Mutambara undermining the judiciary

THAT Arthur Mutambara is a dangerous element to our democracy is no longer an assumption but a statement of fact backed by evidence of his nefarious deeds of violating the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and undermining the judiciary.
His deliberate undermining of the judiciary and the people of Zimbabwe makes him a very dishonest politician who cannot be trusted to be in the leadership of any public office in this country. It has emerged that he is a power hungry man who would not stop at anything to safeguard personal interests -- even if it is against the national interest.
Mutambara, who came into the political fray as a champion of democracy and rule of law, has proven beyond anyone's doubt that he is a dangerous element to our nascent democracy and should be checked before he becomes a cancer.
In the interest of public debate, it is important to highlight some of the major dangerous political activities of Mutambara that show that he undermines both the judiciary and the people of Zimbabwe.
The first major issue that Mutambara dangerously plays around with is the issue of 'principal' in the Global Political Agreement. The arguments by Mutambara, cooked up by Lovemore Madhuku, are meant to mislead the nation, create confusion and disrupt the smooth operations of the government. The arguments forwarded are that Mutambara is principal by virtue of being a signatory of the GPA and also by being Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) of the Republic.
While I will not spend much time in the second argument, I will dedicate some space to deal with the first argument. The position of DPM does not make one a principal, that is a government position which is why Thokozani Khupe is DPM but not a principal.
The argument that Mutambara is a principal by virtue of being a signatory to the GPA falls flat because it presupposes that he signed the GPA in his personal capacity, yet he signed on behalf of the MDC. This is a vacuous argument that is deliberately designed to confuse the nation and should not be allowed to go unchallenged.
The truth of the matter that both Mutambara and Madhuku know is that the GPA was signed by the three party presidents in their representative capacities. Robert Mugabe signed representing Zanu PF, Morgan Tsvangirai signed representing the MDC-T and Arthur Mutambara signed representing the MDC, witnessed by the SADC facilitator Thabo Mbeki. So, clearly, the three signed representing their parties not some substructure that Mutambara and Madhuku are imagining.
Just for the record, Article 1 section one of the GPA makes the following pronouncements: "The agreement shall mean this written agreement signed by the representatives of Zanu PF and the two MDC formations". It further goes on to pronounce that the "parties referred to shall mean Zanu PF and the two MDC formations led by Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai respectively". So Mutambara and Madhuku cannot suddenly pretend that there is a GPA principal who is not a leader of a political party.
The other confusion peddled by Mutambara and Madhuku is that there is a legal term called 'principal' in the GPA. For those who have gone through the whole GPA, they will tell you that there is nowhere in the GPA where it mentions the term principal. This just refers to leaders of the political parties represented in government. The term principal, from what I know, was coined by the negotiators in collective reference to their leaders and the media ran to town with it. It then became a common name in reference to Mugabe, Mutambara and Tsvangirai in their threesome.
The correct legal position, therefore, as enunciated in amendment 19 of the constitution of the country is that the three party presidents signed the GPA in their representative capacities and not as individuals. Simply put, the GPA was signed by the three parties that were represented in the hung 7th parliament of Zimbabwe.
The above position is well known not only by Mutambara but also by President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, yet in clear violation of the GPA and undermining of the judiciary, the two invited and allowed Mutambara to attend a meeting of principals (presidents of parties represented in government). They did this despite the full knowledge that the High Court of Zimbabwe had granted the MDC a provisional order interdicting Mutambara to stop masquerading as the MDC president, and therefore principal of the same.
Commenting on Mutambara's attendance of the meeting, Madhuku, who is the Herald's most trusted legal expert on this matter alone, blatantly tries to confuse the nation by making ridiculous claims that he had a right to attend the meeting as GPA principal and not as MDC president. Such abuse of the public media by a self-proclaimed human rights activist is a serious embarrassment.
While many Zimbabweans have known that Madhuku's understanding of the law is very skewed since he is not a practicing lawyer due to known reasons, very few ever imagined that he would stoop so low as to try and confuse the nation on an issue that is in black and white. The act of attending the meeting of principals is a clear contempt of the High Court ruling and a clear sign of undermining of the judiciary. This is particularity sad coming from someone who has always claimed to be champion of democracy and human rights.
Mutambara raises some absurd claims that the court is infringing on the concept of separation of powers because the judiciary pronouncement is bound to disrupt the operation of the executive arm of government. This pronouncement, which is also deliberately planted to create confusion in the country, is a total falsehood. The truth of the matter is that the court issued an interdict restraining Mutambara from masquerading as party president, it did not make any mention of his work as DPM. So where is the interference?
Madhuku should stop misleading the robotics professor. While they can be forgiven for their wrong interpretation of the law on this one, they cannot be forgiven for undermining the judiciary by claiming that the MDC filed their court application in the Bulawayo High Court because it was "forum shopping". Forum shopping refers to looking for someone who sympathises with you.
So for Mutambara, the judges in Bulawayo did not make a judgment based on points of law and the facts presented but on the basis of sympathy and favour. This is a very dangerous assault on the judiciary by a member of the executive in that it is loaded with strong undercurrents that do not only border on insinuating that the judges in Bulawayo are corrupt but has a dangerous insinuation that the judges are sympathetic to Welshman Ncube because they share with him a particular language and culture. I hope this was not the meaning of his claim of "forum shopping". I challenge him to come out and explain to the nation what he meant about this.
In the absence of a meaningful explanation, for me the statement is in contempt of the courts. It is strange that a whole professor with hairy armpits clinging to the position of DPM by ginya does no appreciate that Zimbabweans are allowed to file their High Court applications in any part of the country because the High Court is a national institution. The jurisdiction of the High Court is national, and even Madhuku knows this.
Mutambara, in his trance of political desperation, should not undermine the state institutions when he took an oath to serve the country in honour. The attempts to undermine the judiciary are totally unacceptable and his political desperation should not be used to undermine the judiciary and creating confusion in the country. He should just accept that the end game has come and accept that he has no moral fibre to make any claims of being a principal.
Qhubani Moyo is the national organizing secretary of the MDC. He can be contacted on qmoyo2000@yahoo.co.uk