A LOCAL think-tank says credible polls are impossible without wide-sweeping security sector restructuring, as securocrats continue to block reform in contravention of a Sadc resolution.
Report by Njabulo Ncube
In its latest report, the Zimbabwe Democratic Institute (ZDI) has implored the facilitator to the Zimbabwean crisis, South African President Jacob Zuma, to ensure that the military stayed out of politics as the country heads to general elections.
“The failures to implement security sector reforms have the potential to block a possible democratic transition as the country prepares for the first election after the formation of the unity government,” reads part of the report.
“Premium attention is, therefore, required to rein the military and other security of the State to subordinate them to democratic civilian leaders.
“Our critical postulation is that politics is not the security apparatuses’ area of competence.”
Top security officials have often been accused of engaging in partisan politics, openly campaigning for Zanu PF and observers say this tilts the political field against the party’s opponents.
This week, the MDC-T called for the resignation of police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri after he rebuffed an invite to meet with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, insinuating that he did not meet malcontents. Mugabe has publicly refused to tinker with the security sector, stating publicly that it would be tantamount to effecting regime change.
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Some top military officials have also publicly stated they will not salute Tsvangrai even if he were to overwhelmingly win the next elections. ZDI claimed the country’s security sector was fully in charge and had the capacity to control the use of violence and they have done so consistently to influence the political and electoral direction of the country for the past three decades.
“ZDI argues that the political situation is still too fragile to hold a credible election at the moment, let alone any time before practical security sector reforms,” the think tank continued, saying if the status quo remained unchanged, there could be a repeat of the 2008 political violence.
Trevor Maisiri, a Zimbabwean political analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, concurred with the ZDI assertion that security sector reform was of paramount importance if Zimbabwe wanted elections whose outcome would be universally acceptable.
Maisiri said the case of security sector interference in politics has long been a “thorn in the flesh” in ensuring a political environment non-supportive of credible or free and fair elections.
“Zanu PF and the security sector have never been separated in the political landscape since independence from Britain in 1980,” he said.
“Even during the liberation struggle, the political wing and military wing were integrated. Even though good governance calls for their separation, Zanu PF is unwilling because this will be a new terrain for them.
“In fact, the security wing has always provided political security in Zanu PF since the war, so they do not want to lose that now,” he said.
