Political Education Project (FePEP) in their April, May and June 2008 Statements , Zimbabwe did not need this election, could not afford this election and the Zimbabwe crises cannot be solved by another election. The prevailing socio-economic and political conditions in the country and the threats of war by President Mugabe certainly discredit any electoral process.

So indeed it is a relief that one of the candidates has exercised responsible leadership and stepped down from this election to protect lives. The iniquitous armies of security personnel, hooligans, young men and women who are being armed by the politicians to execute violence and dishonour to other Zimbabweans are causing great loss, pain and destruction not just to people’s bodies and property but to the soul of Zimbabwe as a Nation. The social harmony in the country has been shredded.

Thus Tsvangirai has not betrayed the struggle, the 29 March 2008 vote, the women and men tortured, violated and murdered since then, rather he is recognising that you do not negotiate with the devil nor do you play the game using his rules in his home ground. This is wising up.

My Pastor taught me that if you want to over-ride one law, you use a higher law. That is what Ghandi did, that is what Martin Luther King Junior did. Tsvangirai needs to engage on a higher law mode if he is to win any contest against Zanu PF. To continue with the game in such skewed circumstances would have set him up to lose and worse, legitimate a farce. If Tsvangirai had proceeded in this election, he would have facilitated for Mugabe to not just be declared a winner but to do so in blazing glory. What we know is that should it have happened, the world would have complained a bit at first and then quietly moved on as we saw in Nigeria and Kenya’s last Presidential elections.

What Zimbabwe urgently needs is a negotiated settlement which should result in a Transitional Arrangement (TA) whose mandate is to foster an environment in which Zimbabweans can exercise their right to elect a leader without being subjected to violence, fear, intimidation or desperate socio economic conditions.

• This arrangement should result in a body that will be given executive powers to manage government and state affairs for a limited period. The period should be determined by the amount of time needed to arrive at a democratically developed and adopted constitution.

• The period would also be determined by the amount of time needed to restore the country to relative peace and calm where residents are not living in fear of persecution for their political views.

• It cannot be headed by either Tsvangirai or President Mugabe, rather, by a Zimbabwean leader who can be relatively accepted by all political stakeholders.

• She or he would be assisted by a team composed of notable citizens of various disciplines that can be entrusted to manage portfolios to resuscitate our country’s industries, social sectors and rebuild trust in national institutions.

• None of these individuals should be politicians in the political parties recognised in Zimbabwe.

• The individuals in this body should not be allowed to run for any elections or public office appointed for at least six years after they have handed over to an elected government.

With the leadership of state security agencies making partisan statements in support of Zanu PF and also with members of these agencies currently involved in meting the violence in the country, a peace keeping force may need to be deployed in Zimbabwe to restore confidence to the people and also ensure that when elections take place, no armed renegade will take matters into their own hand. We cannot have our country held at ransom by threats to use armory we paid for, as citizens, against us.

SADC and other African countries need to recognise that the fate of Zimbabwe is in their hands. We are not seeking the west to rescue our country, we are calling on our brothers and sisters to help us at our hour of need. The Heads of State in the SADC region now need to stand with the people of Zimbabwe and not its political leaders. While the quiet diplomacy strategy may have made sense at a certain turn in mediating the Zimbabwe crises, that strategy has not worked.

The worst has happened, the Zimbabwe government has turned against its people and the people of Zimbabwe need to hear that SADC and Africa stand with them and are not cavorting with Mugabe and Zanu PF. The silence by SADC and other African states is loudly condoning what is being done in Zimbabwe.

The one country, one man mediation has truly been unfair considering the magnitude and complexity of the problem. To expect South African President Mbeki to alone handle this problem is to set him up to fail and now it is clear that this has hit its ceiling. He achieved much but certainly will not achieve anymore from this point on. The region as a bloc now needs to take responsibility and work together on this. The Chairperson of SADC needs to again mobilise his peers but this time to take a robust hands-on approach We all know that Zimbabwe has cost all SADC countries a whole lot economically, opportunity wise, stability wise and so it is to the interest of the region to solve this issue immediately.

More of African leaders need to follow the examples of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga. They should be picking up their phones and calling SADC leaders and sending their envoys to SADC countries to urge SADC to take decisive action that will change things in the country and result in a transitional arrangement.

What is clear at this moment is that we have an illegitimate violent regime holding power and this should not be allowed one more day to be. We have a weak opposition waiting to rule which is unlikely to happen soon. A Government of National Unity is an impossible option in Zimbabwe with all that is currently taking place. However, a transitional arrangement is possible and will give us the time and space for tempers to cool, anger subsides and again dream of a Zimbabwe we all can own and be proud of.

Janah Ncube is a Zimbabwean human rights activist. The views expressed are her own as a citizen of Zimbabwe.

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