BY PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
HE is conspicuous in the National Assembly. He is the only white male Member of Parliament filling the opposition benches, representing a poor high-density suburb and has been very effective in the Lands and Agriculture Committee.
Allan Norman “Rusty” Markham was born in 1960 in Zambia, but grew up in Zimbabwe where he was educated. He is a graduate of Gwebi Agricultural College and farming is his primary enterprise.
Markham did not start his politics at the top like many new politicians. He started from the bottom of the rung. He served a full term as a councillor for Harare ward 18, an affluent suburb that includes Glen Lorne suburb.
After a single term, he joined the National Assembly as MDC Alliance MP for Harare North — a sprawling constituency of Hatcliffe.
In 2019, Markham showed his colours — fighting for accountability and having the guts to take on President Emmerson Mnangagwa administration in the High Court.
While his political party, the MDC Alliance, was busy trying to force change through wildcat demonstrations, Markham saw a gap for judicial activism.
He picked out a simple case — an open-and-shut case in legal jargon.
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Markham wanted the Finance minister Mthuli Ncube to conform with the Constitution in acquiring public debt or giving State guarantees to loans or debts. He asked the court to declare the US$500 million Afreximbank facility to support the Zimbabwe dollar cancelled because Parliament had not been informed of it.
Section 300(3) of the Constitution reads: “Within 60 days after the government has concluded a loan agreement or guarantee, the minister responsible for finance must cause its terms to be published in the Gazette.”
Markham had hit the bull’s eye if it was the pub game of darts. The government had nowhere to run, it conceded before Justice Happias Zhou that Ncube had breached the Constitution.
Justice Zhou in December 2020, with consent of the Finance ministry, ordered Ncube to gazette the terms of loans and guarantees by the government relating to the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) and other lenders by January 31, 2021.
In compliance with the judgment, Ncube has in the past few weeks gazetted a list of the debts Zimbabwe has contracted or guaranteed running into billions.
Many people were shocked by the extent to which the government is guaranteeing private loans.
It may be a coincidence that most of the guarantees relate to loans from CBZ Bank for farmers and a boutique luxury hotel in the resort City of Victoria Falls.
However, a little scratching below the surface points to the growing unsettling relations between the State and presidential adviser and emerging power broker Kudakwashe Tagwireyi.
Tagwireyi, who solely funded Command Agriculture, now continues to do the same through CBZ, a bank where he has a significant shareholding. That the loans are State-guaranteed means he will never lose his money even if the farmers choose to default — a common trend since the start of the land reform programme in 2000.
Ncube and the so-called new dispensation seem to be taking advantage of the gap in law, which does not limit State borrowing in explicit terms. Since 2013, when the new Constitution was adopted, Zanu PF administrations have deliberately ignored section 300(1).
The section reads: “An Act of Parliament must set limits on borrowings by the State, the public debt and debts and obligations whose payment or repayment is guaranteed by the State and those limits must not be exceeded without the authority of the National Assembly.”
It is curious why Markham has delayed demanding for the enactment of this law which the Constitution demands. Probably, he was aiming for the easy picks, but where is the whole MDC Alliance machinery?
The Constitution in section 300(2) reads: “An Act of Parliament must prescribe terms and conditions under which the government may guarantee loans.”
This is a law that guarantees transparency and restricts the hand of the minister from signing State guarantees for any loan.
Ncube as the minister in charge of finance is responsible for steering these two pieces of legislation. He seems deliberately ignoring the Constitution. Perhaps, it is time someone asks him what subjective criterion he is using to bind the taxpayer to settle private individual debts.
It seems transparency is an anathema to Zanu PF, but the opposition and civil society are abetting it by not demanding the legislation which the Constitution says “must” be enacted.
Could Markham’s lone voice be amplified by his party caucus in Parliament, demanding that Ncube respect the Constitution. By the way, the administration swore to uphold and defend the Constitution when it was sworn into office.
The opposition can change strategy each day and each week, showing the minister and the government to be constitutional delinquents. The opposition will do better by having the High Court exposing government’s breach of the Constitution. If Zanu PF is not moved, then the opposition should draft private members’ Bills even if they don’t have the numbers.
What matters now is the opposition should show capacity and leadership in public finance management. It should prove it is far better than Zanu PF by at least proving it understands the dictates of the Constitution.
Probably, it needed the lone voice of Markham to awaken the opposition to its senses that it is there to call to order the administration, while at the same time offer alternatives. The public purse is a serious issue and needs to be defended by all patriotic Zimbabweans.
