SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
A lack of political will has been described as the major stumbling block preventing Zimbabwe’s coalition government from implementing political recommendations by the regional facilitator, Jacob Zuma.
Zuma listed a number of key recommendations for Zimbabwe to implement, as part of a roadmap towards free, fair and credible elections. These latest recommendations were contained in Zuma’s report to the SADC summit on Zimbabwe held in Mozambique over the weekend.
At the heart of the recommendations are the changes already promised by the unity government when it signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) at the end of 2008. This agreement has not been fully honoured, mainly because of ZANU PF’s refusal to implement key reforms to the media and the security sector.
Zuma’s latest recommendations bring these failures back into the spotlight, and in his report to SADC he acknowledged that “most of the items that were agreed upon by the parties (in Zimbabwe’s government)… have not been adequately implemented.”
In his report the South African President suggested immediate measures be undertaken “as a means to defuse the rising tensions and contestations, and to make Zimbabweans have confidence in the forthcoming elections.”
These measures include creating an Inter-Ministerial Committee drawn from all three parties in government to monitor Zimbabwe’s media, including external media, “in order to curb hate speech and calls for regime change.” Zuma stated that this Committee should also be mandated with intervening with the state media “to ensure that they maintain an impartial stance.”
Zuma also suggested that, in an effort to curb the ongoing partisan display of ZANU PF loyalty by the country’s security forces, there be a public commitment to bring the sector in line. Zuma explained how, according to the new constitution, members of the security sector are prohibited from acting in a partisan manner or from being active members of any party.
The recommendation is that Robert Mugabe, as the Commander in Chief of the security forces, “draws the attention of the heads of the security forces their members, as well as the public of Zimbabwe that the new Constriction henceforth governs their actions.”
“It is important that this is done publicly so that members of the security forces as well as the public are made aware of these requirements,” Zuma said.
He also listed some other measures to be taken before elections are held, including the ‘realignment’ of repressive legislation like the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). He said that, despite the life of the current parliament coming to an end next week, “the suspension of certain clauses in particular legislations could be effected before Parliament dissolves.”
The South African President’s suggestions are not unrealistic, according to political analyst Clifford Mashiri. He told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that what Zuma has suggested could be easily implemented and put into action, setting Zimbabwe on a path towards credible elections.
“The problem is that all these issues are issues that require political will. The recommendations are still realistic, if the political will is exercised to make it happen,” Mashiri said.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Director McDonald Lewanika echoed Mashiri’s comments, stating that it is purely political will preventing the recommendations being translated into real action.
“The biggest impediment to the SADC recommendations is political will. The way these issues are being presented is that they are new issues, but that is not the case. We have been seized of these issues for almost five years,” Lewanika told SW Radio Africa.
But he also expressed hope that SADC will put the pressure on ZANU PF, explaining that “the risk of not implementing what SADC has said is very high and I think the government knows it.”
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