We were astounded at the weekend by comments by EU resident representative Aldo Dell’Ariccia that there had been “significant progress” in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
The EU senior diplomat’s observation followed exploratory talks between the EU and a Zimbabwean ministerial team which was in Belgium last week for re-engagement talks with the European bloc.
Dell’Ariccia’s view of the state of the GPA is not only astounding, but a major misrepresentation of the reality on the ground. He is not new to this sort of controversy after opining last year that the media in this country was free . . .
The re-engagement team made up of Energy minister Elton Mangoma, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Regional and International Cooperation minister Priscilla Misihairabwi also heard from the EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy representative Lady Catherine Ashton that the reform process — as agreed under the GPA — should continue “in the same positive direction”.
We differ with this view. We are not on the right path to reform.
The absence of a positive direction in the implementation of the GPA has been a major drawback in taking this country forward.
We don’t see a positive direction, but a dangerous path where the military establishment in this country has erected barriers by openly meddling in politics and making threatening noises against dissent.
The political roadmap as agreed under Sadc mediation has become a quagmire ruled by hawks in Zanu PF who are bent on disbanding the constitution-making process and having elections on President Mugabe’s terms.
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This proposed sham election is being brandished as a weapon to punish those opposed to Mugabe’s quest for political entrenchment.
Government has started to make threatening noises against the media, while our suborned police have continued to disrupt freedom of assembly.
More critically, the state of the voters’ roll has remained a cause for concern. It is still being superintended by the hugely discredited Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede.
There is all the evidence that the reform process has been off the rails and there is a valiant attempt to maintain this unhealthy state of affairs.
The Zimbabwe government was after this round of engagement with the EU asked to put its case in writing. We hope the team would be honest enough to tell the EU that there has been no tangible progress in reforming the electoral process and liberalising the media environment.
Information minister Webster Shamu’s World Press Freedom Day Speech will serve as a useful annexure to the report.
The team should report that army commanders have been telling soldiers to support Zanu PF and how Jonathan Moyo, who has been leading the crusade to kill off the drafting of the new constitution, recently justified the violence of 2008.
The EU should also be told how the MDC-T has nodded through poor state policies by failing to speak decisively on the need for reform.
The GNU as it stands today, cannot be trusted to see through the reform process. It has continued to degenerate into a citadel of negative political contest in which principals have to negotiate basic tenets of governance on a weekly basis.
Nothing works without a fight and it is this political contestation that has stymied the GNU to attend to issues on the reform agenda which are fundamental before the holding of free and fair elections. Positive progress, Lady Ashton? No really.
