A constitution resource for Zimbabweans
Sokwanele Article: December 30th, 2009
Sokwanele is pleased to announce that we have launched a constitution resource on our website. We hope that this online information system will provide users in Zimbabwe and in the diaspora with an simple way to familiarise themselves with the details of the current constitution, and with forthcoming drafts towards a proposed future constitution.
ZIG Watch : Issue 11
Sokwanele Article: December 8th, 2009
November saw news on Zimbabwe dominated by the on-going political differences between the Zimbabwe's three main parties. More than a year after it was signed, the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which was meant to address the many crises facing Zimbabwe, has yet to be fully implemented. In amongst the many media reports discussing the persistent tensions and debates between the parties, there were other reports reflecting the unavoidable reality that Zimbabwe is still a nation in turmoil. These news reports do not speak of failures to implement the process, but point instead to brazen breaches of sections in the agreement.
An overview of the November news items highlighting breaches of the GPA throws up repeated mentions of wide-ranging human rights abuses involving Zimbabwe's soldiers.
At the start of the month, The Zimbabwean newspaper described a horrific incident at the Chiadzwa Diamond Fields, where army personnel took it upon themselves to 'punish' three men who had entered a secure area. The men were taken to the army base where they were severely beaten. The next day they were taken back to the mines where they were reported to have been forced to carry four corpses (the bodies of civilians allegedly killed by the army) from the mines and back to the bases.
Will Zimbabwe’s Medium-Term Recovery Plan work?
Sokwanele Article: November 20th, 2009The document published as the successor to STERP, the Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme, is the MTP, or Medium Term Plan, the Zero Draft version of which has now been released by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion. The document’s 133 pages carry detailed and well-prepared descriptions of the current state of the economy’s major sectors and go on to describe how much more effectively each sector will perform when policies that will overcome current handicaps have been adopted.
However, descriptions of current problems and assurances of how much better things will work in the future do not constitute a plan.
Various ideas can be assembled to define or describe a plan, such as:
- A detailed proposal for doing or achieving something
- The preparations made to handle an expected event, or to deliver an intended result
- The most sensible course of action.
- An organized programme of measures taken in order to achieve a goal.
- An outline of the steps required to reach an objective by making the best use of available resources.
Other concepts might need to be considered, such as scale, or urgency. Every country has to occasionally make momentous decisions – the sort of decisions that affect the entire destiny of the country for years to come. These decisions have to address the biggest and most important issues facing the country’s population, so a definition of strategic planning must encompass the need to take big decisions and the ability to follow through in good time.
In this document, many of the descriptions of the success awaiting Zimbabwe are based on assumptions, such as that the country’s relations with those international bodies that can support development plans will become normalised, and that their offers to Zimbabwe of Balance of Payments support will therefore become a major source of funding. But when the document is examined to find the backing for such assumptions, they cannot be found.
