News / National
Zimbabwe's security top brass must retire en masse
29 Mar 2012 at 11:40hrs | Views
HARARE - Zimbabwe's security top brass must retire en masse to avoid bloodshed or instability should President Robert Mugabe lose the next election, a key member of the coalition government says.
Welshman Ncube, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said securiocrats' partisanship and long history of involvement in the country's politics could scuttle smooth transfer of power.
In an interview with the Daily News, Ncube, a professor of law, said Mugabe had turned the security sector into a private Zanu-PF defence institution hence the need for the wholesale retirement of the top brass.
Zimbabwe's military brass is fiercely loyal to the governing Zanu-PF party and its octogenarian leader Mugabe, who led the liberation war in the 1970s and has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.
Ncube said the generals posed a genuine threat to the country's political transition if they remained in power but was quick to acknowledge that it would be an almost impossible mission.
"The only way to deal with it is actually a wholesale retirement of the people who occupy these positions," Ncube told the Daily News.
"And it is not possible as long as you are in a situation where you have shared power with Zanu-PF.
"What we need at some point is to have a police force which is a professional police force, which is loyal to Zimbabwe and not loyal to a political party. We do not have it and the same with the army and that is the dilemma."
On the eve of the fiercely fought presidential elections in 2008, Zimbabwe's army and other security commanders said in a threatening statement that they would not tolerate a win by anyone without liberation war credentials.
"All those statements about 'we will not salute so and so', all those are symptomatic of the fact that we have an army, a police, a central intelligence which are loyal not to the country called Zimbabwe but to Zanu-PF as a political party," Ncube said.
The MDC leader, who is also Industry and Commerce minister in the troubled coalition government, said there was need to deploy fresh faces to head the security forces.
Zanu-PF retains full control of the security apparatus even after the formation of the coalition government, raising legitimate fears that elections could lead to a repeat of the 2008 violence and refusal to accept the democratic will of the people.
Ncube said the current problems were not about reforming the security sector alone.
"You can write new laws, you can write everything and there is nothing wrong with the laws governing the security sector," Ncube said. "It is the mind-set of the people deployed there and what they do is contrary to the constitution, what they do is contrary to the Police Act, what they do is contrary to all policy that is on the ground.
"There is no policy which says police must stand by while people beat each other; there is no policy which says police must not arrest people who breach the law if they are Zanu-PF members."
"There is no such policy. So what needs to be dealt with is that mind-set and the mind-set comes from the historical dilemma that we have, the senior security personnel, being members of a political party, if you like, being the armed wing of a political party going back to the liberation struggle.
"So you had Zipra, you had Zanla which were the armed wings of Zapu and Zanu which is the current Zanu-PF and therefore their first loyalty is to their party because they are the same people who command the army, they are the same people who command the police force," said Ncube.
Zanu-PF claims the power sharing Global Political Agreement (GPA) and subsequent negotiated reform process have run their course and conditions are conducive for a free and fair vote.
The MDC formations disagree and have specified what they consider to be the minimum necessary reforms.
Sadc and most international observers believe the foundation for free and fair elections has not yet been laid.
Ncube said there must be full implementation of the election roadmap as agreed under the GPA and rejected accusations that there was a deadlock at the talks. The deadlock, he said, was on the implementation of positions agreed during talks.
"There is no deadlock in the substantive negotiations. There is an agreed roadmap, this must be done. Because we agreed what should be in the Electoral Act, what should be in the Human Rights Act, everything is agreed, to register the electronic media and so forth, everything is agreed, it's all there.
"With the few exceptions where Zanu-PF says, 'no this is not a GPA issue' which is to say 'okay security sector reforms, show us the clause in the GPA which provides for this?' I would not call that a deadlock and in any event the problem is not about reforming the security sector but changing the mind-set of the people deployed there."
Welshman Ncube, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said securiocrats' partisanship and long history of involvement in the country's politics could scuttle smooth transfer of power.
In an interview with the Daily News, Ncube, a professor of law, said Mugabe had turned the security sector into a private Zanu-PF defence institution hence the need for the wholesale retirement of the top brass.
Zimbabwe's military brass is fiercely loyal to the governing Zanu-PF party and its octogenarian leader Mugabe, who led the liberation war in the 1970s and has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.
Ncube said the generals posed a genuine threat to the country's political transition if they remained in power but was quick to acknowledge that it would be an almost impossible mission.
"The only way to deal with it is actually a wholesale retirement of the people who occupy these positions," Ncube told the Daily News.
"And it is not possible as long as you are in a situation where you have shared power with Zanu-PF.
"What we need at some point is to have a police force which is a professional police force, which is loyal to Zimbabwe and not loyal to a political party. We do not have it and the same with the army and that is the dilemma."
On the eve of the fiercely fought presidential elections in 2008, Zimbabwe's army and other security commanders said in a threatening statement that they would not tolerate a win by anyone without liberation war credentials.
"All those statements about 'we will not salute so and so', all those are symptomatic of the fact that we have an army, a police, a central intelligence which are loyal not to the country called Zimbabwe but to Zanu-PF as a political party," Ncube said.
The MDC leader, who is also Industry and Commerce minister in the troubled coalition government, said there was need to deploy fresh faces to head the security forces.
Zanu-PF retains full control of the security apparatus even after the formation of the coalition government, raising legitimate fears that elections could lead to a repeat of the 2008 violence and refusal to accept the democratic will of the people.
"You can write new laws, you can write everything and there is nothing wrong with the laws governing the security sector," Ncube said. "It is the mind-set of the people deployed there and what they do is contrary to the constitution, what they do is contrary to the Police Act, what they do is contrary to all policy that is on the ground.
"There is no policy which says police must stand by while people beat each other; there is no policy which says police must not arrest people who breach the law if they are Zanu-PF members."
"There is no such policy. So what needs to be dealt with is that mind-set and the mind-set comes from the historical dilemma that we have, the senior security personnel, being members of a political party, if you like, being the armed wing of a political party going back to the liberation struggle.
"So you had Zipra, you had Zanla which were the armed wings of Zapu and Zanu which is the current Zanu-PF and therefore their first loyalty is to their party because they are the same people who command the army, they are the same people who command the police force," said Ncube.
Zanu-PF claims the power sharing Global Political Agreement (GPA) and subsequent negotiated reform process have run their course and conditions are conducive for a free and fair vote.
The MDC formations disagree and have specified what they consider to be the minimum necessary reforms.
Sadc and most international observers believe the foundation for free and fair elections has not yet been laid.
Ncube said there must be full implementation of the election roadmap as agreed under the GPA and rejected accusations that there was a deadlock at the talks. The deadlock, he said, was on the implementation of positions agreed during talks.
"There is no deadlock in the substantive negotiations. There is an agreed roadmap, this must be done. Because we agreed what should be in the Electoral Act, what should be in the Human Rights Act, everything is agreed, to register the electronic media and so forth, everything is agreed, it's all there.
"With the few exceptions where Zanu-PF says, 'no this is not a GPA issue' which is to say 'okay security sector reforms, show us the clause in the GPA which provides for this?' I would not call that a deadlock and in any event the problem is not about reforming the security sector but changing the mind-set of the people deployed there."
Source - Daily News
