[ Comment ]
No choice but hope
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara have signed a power sharing deal in September – after years of rivalry and a recent election campaign marked by violence. Zimbabweans long for the kind of political and economic stability they last enjoyed a decade ago.
[ By Jennifer Dube ]
Indeed, Zimbabwe has been suffering economically for a full decade. Mugabe’s government blames the crisis on Britain, the EU and USA and their economic sanctions. These sanctions certainly target people and companies linked to Mugabe’s Zanu PF party. But critics argue the economic meltdown was caused by misled policies, especially Mugagbe’s s haphazard fast-track land reform that displaced white commercial farmers and sent a vibrant agriculture sector into the doldrums.
Many citizens expect the international community to “do something” about economic misery. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the United Nations, Boniface Chidyausiku, challenged the international community to “put money where its mouth is” a day after the signing ceremony. Western nations and donor agencies have said they would help a new government financially, should it commit to political and economic reforms and be serious about resolving the country’s crisis. Zimbabweans anticipate the return of goods to formal markets and massive foreign investment.
Economic considerations played a role in negotiating the recent agreement. Invited by South African President Thabo Mbeki, Donald Kaberuka, the president of the African Development Bank, jetted into the country and took part in the final session of the talks. Analysts say it was clever give Zimbabwe’s politicians a financial-aid incentive to compromise. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), an umbrella organisation of several countries, gave Mbeki a mandate to broker solutions for Zimbabwe a long time ago.
In March, Zimbabwe’s major opposition party, the MDC, had won a majority in parliamentary elections, but its leader Morgan Tsvangirai did not get enough votes to become president. He pulled out of a second election round in June citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters. Mugabe won that poll unopposed, but met with international criticism.
Under the new deal, Mugabe will remain head of state and government, while Tsvangirai, as prime minister, will lead a council of ministers that drafts and implements policy. It remains to be seen what that means in practice. Optimists feel it is a good sign that the protagonists, known for public onslaughts on each other, have all pledged in public their commitment to working together. However, after signing their deal, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara unanimously stated that the real job was to make it work. After Mbeki resigned from the South African presidency, he is unlikely to maintain much clout in Zimbabwe. Some people hope he will continue to mediate, given that he was assigned by SADC and not South Africa.
Doubt lingers on. While their leaders were signing the agreement in a hotel in Harare, some MDC and Zanu PF supporters were battling outside that very hotel. It is feared that the agreement may not resolve the polarisation in society that led to a blood bath – largely blamed on Zanu PF – after the March elections. Worries are exacerbated by disputes that emerged immediately after the deal over who will be appointed to the new cabinet. That important issue was not dealt with in the power-sharing agreement.
There have been reports of major flare-ups in both Zanu PF and the MDC on who will be appointed. Both parties have a sizeable number of influential members vying for ministerial posts. The agreement spells out clearly, however, that Zanu PF will only have 15 cabinet ministers, while Tsvangirai’s and Mutambara’s parties will have have 13 and three respectively.
Zimbabweans have no choice but to hope that the politicians will realise the importance of putting the nation first. Our leaders must allow for a smooth implementation of the deal, and lead the country out of a sad era.
Jennifer Dube
is a journalist with The Standard, a weekly paper based in Harare.
»» jenniferd@standard.co.zw
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D+C, 2008/10, Debate, Page 392
