Statement from the Movement For Democratic Change on the outcome of the SADC Extra-Ordinary summit on the Zimbabwe dialogue

The Extraordinary Summit of the SADC leadership, held on the 9th November 2008, has just concluded with the resolution that a Government of National Unity be formed immediately in Zimbabwe and furthermore that the Ministry of Home Affairs be co-ministered between the MDC and Zanu PF.

In addition, the SADC leadership have stated that Constitutional Amendment 19, which would provide the legal framework for the agreement, should be drafted as soon as possible, but only after the new government has been formed.

With greatest respect to SADC, the issues before them, which were not resolved by the facilitator’s various visits to Zimbabwe and by the Troika meeting held in Harare on 27th October 2008, centred around the following:

• The equitability and fairness in the allocation and distribution of all ministerial portfolios.
• The immediate agreement and legal passage of Constitutional Amendment 19
• The constitution and composition of the National Security Council
• The equitable allocation of Provincial Governors
• The fraudulent changing of the Global Political Agreement between its acceptance by the principals on 11th September 2008, and the signing of the same on 15th September, 2008

The MDC is shocked and saddened that the SADC Summit has failed to tackle these key issues .

Firstly, the principle of equity and fairness. It is the MDCs position that any coalition or cooperative government has to be based on genuine power sharing of portfolio allocations.  In this regard, we had proposed a formula which seeks to pair various ministries on the basis of relative parity. Thus, in our view, to the extent that Zanu PF had allocated itself the portfolios of defence and state security, it only made sense that the Ministry of Home Affairs should go to the MDC.

Equally, this methodology was suggested and communicated to the facilitator in writing on Wednesday the 15th October , to the Troika on the 27 October 2008 and to the SADC Executive Secretary on 30 October, 2008. Thus SADC knew fully our position.

Secondly, we had also made it clear that the issue of the enactment of Constitutional Amendment 19 was a precondition to the formation of any new government.   More importantly, the offices being created in the global political agreement, such as that of the Prime Minister, could only come into being with Constitutional Amendment 19. Events after the 15th September 2008, in respect of which serious lack of sincerity has been displayed by Zanu PF, demonstrated quite clearly that one could not proceed on the basis of good faith in a government not grounded on a legal foundation. Thus the question of Constitutional Amendment 19 cannot be postponed as it is not a question of procedure but rather an issue of substance.

Furthermore, in a political environment such as ours, poisoned by lack of a paradigm shift by Zanu PF, lack of sincerity and utter contempt towards the MDC and the wishes of the people, quite clearly the concept of co-ministering cannot work. In any event, what is the rational of proposing a co-ministry only in relation to the Home Affairs portfolio in total oblivion to Defence and State Security which Zanu PF already holds.

In our view a great opportunity has been missed by SADC to bring an end to the Zimbabwean Crisis.  This omission has occurred because SADC approached this summit without any concrete strategy and did not have the courage and the decency of looking Mr Mugabe in the eyes and telling him that his position was wrong.

For the record, in today’s meeting it had been agreed that all the Zimbabwean principals would recuse themselves to allow an open and unfettered dialogue to take place amongst the SADC leaders. However, Mr Mugabe refused and the Chairman of SADC did not tell him to leave. Thus, Mr Mugabe became a judge in his own case.

Perversely, pressure was brought to bear on the MDC, a party that won an election but has shown compromise and political maturity in these negotiations rather than the party that lost an election and has flouted the spirit and substance of the agreement, namely Zanu PF.

The failure of this summit to acknowledge the only fair and rational solution with regard to equitable power sharing, places the Zimbabwean people in a quandary. It is no exaggeration when I say that the needless suffering being experienced by millions of Zimbabweans every day is unprecedented in our country’s history.

It is precisely because of this that we remain committed to the agreement signed 15th September. It is precisely because of this that we cannot accept any arrangement that does not allow the MDC to effectively contribute to ending this suffering.

I would like to put out that the failure to consummate and implement the Global Political Agreement means that there is no legitimacy on any government or any person purporting to be Head of State. In short, Mr Mugabe is not the President of Zimbabwe without this agreement. Given this dangerous and precarious situation and the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe we hope and pray that the guarantors of the agreement, in particular progressive members of SADC and the African Union, will now move very quickly to try and salvage this agreement.

We remain committed to the agreement and peaceful resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis and I am hopeful that sooner, rather than later, the democratic voice and vote of the Zimbabwean people will be heard and respected by our African institutions.

Until that day, the MDC will continue to stand with the people of Zimbabwe, for it is from them that we derive our legitimacy, and because of them, that we remain resolute in our struggle for democracy.

Thank you

Morgan Tsvangirai
President Movement for Democratic Change

Via an MDC Press Release

This entry was posted by Sokwanele on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 6:08 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.