For a University graduate much more a University Professor of a highly acclaimed institution like University of Oxford, UK; one would expect Arthur Mutambara to have common sense and thus say something that makes sense. Clearly that is too much to ask!
“What we are doing now will lead to
another coup de tat. You know why? Because when the first one happened, Mugabe
had these useless vice presidents, he was hiring and firing at will and one of
them (Mnangagwa) left the country and engineered a coup d’état (in November
2017),” Mutambara told a Zoom audience.
He was commenting on the Constitutional
Amendment Bill No 2 recently passed by both the Zimbabwe parliament and senate.
The Bill, among other things, scraps the clause requiring the presidential
candidates to have running mate(s); the elected State President will be allowed
to appoint and fire VP(s) as he please. The Bill also allows the State
President to extend the term of a serving Judge beyond the retirement age of 70
years by another 5 years if he so wished.
Amendment Bill No 1 scrapped the clause calling
for senior Judges to appointed through public interview system; the State
President will interview and appoint the Judges.
“What Mnangagwa is doing could lead to
another coup d’état by somebody else because right now he is controlling
succession. He is controlling everything and maybe some people may say the only
answer is a coup de tat. If we are not careful these shenanigans will lead
to another coup d’état,” warned Mutambara.
What Mutambara is will make sense if the
March 2013 Constitution he is so outraged to see being amended was a strong
democratic constitution worth protecting. Mutambara and the other MDC leaders
heralded it as “one of the best in the world”, said Professor Welshman Ncube. “It
is an MDC child!”, chided Morgan Tsvangirai. The truth is the March 2013
Constitution is not even worth the paper it is written on and therefore all hoo-ha
against the amendment bills is just hot air.
The new constitution failed its first
litmus test; it failed to delivery free, fair and credible July 2013 elections
- the ink on the new constitution had not even dried then!
Next the new constitution failed to stop the
November 2017 military coup, as Mutambara readily admitted! High Court Judge,
George Chiweshe said the November 2017 coup d’état was “legal, justified and
constitutional!” Of course, this has set a dangerous precedence; the gene is
out of the bottle and cannot be put back.
Zanu PF MP Paul Mangwana, Mugabe’s man on
the GNU parliamentary committee that drafted the new constitution, boasted that
it was Mugabe who “dictated” the document. It is therefore not surprising that
the March 2013 Constitution is all the dictatorial powers a dictator wants
including power to amend it to consolidate his/her dictatorial powers.
By failing to deliver and guarantee free,
fair and credible elections in 2013 and in future the March 2013 Constitution
cum dictator’s creed had in it the seed of the November 2017 military coup and,
yes, there will certainly be more violent changes in future coups.
Change is part of nature and no mortal
can stop change, the most mortals can do is delay change. Those who have
delayed regime change by rigging elections have closed the door to peaceful and
orderly change free and fair elections bring. The pressure for change will
build up and sooner or later the dam wall will not be strong enough to hold it
back.
“They have butchered the Constitution. We
are returning to a constitutionalised authoritarian regime. It is only the
beginning of a process. By the time they are done with the amendments, the
Constitution will not be recognised from the one adopted through a referendum,”
added UK-based University Law Lecturer and former Chief Advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai
during the GNU, Dr Alex Magaisa.
“The whole aim of adopting the
Constitution was to trim the powers of the President, but the amendment in both
Bills No. 1 and No. 2 has given back the draconian rule by Zanu PF, aided by
MDC-T and its leader (Douglas) Mwonzora who was one of the builders of the
decapitation of the Constitution.”
The March 2013 Constitution was supposed
to take away Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers including the carte blanche powers to
rig elections. It did no such thing, that is precisely the point. Zanu PF went
into the 2008 to 2013 GNU with its dictatorial powers and emerged at the end
with all its dictatorial powers nicely disguised in the March 2013 Constitution
and with not even one democratic reform in place.
Dr Magaisa as Tsvangirai’s Chief Advisor
should have advised Tsvangirai, MDC leaders and the nation at large to reject
the March 2013 Constitution in the referendum because it is a dictator’s creed.
He advised them to do the exact opposite, accept it.
SADC leaders advised the MDC leaders not
to participate in the 2013 elections without implementing some democratic
reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The SADC leaders
realised immediately that the March 2013 Constitution was weak and feeble and
will not deliver free, fair and credible elections.
By participating in flawed and illegal
elections in 2013 and then again in 2018 the MDC and the rest in the opposition
camp gave credibility to the flawed electoral process and, by extension, gave
legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF regime. Of course, as the legitimate
Zimbabwe government Zanu PF has the power and authority to amend any part of the
March 2013 Constitution.
Professor Mutambara and Dr Magaisa are
suggesting that if Zimbabweans can stop Zanu PF amending the March 2013
Constitution then the country can expect to have a democratic Zimbabwe is a fallacy.
Zanu PF will rig elections to stay in
power because the March 2013 Constitution gives the party dictatorial powers to
do so. We not only foolishly approved that weak and feeble constitution but
continue to defend it as the democratic constitution we want. By participating
in flawed and illegal elections we have given the vote rigging Zanu PF regime
legitimacy. And after giving Mnangagwa the dictatorial powers and a weak
constitution to allow to do as he pleases we can, somehow, neither Mutambara
nor Magaisa have said anything on the subject, still get him to behave like a
democrat! Of course, the suggestion is idiotic!
What is the way forward? First, people
must accept the reality that the March 2013 Constitution is a feeble and weak
that will never deliver and guarantee our freedoms and rights including the
right to free and fair elections and even the right to life. Accept the reality
the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement even one of the raft of democratic reforms
agreed at the onset of the GNU.
It is self-defeating to pretend the GNU
delivered the democratic changes the nation has been dying for when it did no
such thing. Yes, the recent amendments to the March 2013 Constitution will give
Zanu PF extra dictatorial powers; the emphasis is on extra, the feeble
constitution has given him many dictatorial powers already. Our time and energy
must be to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and take away all the dictatorial
powers not just to deny the dictator the extra dictatorial powers
Second, the fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship starts
with the demand to implement all the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair
and credible elections. If no reforms are implemented before the next elections
due in July 2023, just over two years away and so it is almost certain no
reforms will be implemented now; Zimbabweans must not participate in the
elections.
After 41 years of
rigged elections, it really is insane to keep participating in flawed and
illegal elections and expecting to win “rigged” elections.
The Professor Mutambara and Dr Magaisa of this world will
argue that Zimbabweans must participate in the coming elections, regardless of
all the evidence that Zanu PF will rig the process, to stop the regime passing
more March 2023 Constitutional Amendments. Of course, this is nonsense Zimbabweans
participated in the 2013 and then in 2018 elections and that did not stop Zanu
PF passing the two amendment Bills referred to above.
If people participate in the flawed elections and give Zanu
PF legitimacy the regime will amend the constitutions if it so wished. We the
people will only have ourselves to blame for our folly in having participated
in the flawed elections and given the regime legitimacy for the umpteenth time!
Zanu PF as the party in government has the duty to ensure
national elections are free, fair and credible; it owns this to every Zimbabwean
as a birth right and not a favour. If the regime cannot implement the reforms
to ensure free, fair and credible elections, then the nation has the right to
declare the elections null and void and find others who will deliver free, fair
and credible election!
“If we are not careful these (Constitution) shenanigans will lead to another coup d’état!” Please spare us your foolishness, what shenanigan led t
MDC leaders have proven beyond all reasonable doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent and producing the weak and feeble March 2013 constitution is one of those unforgivable moment of betrayal. The nation had the opportunity to produce a democratic constitution with all the democratic checks and balances and all MDC leaders offered is a dictator’s creed dictated by the dictator Mugabe himself.
ReplyDeleteThe MDC leaders went to town in selling this dictator’s creed to get the people to vote for it in the in March 2013 referendum. The really annoying thing is the MDC leaders are still keeping up the pretence that the dictator’s creed is the democratic constitution the nation is after.
The Zimbabwe electorate is one of the most naïve and gullible people on earth. They have failed to understand what the GNU was about and just how MDC leaders have sold-out, even now with the benefit of hindsight.
MDC leaders like Arthur Mutambara have taken full advantage of the people’s naivety to practise their fiery rhetoric full of sound and fury signifying nothing! The weak and feeble constitution was the root cause of the November 2017 military coup and the door is open for more coups as long as Zimbabwe remains a dictatorship. To suggest the amendment will cause the coup is nonsense when the door for a coup has been open all along.