The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda: Zimbabwe: we are back to square one

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Zimbabwe: we are back to square one

By Vusumuzi Sifile

THIS morning (Saturday 11 Oct.) we woke up to a screaming headline in the state controlled Herald newspaper: “President allocates ministries”.

And the story meant exactly that. President Robert Mugabe on Friday allocated ministries between his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The paper’s story was based on a government gazette published on Friday, and stated the allocation of ministries was in line with a power sharing agreement signed by our political protagonists on September 15.

The news was a real surprise to everyone, including some senior politicians within Zanu PF. Worse for those in the opposition.

A few hours before the announcement that he had allocated ministries, Mugabe had met MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to try to resolve an impasse over four key ministries – Home Affairs, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Local Government. The MDC wanted these ministries. Which, according to the list published in the Herald, were all allocated to Zanu PF.

When I got to the office, the first thing I did was to call MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa to get their side of the story. The MDC was not quoted in the Herald story. I went to Chamisa’s office, alongside a colleague, Caiphas Chimhete.

This is what he told us, uninterrupted:

“It (the allocation of ministries) is unilateral, contemptuous and outrageous an act, considering the fact that just yesterday we agreed that the matter had reached a deadlock. We had not agreed on the key outstanding issues, the issue of ministerial posts and the issues of governors. The only logical way was to take the matter to SADC. Little did we know that at midnight, Zanu PF was engaging in nocturnal machinations to try and waylay us and so we just woke up to find in the Herald there is a list of ministries, which is a Zanu PF wish list. The wish list is arrogant and flies in the face of the spirit of the deal and Memorandum of Understanding.

“We are not going to accept that wish list. In fact, it jeopardizes the deal. It puts the deal into jeopardy. We will not accept being accessories to a government that is principally Zanu PF. If you look at the whole composition, it’s easy for Zanu PF to run the count on the basis of the ministries they have allocated themselves. We did not append our signatures to a power grabbing deal by Zanu PF. It is a power sharing deal, and let it be real power sharing and responsibility sharing so that we are able to inspire confidence for Zimbabweans, among Zimbabweans and the whole world.

“What Zanu PF is doing is totally unacceptable. This is a clear strategy to try and pre-empt the coming of the mediator, as well as the intervention of SADC. We are calling on the global community to try and intervene to help Zimbabwe …”. And he went on.

Edwin Mushoriwa, the spokesperson of the other MDC formation, was also “surprised” about the allocation of ministries, saying he thought the issue would be resolved the following week when the facilitator, former South African President Thabo Mbeki returns to Zimbabwe.

One of the key rules in journalism is that one has to be impartial, and should never side with an issue, party, individual, or anything. But I should admit that, like many – if not all colleagues – I celebrated on September 15 when the deal was signed.

Our joy started dissipating – very fast – less than a day after the deal was signed. The three leaders were supposed to meet to map a way forward, but the meeting failed to take off because President Robert Mugabe was attending a meeting of his party’s Politburo. The following day, the meeting again failed to take place as Mugabe was addressing a Central Committee meeting. When they finally met, the meeting ended in a deadlock, and we knew we were in trouble again.

There was – as there still is – a seemingly lack of urgency by the politicians in resolving the impasse as self-serving at the expense of the country. And this has left one big question: do these politicians really have the national interest at heart?

When the deal was signed, we were told our inflation was at 11.2 million percent. In less than three weeks after the signing of the deal, it had parachuted to 231 million percent. It’s still rising. By the time I finish this, a few tens of millions would have probably been added. Some independent analysts, like Prof. Hanke already argue it is not less than 2 trillion percent (2 000 000 000 000%).

This is a costly impasse for Zimbabwe, and should be resolved within the shortest possible time. It’s an impasse our country cannot afford. It’s an impasse Zimbabweans do not want. It’s an impasse that will not do us any good. It’s an impasse the peolle of Zimbabwe do not expect.

Like they told us they would do on the signing of the agreement, we want to see our politicians making unpopular decisions popular. We would rather have millions of Zimbabweans smiling because they have food on their tables, than have a bunch of politicians feasting when the masses are suffering.

We now expect former South African President Thabo Mbeki back in Harare to try and help Mugabe and Tsvangirai resolve their impasse. I am not sure if he still has the same clout as he had when he was the President of Africa’s most successful economy.

We hope Mbeki’s visit will result in nothing short of an immediate resolution of the impasse. Otherwise, like Chamisa said, “it’s back to square one”.

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About Vusa

Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda is a Zimbabwean journalist currently working as editor of The Mirror, a weekly newspaper in Gaborone, Botswana.

He joined the Mirror in January 2009 having worked s a Staff Writer for The Standard, Zimbabwe’s only independent Sunday newspaper for close to four years. He also had stints with the now defunct Parade Magazine and The Weekly Times newspaper.

Born in 1981 in Mberengwa, a rural district in the south western parts of Zimbabwe, on the boundary of Midlands and Matabeleland South provinces, Vusumuzi did his primary and secondary education at Danangombe Primary and Matabo Secondary schools respectively.

In 2000, he was named the best student in the Gwanda High School Advanced Level class. A year later, he became the first student from Gwanda High School to enrol at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo when he became part of 19 pioneer students in the Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Journalism and Media Studies. He completed the programme in 2005.

While still studying at NUST in June 2003, Vusa joined Parade Magazine, then Zimbabwe’s leading monthly magazine for Industrial Attachment. The very day he joined the publicatioon, on June 2 2003, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) embarked on their "final push". This was a real rude awakening for a young, raw journalist.

In November 2003, when all indications were that Parade would not continue publishing, Vusa left to join the World Agroforestry Centre/International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) where he worked as an intern communications assistant for the organisation’s Southern Africa regional programme. At ICRAF, he worked as an assistant Editor of the organisation’s regional publications, Miombo Voices ans Living with Trees in Southern Africa, as well as the organisation’s website, www.icrafsa.org. He was also a regular contributor to the organisation’s international weekly, Transformations. He also collaborated with Livai Matarirano in establishing Agroforestry Forum, an agroforestry newsletter focusing mostly on the ICRAF Zimbabwe national programmes and its partners.

In addition to his Bachelor’s Degree, Vusa also has a number of other qualifications like Reporting Politics, Multimedia and Online Journalism, Population and Rural Development. During his stay at ICRAF, Vusa participated at a number of training programmes, with the two main ones being the Integration of Gender into Agroforestry Development (2003) and Teaching with Trees in Southern Africa (2004).

Towards the end of 2004, Vusa and nine other students from his class grouped themselves to form the editorial team of The Weekly Times newspaper. Despite being inexperienced, the team managed to produce a high quality weekly newspaper, which proved to be an alternative source of information for Zimbabweans. So serious was the newspaper that the authorities saw it as a threat, resulting in it being forced to shutdown in February 2005 after publishing just six issues.

During his at The Weekly Times, Vusa also contributed to Tariro/Ithemba Magazine, a publication focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The magazine was edited by Parkie Mbozi, his industrial attachment supervisor at ICRAF Southern Africa.

His experience as a communications assistant inspired Vusa to write a dissertation titled: “An assessment of the knowledge and understanding of agroforestry issues by newspaper journalists in Bulawayo”.

On completion of his studies, Vusa joined The Standard newspaper as a junior reporter and rose through the ranks to the position of a Senior Staff Writer. He is also a regular contributor for reputable international news agencies.

Vusa is a God fearing journalist. He is a born again member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ). Among other positions in the church, Vusa is the current chairperson of the Luther League (Youth) Fellowship in the Martin Luther Deanery of the ELCZ.

As part of his contribution towards the ministry of the Gospel of Christ, Vusumuzi is among the founders of Anointing Magazine, a fortnightly Christian magazine published in South Africa. He is the magazine’s deputy editor.

My Writings

Zimbabwe impedes Sadc intergration’

By Vusumuzi Sifile

THE continued economic and political meltdown in Zimbabwe is endangering any prospects of regional integration within the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), political analysts have said.
During a debate in Harare recently, the analysts were unanimous that the current situation in Zimbabwe was making it virtually impossible to integrate the region.
The debate focused on what role Zimbabwe could play in helping to integrate Sadc.
Among other factors was Zimbabwe’s inflation rate, estimated at more than 14 000% — more than 1 000 times the average across the region.
Weber Chinyadza of the MDC, who presented the argument, said although there had not been much effort in integrating the SADC region, Zimbabwe would “make the attainment of the integration objectives difficult”.
“The rest of the region is suffering as a result of Zanu PF’s misrule,” said Chinyadza. “Zimbabwe is short-changing the rest of the Sadc members. How can you integrate Zimbabwe, with an inflation of 14 000% with, say, Botswana, whose inflation rate is about seven percent?”
Chinyadza said the huge difference between the official and parallel market exchange rate was inconveniencing other countries.
The chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Dr Lovemore Madhuku said “the levels of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe are not found anywhere in Sadc”.
“The extent of human rights abuses on its own makes it difficult for Zimbabwe to fit into a community of nations with respect for human rights,” Madhuku said.
“Our political culture is clearly outside the framework that is necessary for integration. Zimbabwe is not so much in a class of its own in terms of creating problems for the SADC. For example, we have Angola which still wants to rerun the 1990 presidential elections, and Swaziland which is still run by a monarchy. But the difference between Zimbabwe and those countries is that in those places there is a genuine effort to implement the Sadc guidelines on the holding of free and fair elections.”
Madhuku said Zimbabwe had polarised regional and world politics, making it difficult to implement any form of integration. He said “each time the issue of Zimbabwe is raised, so many other irrelevant issues arise, diverting people’s attention” and as such, if the “Sadc were to be serious with any form of integration, they have to handle the Zimbabwean issue with openness”.
At the same time, said Professor John Makumbe, it was impossible for the rest of Sadc to integrate without Zimbabwe, as “the country is literally at the centre of the region”.
“The country’s position at the centre of the region forces every infrastructure to somehow touch Zimbabwe. Our position makes Zimbabwe key to any efforts to integrate the region,” Makumbe said.
The newly conferred Professor jokingly added that Zimbabwe was already implementing its own form of regional integration.
“The whole country is now a training centre where people are trained and exported into the region. Zimbabwe is exporting victims of human rights violations into the region and elsewhere, forcing neighbouring countries to spend lots of money on deporting Zimbabweans,” Makumbe said.

The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Zimbabwe: we are back to square one

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