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Letter from America
November 9, 2009
Mugabe must implement his side of the global political agreement
The SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, or the so called troika, took the policy position on Zimbabwe that it should have taken six months ago, or at the SADC Heads of State summit in DRC in September.
By reiterating that the terms of the global political agreement must be implemented in full and without undue delay, SADC was belatedly acknowledging that the agreement is in serious trouble, and could unravel anytime, especially after the Movement for Democratic Change and prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, had partially pulled out his party from the agreement.
The SADC troika made three strategic resolutions, namely,
the parties should fully comply with the spirit and letter of the GPA and SADC Summit decisions of 27 January 2009;
the parties should not allow the situation to deteriorate any further;
and that the parties should engage in a dialogue in order to find a lasting solution to the outstanding issues towards the full implementation of the GPA;
The troika also acknowledged its responsibility as the guarantor of the global political agreement.
It issued the following policy positions
the political parties signatory to the GPA should engage in dialogue with immediate effect within fifteen (15) days not beyond thirty (30) days;
the dialogue should include all the outstanding issues emanating from the implementation of GPA and SADC Communiqué of 27 January 2009;
the Facilitator should evaluate progress and report back to the Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
By including the SADC Communique of January 27, 2009, the troika was also underscoring the fact that the controversial and unilateral appointments of Gideon Gono as reserve bank governor, and Johannes Tomana as attorney general were neither within the letter nor spirit of the global political agreement.
The January 27 communique clearly stated that appointments of the reserve bank governor and attorney general will be dealt with by the inclusive government after its formation. This clearly did not give Mugabe the authority to unilaterally make these appointments.
The SADC communiqué merely reinforced the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara on July 21, 2008.
This MOU stated that neither Mugabe, Tsvangirai nor Mutambara shall take any decisions or measures that have a bearing on the agenda of the dialogue save by consensus. Such decisions or measures include but are not limited to the convening of Parliament or the formation of a new government.
When Mugabe unilaterally appointed Gono and Tomana in November, 2008, he was in violation of the MOU because he had not consulted the other parties to the MOU.
In the MOU of July 21, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed an agreement that the implementation of the global political agreement that the Parties shall conclude shall be underwritten and guaranteed by the facilitator, SADC and the African Union.
It follows, therefore, that Tsvangirai’s visits to some of the SADC capitals, in the aftermath of the consistent violations of the global political agreement by Mugabe, was to remind SADC leaders of their responsibilities as guarantors and underwriters of the GPA. Tsvangirai’s efforts appear to have, at least initially, paid off with the convening of the troika summit in Maputo last week.
Many of the SADC leaders are good personal friends of Mugabe and have in the past tended to protect him. The MDC’s approach was probably not based on disrupting that friendship. SADC leaders can continue to love Mugabe as much as they want.
What MDC most likely brought to SADC was a business and legal model for addressing the GPA. Tsvangirai must have simply told the SADC leaders that they had signed what amounted to a contract in which SADC was the underwriter and guarantor of the agreement. If any of the Parties should violate the agreement, the onus is on SADC to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure compliance. The laws of contracts make this a contractual rather than a voluntary obligation on the part of SADC.
On the balance, Mugabe has violated the global agreement more than 300 times, as documented by the MDC.
ZANU, on the other hand, seems to have documented only two cases of what they call violations of the global agreement by the MDC. These two cases involve what ZANU sees as the failure of the MDC to have sanctions lifted against ZANU officials; and the failure to close what ZANU calls external pirate radio stations .
It is noteworthy that while the troika communiqué called for the lifting of sanctions, it is dead silent on the closure of the external radio stations.
But nowhere in the GPA is there a contractual commitment by the MDC to cause the international community to remove sanctions against ZANU or close external broadcasts.
The global political agreement placed the responsibilities to campaign for the removal of sanctions or the closure of external radio stations on all the three parties to the GPA.
Tsvangirai has traveled around the world campaigning for the lifting of sanctions. If he did not succeed, it is now ZANU ‘s turn to campaign.
What Mugabe and ZANU are failing to realize is that external broadcasts and sanctions are governed by forces and factors way beyond the control of MDC or ZANU. It’s like Mugabe is blaming MDC for failing to bring to earth one of the stars in the sky.
A very fundamental principle that even a first grade child would understand is that both external radio stations and sanctions against Mugabe and ZANU are a direct product of Mugabe’s violations of the global political agreement. The fact that he has refused to allow independent radio stations to operate in the country is what is causing the continuation of the external radio stations.
Both Short Wave Radio Africa and Studio 7 would love to operate from downtown Harare, Mutare, Masvingo or Bulawayo. But it is the very same Mugabe who is preventing them from operating inside Zimbabwe, yet he wants the external radio stations closed.
The same applies to the lifting of targeted sanctions against Mugabe. It has been explained hundreds of times that there are no formal sanctions against Zimbabwe, only targeted sanctions against 200 top officials of ZANU. The removal of these sanctions is directly related to the full implementation of the global political agreement.
Sanctions against apartheid South Africa were only lifted after the apartheid had given way to one-person one -vote elections and a new majority ruled South Africa had been inaugurated.
If Mugabe and ZANU want the external radio stations to close and the sanctions lifted, he must implement fully all the terms of the global political agreement. If he faithfully and truthfully and honestly does that, democracy, freedom of the press and the rule of law will be restored in Zimbabwe.
Targeted sanctions will fall away.
The external broadcasts will enjoy their freedom of the press to broadcast from either inside or outside the country.
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