Dynastic politics dangerous but military interference catastrophic

The People's Democratic Party last week warned against allowing the creation of a Mugabe dynasty.

This was against the backdrop of ZANUPF's misdirected meeting where a rowdy crowd purported to endorse Grace Mugabe's assenting to the post of Vice President following the unceremonious sacking of the Lacoste frontman Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa who all this while has been metaphorically been viewed in the same way with a crocodile.

We made the point that our law have no provision for a regent President, despite the fact that the President has the power to appoint his deputies, that power must be exercised with responsibility, reasonably and in way applicable in a democratic society.

The appointment of one's wife as second in command is certainly undemocratic, illogical, unacceptable and dangerous.

The fact that the first lady from hell in this case is the intended beneficiary of the absurd arrangement makes it worse, the PDP in previous statements detailed five reasons why Grace cannot lead.

In the middle of this madness which in our view is dangerous to our country a more catastrophic threat has emerged.

The threat of military interference in civilian affairs, yesterday's press conference convened by General Chiwenga though cryptic in many ways, revealed to the citizen that the country can be held at ransom by the gunmen.

General Chiwenga though in ZANUPF terms made it clear that he had plans to interfere in political affairs of the land, this is wrong in many ways.

Firstly the law of the land is clear that the military must be professional serving only the purpose of protecting the country from external threats and ensuring that peace prevails at all the times.

Secondly the army is subject to civilian deployment and must take instructions specifically from the President of the country whether de facto or de jury is a question for another day.

Further to this we made it clear in the supreme law that deployment of the armed forces by the President in some instances has to be reviewed by Parliament.

This makes it clear that guns must not be let loose without the control of the masses represented by elected parliamentarians. We are aware of the temptation to ignore parliament's representational and oversight roles on the basis that the eighth parliament half the time has been a sleeping legislature.

More importantly the constitution in section 211 of the constitution states that "The Defence Forces must respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all persons and be non-partisan, national in character, patriotic, professional and subordinate to civilian authority as established by this constitution."

Yesterday's press conference violated the entire provision, General Chiwenga once again associated himself with ZANUPF, threatened rights and freedoms and was insubordinate to civilian authority, we find this despicable.

We urge the military to stop this kind of behaviour, this country needs peace and not war; political choices must be made through democratic means provided for in our laws.

Military interference will only result in a catastrophic situation where we regress to situations in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central Africa Republic among other war ravaged countries.

The dangerous situation posed by a creation of a Mugabe dynasty will be dealt with solely through the use of peaceful democratic means; a military option will be catastrophic.

Finally the People's Democratic Party urges the government to put in place an independent complains mechanism against the uniformed forces as outlined in section 210 of the constitution.

A holistic security sector transformation is already framed by provisions in the supreme law, what is needed is the political will to abide by the constitution.

Together Another Zimbabwe is Possible