Opinion / Columnist
Final Analysis:National Transitional Authority! Case Closed
21 Nov 2016 at 15:49hrs | Views
The 'baritone' choruses have grown louder with each passing day in Zimbabwe as things continue to go for the worst especially economically.
As is usually the norm the economy is the fundamental stabilizer of the society and the politics of any country one can think of in this global village.
A murky and nose diving economy will affect the stability of the social structure for instance, crime rate will begin to rise while politically violence and political activism are the supper of the day. In Zimbabwe all events seemed to point towards a catastrophe until the government urgently moved to at least curb the pandemonium by banning demonstrations which were threatening to spill into a bloodshed. The government together with the uniformed services gazetted a statutory instrument outlawing all demonstrations for a period in time.
The reason why the demonstrations were growing by each passing day was that the players for instance, Tajamuka and #ThisFlag movements were demanding for the provision of bread and butter to their houses accusing the ZANU PF government of failing to honour its 2013 election campaign promises.
All the people who were staging the demonstrations wanted the current government to admit failure and step aside for a new government which in their view would help normalise the economic crisis facing Zimbabwe.
War veterans who are deemed the backbone of the ruling revolutionary party also downed their henchmen role and joined the bandwagon of dissenting voices.
Their agenda was that President Robert Mugabe must put in place a succession plan to remove the notority of a shadow faction widely known as Generation40 (G40) which to them is turning the party into an oligarchy.
The differing grievances led to headaches among the sect of opposition figures and those in the ruling government.
The social clubs had no aftermath plan of what they were going to do in the post-ZANU PF era or who was going to stabilize the ship which they were saying to be on the verge of sinking.
At that moment Ibbo Mandaza of the Sapes Trust and ambitious lunant Tendai Biti of the PDP party came up with a proposal for a transitional authority which they argued would bring stability while also helping by putting in place electoral reforms.
The issue of electoral reforms has been at the apex order of all opposition parties who have always accused the ZANU PF government of manipulating the votes and the results of elections to maintain a firm grip on power.
At the same time ZANU PF accuses the opposition of being mere cry babies who only want to find rigging as a scapegoat for their election defeat and failure to dislodge the regime from power.
The government always disagree with the opposition on how electoral reforms should be aligned to avoid inconvienences in the aftermath of a pebliscite.
This problem has led to calls by independent civic groups and various stakeholders including the church for the designation of a national transitional authority(NTA) to implement the reforms.
Some of the critics of the NTA have cited the GNU of 2009-2013 as a good example of how transitional governments can be useless to put in place the wanted reforms before the holding of an election.
The NTA which has been proposed this time is a different baby from that GNU which failed to implement meaningful electoral reforms which ironically all vocal opposition parties was part of and were seized with the opportunity to solve the problem during their tenure of office.
The MDC-T led by Morgan Tsvangirai, PDP's Tendai Biti,MDC of Welshman Ncube and Joice Mujuru and all her ZimPF members were part and parcel of the once in a lifetime trip to the Mars in the form of a unitary government to implement the reforms.
Most people are now left confused why the opposition players are crying foul over the issue of electoral reforms and even if it is a genuine call or a stroll in the park to buy calamity.
If it is Tendai Biti one wonders why he is so vocal to blame anyone for the failure to implement reforms when he was actually one of the leaders of the Joint Monitory Implementation Committee(JOMIC) which would meet regularly to discuss the issue of reforms and their implementation as had been proposed by the Global Political Agreement(GPA).
As of the call for a NTA one asks is it out of generosity by Mr Biti or an elementary lust or crave for power. No one knows but only his idea seems commendable at a distant scrutiny though not realistic. The NTA would only be idealistic if it can be led by non-partisan groups or stakeholders who will only focus on the economy and the reforms.
The proponents of the NTA have seconded the church as the idea candidate to lead the ambitious NTA citing them as non-partisan. In contrast,it is difficult to say there are people who are non-partisan in this world and taking Evan Mawarire of #ThisFlag as an example can be said to be partisan or Johannes Ndanga of the AACZ can be labelled to be partisan,hence,proposing someone of their calibre to lead the NTA will only further the uproar either from ZANU PF or members of the opposition as they will justify their claims that these individuals will further manipulate the election in either side's favour,thus the issue of the NTA is a difficult issue to handle.
The issue of the NTA was dismissed by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai citing that it was a tricky,confusing and un-idealistic project as the people will start to ask who is leading us and after all where are our leaders thus further creating another crisis if confusion erupts. It is true that there is no ideal candidate who is non-partisan but lets stop running from left to right time and again without nailing everything to the point.
The truth is that there is no way the current government can step aside while it has not finished its term to pave way for political nonentities being proposed to lead the NTA. Even if it was them(opposition) who were leading there was no way they would have agreed to that plan no matter how grand it might sound to be in the ears of theoretical pro-democrats.
It is therefore only ideal that the NTA be set up after the expiry of the ZANU PF government's term in August 2018 for six months to put in place the necessary modalities for a free and fair election which should be led by one none other than Strive Masiyiwa who is the only probable candidate for the NTA post even though some might object the notion.
The elections like those of the 1980 General Elections which were supervised by Great Britain our former colonial master should be supervised by our 'new colonial master' China.
Sceptics will say China will rig the elections in favour of ZANU PF but I do no think so because China only need a working government in Zimbabwe who would not be a liability to them but who will be beneficial to their fundamental economic objectives and also a functioning government which will pay back the overdue debts which have been accumulating with each passing day and has no idea of when and how it shall be paid back to them.
Wilson Chipangura nom de guerre Comrade Mazhambe is the leader of the Pan-Zimbabwe Society a social group advocating for extreme patriotism. He is currently in Sanyati on a mission and for feedback email: wilsonchipangura@gmail.com
As is usually the norm the economy is the fundamental stabilizer of the society and the politics of any country one can think of in this global village.
A murky and nose diving economy will affect the stability of the social structure for instance, crime rate will begin to rise while politically violence and political activism are the supper of the day. In Zimbabwe all events seemed to point towards a catastrophe until the government urgently moved to at least curb the pandemonium by banning demonstrations which were threatening to spill into a bloodshed. The government together with the uniformed services gazetted a statutory instrument outlawing all demonstrations for a period in time.
The reason why the demonstrations were growing by each passing day was that the players for instance, Tajamuka and #ThisFlag movements were demanding for the provision of bread and butter to their houses accusing the ZANU PF government of failing to honour its 2013 election campaign promises.
All the people who were staging the demonstrations wanted the current government to admit failure and step aside for a new government which in their view would help normalise the economic crisis facing Zimbabwe.
War veterans who are deemed the backbone of the ruling revolutionary party also downed their henchmen role and joined the bandwagon of dissenting voices.
Their agenda was that President Robert Mugabe must put in place a succession plan to remove the notority of a shadow faction widely known as Generation40 (G40) which to them is turning the party into an oligarchy.
The differing grievances led to headaches among the sect of opposition figures and those in the ruling government.
The social clubs had no aftermath plan of what they were going to do in the post-ZANU PF era or who was going to stabilize the ship which they were saying to be on the verge of sinking.
At that moment Ibbo Mandaza of the Sapes Trust and ambitious lunant Tendai Biti of the PDP party came up with a proposal for a transitional authority which they argued would bring stability while also helping by putting in place electoral reforms.
The issue of electoral reforms has been at the apex order of all opposition parties who have always accused the ZANU PF government of manipulating the votes and the results of elections to maintain a firm grip on power.
At the same time ZANU PF accuses the opposition of being mere cry babies who only want to find rigging as a scapegoat for their election defeat and failure to dislodge the regime from power.
The government always disagree with the opposition on how electoral reforms should be aligned to avoid inconvienences in the aftermath of a pebliscite.
Some of the critics of the NTA have cited the GNU of 2009-2013 as a good example of how transitional governments can be useless to put in place the wanted reforms before the holding of an election.
The NTA which has been proposed this time is a different baby from that GNU which failed to implement meaningful electoral reforms which ironically all vocal opposition parties was part of and were seized with the opportunity to solve the problem during their tenure of office.
The MDC-T led by Morgan Tsvangirai, PDP's Tendai Biti,MDC of Welshman Ncube and Joice Mujuru and all her ZimPF members were part and parcel of the once in a lifetime trip to the Mars in the form of a unitary government to implement the reforms.
Most people are now left confused why the opposition players are crying foul over the issue of electoral reforms and even if it is a genuine call or a stroll in the park to buy calamity.
If it is Tendai Biti one wonders why he is so vocal to blame anyone for the failure to implement reforms when he was actually one of the leaders of the Joint Monitory Implementation Committee(JOMIC) which would meet regularly to discuss the issue of reforms and their implementation as had been proposed by the Global Political Agreement(GPA).
As of the call for a NTA one asks is it out of generosity by Mr Biti or an elementary lust or crave for power. No one knows but only his idea seems commendable at a distant scrutiny though not realistic. The NTA would only be idealistic if it can be led by non-partisan groups or stakeholders who will only focus on the economy and the reforms.
The proponents of the NTA have seconded the church as the idea candidate to lead the ambitious NTA citing them as non-partisan. In contrast,it is difficult to say there are people who are non-partisan in this world and taking Evan Mawarire of #ThisFlag as an example can be said to be partisan or Johannes Ndanga of the AACZ can be labelled to be partisan,hence,proposing someone of their calibre to lead the NTA will only further the uproar either from ZANU PF or members of the opposition as they will justify their claims that these individuals will further manipulate the election in either side's favour,thus the issue of the NTA is a difficult issue to handle.
The issue of the NTA was dismissed by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai citing that it was a tricky,confusing and un-idealistic project as the people will start to ask who is leading us and after all where are our leaders thus further creating another crisis if confusion erupts. It is true that there is no ideal candidate who is non-partisan but lets stop running from left to right time and again without nailing everything to the point.
The truth is that there is no way the current government can step aside while it has not finished its term to pave way for political nonentities being proposed to lead the NTA. Even if it was them(opposition) who were leading there was no way they would have agreed to that plan no matter how grand it might sound to be in the ears of theoretical pro-democrats.
It is therefore only ideal that the NTA be set up after the expiry of the ZANU PF government's term in August 2018 for six months to put in place the necessary modalities for a free and fair election which should be led by one none other than Strive Masiyiwa who is the only probable candidate for the NTA post even though some might object the notion.
The elections like those of the 1980 General Elections which were supervised by Great Britain our former colonial master should be supervised by our 'new colonial master' China.
Sceptics will say China will rig the elections in favour of ZANU PF but I do no think so because China only need a working government in Zimbabwe who would not be a liability to them but who will be beneficial to their fundamental economic objectives and also a functioning government which will pay back the overdue debts which have been accumulating with each passing day and has no idea of when and how it shall be paid back to them.
Wilson Chipangura nom de guerre Comrade Mazhambe is the leader of the Pan-Zimbabwe Society a social group advocating for extreme patriotism. He is currently in Sanyati on a mission and for feedback email: wilsonchipangura@gmail.com
Source - Wilson Chipangura
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