Mugabe gives in to Tsvangirai's demands

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday he has reached an agreement with his coalition partner President Robert Mugabe to implement resolutions of a special Sadc committee on politics, defence and security.

A full-scale extraordinary summit in Luanda, called at the instigation of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF, directed Zimbabwe's parties to implement all outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and to implement an election roadmap to pave way for a free and fair poll.

Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa - who make up Sadc's troika, gave Zimbabwe's parties, 12 months to implement all outstanding issues.

Officials of the 15-member Sadc, rejected Mugabe's insistence on a snap poll this year without democratic reforms, and said Zimbabwe will only go for a fresh poll after implementing all outstanding issues from the accord he inked in September 2008 and a Sadc election plan agreed to a year ago.

Tsvangirai said yesterday Mugabe, who has previously refused to live up to his end of the bargain, has now capitulated and agreed to implement the outstanding issues.

"As principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA), we have agreed to fully implement the GPA, complete the constitution-making process, and to implement the road map towards a free election to ensure lasting peace, which is the foundation for science, technology and innovation development," he told the launch of the second Science, Technology and Innovation policy at the Harare International Conference Centre.

Tsvangirai said he hopes the implementation of the outstanding issues will create peace which is necessary for the implementation of policies, including the second Science, Technology and Innovation Policy launched yesterday.

At the event, Tsvangirai was flanked by Mugabe who neither disputed nor confirmed what the premier had said.

But Mugabe's spokesperson, George Charamba told State TV that elections will be held this year.

"We have to move definitively and inexorably towards a general election," Charamba said.

"In the case of Zanu-PF, the president has been on record to say this has to be this side of the year."

While Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe must complete a new Constitution, Mugabe's spokesman said there has been a misconception about the Sadc resolution on the Constitution.

"There is a misconception here, when Sadc says the constitution making process must conclude, I notice in some heads, that means we must have a new constitution in this country," he said.

"Sadc never, would never have said so, because to say so would be as it were, to predict or prepossess the results of the referendum. That's an unknown; no one knows which direction the referendum will take. Maybe the current draft, and hey I am asking where is it, the current draft?

I haven't seen it. Maybe what pretends to be a draft will be embraced by Zimbabwean people, in this case, yes we will move to the election phase under a new constitution.

"Maybe, Zimbabweans will be unhappy about that product in which case they will reject it. If you look back at history, you will note that we have a history of rejecting constitutions here," Charamba said referring to the rejection of a new constitution in February 2000, which gave Mugabe his first ever electoral defeat.

"If you are working against history, you can never be extravagant in your expectations of what the Zimbabweans will do come the referendum time," he said.

"So the critical thing for Sadc is, this process must conclude, whichever result, whichever outcome it gives us. It could be a deadlock; if it's a deadlock, that deadlock will have to conclude the process."
Charamba said the election timetable cannot be predicated on a new Constitution.

"And as a matter of fact, the president made it very clear that you cannot predicate the electoral process on the creation of a new constitution because there are matters in the new constitution which remain matters of serious differences."

The Management Committee of Copac, the body tasked with writing the new Constitution, met in Mutare this week to iron out contentious issues from the draft.

Zanu-PF has rejected the draft, raising major objections on parliamentary and presidential powers, the proposed National Prosecuting Authority and appointment of judges and security personnel.

The party, which was involved in the drafting of the document, now claims the draft does not reflect the views of the people submitted during the outreach process and captured in the Copac national report.

It wants substantial changes made.

Zimbabwe has not had a popular constitution since gaining independence from Britain in 1980, following a protracted liberation struggle against the racist Rhodesian Government of Ian Smith.

The country has been operating on the cease fire document, signed at Lancaster House in Britain in 1979.

All the ruling parties in the coalition, Zanu-PF and the two MDCs agree that the Lancaster House constitution is heavily flawed.

Political analysts in Zimbabwe say a skewed electoral playing field has helped Zanu-PF dominate all elections held since independence in 1980.