“Mnangagwa, Chamisa in fresh legal fight!” read the headlines. And my instinctive reaction was the sinking feeling of pending doom.
MDC A are going to challenge in the Constitutional Court the passage of the Constitution Amendment bill No. 1.
Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution stipulated that the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and judges be appointed following public interviews. And Amendment Bill No 1 gives the State President the power to appoint all these senior judiciary officers. This is problematic in that it undermines the concept of judiciary independence from the executive.
MDC A are not challenging the passage of the Bill on the substantive matter of judiciary independence but on procedural grounds.
"The starting point is that the Bill is illegal. The sitting and reading of the Bill happened in the Robert Mugabe era. Section 147 of the Constitution is clear that any motion lapses at the dissolution of Parliament. The Seventh Parliament was dissolved on May 28, 2018 and the motion also lapsed," explained Tendai Biti.
"That's unconstitutional and illegal, we will go to court about that. Zanu-PF can't unilaterally amend a negotiated Constitution, which was voted for by three million people in a referendum. The challenge should be how to implement the Constitution.”
The best MDC A can therefore expect from the Constitutional Court is that the laid down procedure was not followed in the passage of the Bill. This will delay the date the Bill will be enacted nothing more!
Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and senate and that gives the regime the constitutional power and authority to amend the constitution.
As for the legitimacy; Zanu PF does not have legitimacy in so far as the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible. 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, a very significant number given Mnangagwa reported won with 2.4 million votes. Mnangagwa has since admitted there was no justification for denying the diaspora the vote. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission Observer final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime derived their fig-leaf legitimacy from the participation in the flawed and illegal elections by MDC A and the rest in the Zimbabwe opposition camp. What is worse, the MDC A knew that by participating in the flawed elections they would give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, as David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General admitted in his book.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” wrote Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
MDC A challenged the July 2018 elections results on the frivolous grounds that Chamisa garnered 2.6 million vote to Mnangagwa’s 2.4 million only for MDC A to fail to produce the V11 forms evidence, the Polling Station vote count summary sheets. The substantive challenge was the elections were rigged given the denial of 3 million in the diaspora the vote, failure to produce verified voters’ roll, etc., etc.
History is once again repeating itself; MDC A is challenging the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 1 on trivial ground and not on the substantive one. Such is the curse of having a corrupt, incompetent and utterly, utterly useless opposition party as MDC A.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been stuck for 41 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF regime that has been rigging elections to stay in power. The nation had its best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders wasted the opportunity and failed to implement even one reform in five years!
Zimbabwe would not still be stuck in this economic and political mess if MDC leaders were not so corrupt and incompetent.
“Zanu PF has no legitimacy to pass Constitutional Amendment Bill No 1” - MDC A gave them the legitimacy!
ReplyDeleteSo MDC A is challenging the Bill on procedural grounds and and not the substantive matter that it is undermining judiciary independence. This will delay the adoption of the Bill but not stop it. This is just another case of MDC A wasting our time on trivial matters when the real big issues are allowed to sail through
"The question outsiders would ask is why he did not see this (his current troubles) coming. The reinvention of himself should have started long ago, together with the rebranding of his party," Chan told the Daily News On Sunday.
ReplyDelete"Achieving a clear identity is a key to any opposition movement or party.
"The second question outsiders would ask is why have some of his own MPs deserted him? Is it just because of temptation from Zanu-PF or because of dissatisfaction with Chamisa?
"A good opposition leader ensures that this does not happen by example and consultation, then decisiveness, that he commands loyalty.
"So, as well as rebranding his party, Chamisa needs to rethink himself and his approach. He has got to be seen to be inclusive of all his followers, and that will signal that he can be inclusive of all Zimbabweans," Chan further told the Daily News On Sunday.
MDC failed to implement even one reform in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU proving beyond all doubt that MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent. Everyone with any brain saw there and then MDC leaders for what they really are. Why Professor Chan has refused to accept until now that MDC leaders are utterly useless beggars belief.
OPPOSITION big shots say their fight for a better Zimbabwe for all is being slowed down by fear, as authorities continue to crack down on people who stand accused of breaching the country's laws.
ReplyDeleteThis comes as political analysts have warned that the country's ever bickering opposition faces a heavy shellacking at the 2023 polls, unless it puts its act together quickly.
MDC A has lost political credibility and many of the leaders who lost their gravy train seats have no other income, they are broke. MDC A has lost the money from the Political Party Finance Act. Most MDC A leaders know their chance of winning the few gravy train seats next time on their shoe-string budget is very small.
Still, they will never admit they are not going to contest because they are broke - they will never admit that. And so they are coming up with all manner of other excuses! They have taken great pride in saying they did not fear Zanu PF and now they are telling us fear is the reason they will not contest the elections.
CAN someone explain why Zimbabwe is one of the three countries in the world to have "hate" speech recognised in its Constitution.
ReplyDeleteIf "hate" speech is recognised, then there can be no freedom of expression.
Hate speech is subjective, therefore, there can be no equality under the law.
Could we not copy the United States of America constitution, as many countries have done, and withdraw the whole section of freedom of expression and replace it with freedom of speech, which empowers everybody, across the board, equally?
While we are at it, how do we also explain why "affirmative action" was given its own section within the Constitution, right after the section where the same Constitution proclaims that opportunity cannot be denied based on race, creed or culture?
So within the same document, racism is deemed unlawful, but it then goes on to state that anyone with a black pigmentation has more rights than any other group.
Our Constitution is so full of holes we could use it to discriminate against other racial groups.
Paul Mangwana, Zanu PF MP and co-chair in the parliamentary committee that wrote the constitution, boasted that Mugabe dictated the 2013 Constitution and it is clear why that is so. Zanu PF was retained all its dictatorial powers and hence the reason the constitution failed its greatest test - to deliver free, fair and credible elections.
The constitution gives the freedoms and rights with one hand and takes them all away with the other! You are right the constitution is full of holes we will be better off throwing it away and have a clean start!
Tendai Biti and his fellow MDC A, MDC-T and the rest in the opposition camp participated in the July 2018 elections knowing fully well that Zanu was rigging those elections and that by participating they will be giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. David Coltart admitted this way back in the 2013 elections and the point has hammered home repeatedly before the 2018 elections. It is therefore nonsensical that Tendai Biti and nelson Chamisa should now be wasting the nation’s time pretending they can challenge much less take back Zanu PF’s legitimacy.
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying Zimbabwe is facing its greatest existential threat ever. 4 decades of Zanu PF misrule have left the country in economic ruins, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed and millions of our people now live in abject poverty. The corona virus outbreak has turned a tragic situation into a Biblical catastrophe. And worst of all, as long as the country remains a pariah state, there is no hope of escaping out of this hell-hole.
It is a crying shame that the nation has had many opportunities is the past to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and MDC leaders have wasted them all. It is most infuriating that even now with the country standing on the edge of the abyss all MDC leaders can think of is wasting the nation time one fool’s errant after another!
MDC A’s legal challenge of the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill No 1 will delay but not stop Mnangagwa assuming the dictatorial power to appoint judges. MDC A should be fighting the regime to buy corona virus vaccines and vaccinating people and save the nation from the disruptions of covid-19 lockdowns, the suffering and deaths, for example. It is insane to neglect the good fight to contain corona virus to fight the lost cause of Amendment Bill No 1.
It is now as clear as day: if Zimbabwe is to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance we must first accept that the corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless MDC leaders are long seized to be champions for democratic change. They are now running with the povo hare by day and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds by night; they are hinderance to our cause.
And in a rare show of unity, the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU) - formerly the Apex Council - has declared a deadlock and warned that all its 12 affiliated unions - including health workers and teachers - would now work just two days a week.
ReplyDeleteTeachers were already working three-days-a-week - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - since the re-opening of schools following the Easter holidays, before the latest resolution by the ZCPSTU.
The ZCPSTU president Cecelia Alexander wrote to the Public Service Commission: "Following an offer of 25 percent of one's current earnings which the government brought on the negotiating table in the previous National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) meeting set to be effected on April 1, 2021, which proved to be incapable of addressing civil servants' capacity to execute their duties, ZCPSTU representing all member unions do here by notify your august office that all civil servants will, starting on April 12, 2021, report for duty twice a week.”
The penny has finally dropped, until now the civil servants have believed that government can still pay them a living wage even in the face of the country’s worsening economic meltdown. They have played no roll in the fight to good governance, convinced the Zanu PF government was their government and it will never let them down. Now they can see with their own eyes that when push comes to shove Zanu PF ruling elite dropped them in the s***t!
Zanu PF leaders have used the good old fashioned divide and rule. The security services sectors have been singled out for better treatment. Their wages have been double that of the teachers, nurses and other civil servants and their wages were increased 400% whilst the rest were offered 70%. But with inflation soaring to 848% it is a matter of time before the security services personnel join the rest of us in the s***t and then the penny will finally drop too.
Zimbabwe is not getting out of the mess we are in as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who rig elections to stay in power.
The task of demanding democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections, the pre-requisite for good and accountable government; is one we must now take up with the urgency seriousness the situation demands. We have neglected this important task for far too long and are paying dearly for it!
THE Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T's support for constitutional amendments in the Senate last week exposes the so-called opposition party's lack of principles and its desperate quest to be part of the gravy train.
ReplyDeleteEven if Mwonzora and all his senators had objected to the Amendment Bill No 1, that would have made no difference since Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in the senate.
If anyone is serious about criticising the opposition then criticise why they participated in an election process they all knew was flawed and illegal and that doing so would give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Job Sikhala, Jacob Ngarivhume, Fadzai Mahere, Noah Manyika, Nkosana Moyo, etc., etc. all participated in the flawed July 2018 elections and gave Mnangagwa and Zanu PF legitimacy.
Chamisa and Biti are claiming Zanu PF is illegitimate, making a big song and dance about stopping Zanu PF amending the constitution, etc.; this is all nonsense. The MDC A leaders are just playing to their captive audience who are so naive and gullible they believe the nonsense no questions asked.
Thandekile Moyo – Daily Maverick
ReplyDeleteA PARTY of young people from Matabeleland, the Mthwakazi Republic Party, believes there is no reason for Matabeleland to remain under the subjugation of Zimbabwe and they have been calling for secession.
The Mthwakazi Republic Party’s argument is that Matabeleland is in fact its own country, called Mthwakazi.
They say it is only because of colonisation that the country of Mthwakazi is part of Zimbabwe and the only thing that can bring justice for those suffering in Mthwakazi at the hands of Shona supremacy is secession.
The one thing the founders of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) got right was to state that there should be no fighting amongst independent African nations over national borders. Africa should accept the colonial borders and focus instead on development, peace, justice and freedom for all. This advice was valid in the 1950s and is still valid today.
The people of Zimbabwe have not known peace, freedom, etc., etc. ever since the country attained her independence in 1980 because of Zanu PF misrule. It would be tragic to end Zanu PF misrule but only to go into yet another nightmare.
Those who are seeking to start tribal hostilities under the pretext of settling Gukurahundi are no different from Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs who launch that massacre for party domination.