News / Press Release
Thank you President Zuma and thank you SADC
18 Jun 2012 at 16:17hrs | Views
The 21st Movement - Free Zimbabwe Global Protest this Thursday will be thanking President Jacob Zuma, the SADC and the SADC Organ Troika on Defense, Security and Peace Co-operation for clarifying the regional grouping's position that Zimbabwe must go through reforms to level the political field before elections are held.
This is precisely the outcome we have been calling for during the last five demonstrations so far held from January to May where we handed our petitions at SA embassies demanding that SADC must insist on Zimbabwe implementing the SADC Roadmap.
Three years had already gone and elections were approaching, yet the Roadmap was far from being implemented. If this SADC position had been made clear to us in response to our petitions, there might not have been a need for us to demonstrate.
But it seems SADC has a policy of not talking to, or responding to, its citizens, which is a pity since we would like to believe that SADC is accountable to its citizens, not just its Heads of States.
The only concrete response we have received came in the SADC Communiqué of June 1 in which SADC made it clear to Zimbabwe that the Global Political Agreement must be fulfilled to the letter before an election, and also tasked President Jacob Zuma with working out a timeline on implementation of the agreed reforms.
The ultimate deadline on implementation of the GPA and holding of elections is imposed by the June 2013 expiry of the current Parliament, failure which President Mugabe and Zanu-PF might feel justified to call for elections without completing the SADC reforms.
We are therefore imploring SADC heads of state to ensure that we do not get to this precarious situation by ensuring that the Facilitator proactively gets the parties, particularly Zanu-PF, to commit to inviolable timelines, within the lifetime of the current Parliament, to implement the reforms.
We also implore the facilitator to openly and publicly disabuse Zanu-PF of the notion that is continually being pronounced by very senior officials, such as the Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, that the military is justified in dabbling in politics.
Justice Minister Chinamasa and another Zanu-PF Politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, have been quoted in the Press agreeing with Zimbabwe National Army Chief of Staff, Major General Martin Chedondo, and his other colleague, Major General Trust Mugoba that they should not allow anyone except Zanu-PF loyalist to rule Zimbabwe.
The acting Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, and other military chiefs have in the past made similar public comments, declaring loyalty to Zanu-PF and at times insulting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The police force has also clearly shown through their actions that they have unspoken instructions not to arrest Zanu-PF thugs who perpetrate violence. Victims of Zanu-PF violence who report the incidents to the police almost always end up being arrested instead.
While we appreciate, that SADC may be involved in private diplomacy with Zanu-PF, we believe that, as these statements have been made publicly and widely reported, failure by the Facilitator on behalf of SADC to also put it in the public domain that this is not acceptable would leave Zimbabweans fearful that we will face another bloody election.
We are therefore continuing with our demonstrations on the 21st of June, but but this time our demonstrations are positive demonstrations, to thank President Jacob Zuma and SADC for the bold position they have taken, and also remind you of the distance that has yet to be travelled on the outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement â€" and to remind them that time not on our side.
The bold and hopeful position that SADC has taken will need to be enforced and we will through our demonstration, be reminding the Facilitator and SADC of the very positive document that the June 1 Luanda Communiqué was.
We will also be reminding SADC that we now have a window of a maximum of 12 months to not only complete the reforms, but to establish an environment in which Zimbabwean voters will feel safe to vote for any party of their choice.
The outstanding issues that have not been implemented so far; holding those responsible for violence accountable, security sector realignment, media, a democratic constitution, and so forth are the real core issues without which there will be no movement forward.
We still need action from the Facilitator, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, taking a hands-on approach, where it is clear that parties are being unnecessarily intransigent, to ensure that the parties are forced to take a serious position approach to the dialogue.
We appeal to SADC because we are all very anxious and would like to see peace and stability return to our country so that we may also return to our mother country and cease being second class citizens in foreign countries.
Thank You.
For and On Behalf of the People of Zimbabwe
Den Moyo
Global Coordinator
21st Movement Free Zimbabwe Global Protest
Tel: +1 571 221 3858
Email: 21stMovement2012@gmail.com
This is precisely the outcome we have been calling for during the last five demonstrations so far held from January to May where we handed our petitions at SA embassies demanding that SADC must insist on Zimbabwe implementing the SADC Roadmap.
Three years had already gone and elections were approaching, yet the Roadmap was far from being implemented. If this SADC position had been made clear to us in response to our petitions, there might not have been a need for us to demonstrate.
But it seems SADC has a policy of not talking to, or responding to, its citizens, which is a pity since we would like to believe that SADC is accountable to its citizens, not just its Heads of States.
The only concrete response we have received came in the SADC Communiqué of June 1 in which SADC made it clear to Zimbabwe that the Global Political Agreement must be fulfilled to the letter before an election, and also tasked President Jacob Zuma with working out a timeline on implementation of the agreed reforms.
The ultimate deadline on implementation of the GPA and holding of elections is imposed by the June 2013 expiry of the current Parliament, failure which President Mugabe and Zanu-PF might feel justified to call for elections without completing the SADC reforms.
We are therefore imploring SADC heads of state to ensure that we do not get to this precarious situation by ensuring that the Facilitator proactively gets the parties, particularly Zanu-PF, to commit to inviolable timelines, within the lifetime of the current Parliament, to implement the reforms.
We also implore the facilitator to openly and publicly disabuse Zanu-PF of the notion that is continually being pronounced by very senior officials, such as the Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, that the military is justified in dabbling in politics.
Justice Minister Chinamasa and another Zanu-PF Politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, have been quoted in the Press agreeing with Zimbabwe National Army Chief of Staff, Major General Martin Chedondo, and his other colleague, Major General Trust Mugoba that they should not allow anyone except Zanu-PF loyalist to rule Zimbabwe.
The acting Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, and other military chiefs have in the past made similar public comments, declaring loyalty to Zanu-PF and at times insulting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The police force has also clearly shown through their actions that they have unspoken instructions not to arrest Zanu-PF thugs who perpetrate violence. Victims of Zanu-PF violence who report the incidents to the police almost always end up being arrested instead.
While we appreciate, that SADC may be involved in private diplomacy with Zanu-PF, we believe that, as these statements have been made publicly and widely reported, failure by the Facilitator on behalf of SADC to also put it in the public domain that this is not acceptable would leave Zimbabweans fearful that we will face another bloody election.
We are therefore continuing with our demonstrations on the 21st of June, but but this time our demonstrations are positive demonstrations, to thank President Jacob Zuma and SADC for the bold position they have taken, and also remind you of the distance that has yet to be travelled on the outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement â€" and to remind them that time not on our side.
The bold and hopeful position that SADC has taken will need to be enforced and we will through our demonstration, be reminding the Facilitator and SADC of the very positive document that the June 1 Luanda Communiqué was.
We will also be reminding SADC that we now have a window of a maximum of 12 months to not only complete the reforms, but to establish an environment in which Zimbabwean voters will feel safe to vote for any party of their choice.
The outstanding issues that have not been implemented so far; holding those responsible for violence accountable, security sector realignment, media, a democratic constitution, and so forth are the real core issues without which there will be no movement forward.
We still need action from the Facilitator, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, taking a hands-on approach, where it is clear that parties are being unnecessarily intransigent, to ensure that the parties are forced to take a serious position approach to the dialogue.
We appeal to SADC because we are all very anxious and would like to see peace and stability return to our country so that we may also return to our mother country and cease being second class citizens in foreign countries.
Thank You.
For and On Behalf of the People of Zimbabwe
Den Moyo
Global Coordinator
21st Movement Free Zimbabwe Global Protest
Tel: +1 571 221 3858
Email: 21stMovement2012@gmail.com
Source - 21st Movement Free Zimbabwe Global Protest
