The Clause Devastates Plans

GPA Principals(google images)

If the constitution making process will end with the incoperation of the clause 642,(Newsday 24/02/2012) the head of the state will be automatically be thrown into the political dustbins. The move that has been taken by the COPAC in the restoration of the clause can be viewed as an attempt to "fix" the head of the state.

An attempt might bring total transformation in the Zimbabwean political terrain. However, if the clause is being revised so as to fix one person in the political landscape this renders it biased.

One of the troubling issues is that the clause was proposed by the drafters not the public. The action then parallels with principles of the constitution making process which states that it has to be a people driven constitution not a stratified population driven policy.

President Robert Mugabe has been on power for almost three decades and there has been no aggressive competitor on the political terrain who has attemted to stamina him apart from MDC. MDC-T has been the only political party that seems to be posing  threat on the regime of the President Robert Mugabe. However, attempts by the political parties to ouster the political guru has been futile as there has been perpetual application of  coercion to garner political mileage. For example in 2008 PM Tsvangirai withdrew from election track after there was heavy flogging of the MDC-T supporters and the civilians.

Conventional means to stamina the President have been redundant. This has forced the oppositional parties to come up with  "noble legitimate" strategies, clause 642 is one of the tactics. The clause actually bans presidential candidate to serve for more than  two five-year terms. If this materialises before elections, President Robert Mugabe wont contest for the next upcoming elections. 

President Mugabe with the loyalists (google pictures)

Monopolisation policy threatens Zim- politics

Zimbabwe is cordially celebrating with President Robert Mugabe who reached 88 on the 21^st of February this month. However, the political terrain seems to be shaky as the old man exhibits no signs of evacuating the office despite the fact that he is “grossly” ageing.

For this week private papers have been covering the statements that have been concurred by the president claiming that he is still young and energetic and he sees no reason for resigning, it’s too early for him to take such decisions.

One of the disturbing issues is that president has claimed his son Bellarmine Chatunga harbours presidential ambitions (Newsday 23/02/2012). Even though the Chatunga is eying for the presidential position it has been argued that he can’t make it as the age gap will be a barrier. Apart from this it seems it is the president’s wish that the political terrain be dominated by the family members as one point in time it has been recorded that the family had three MPs (Sabina(Mugabe’s sister),and her sons Leo Mugabe and Patric Zhuwawo).

It seems it’s the norm in Africa that the leaders appoint their sons.

·         In 2009, Ali Bongo was sworn in as the President after the death of his father Omar.

·         Gaddafi too had spotted his son Seif-Ali to take over.

·         Hosni Mubarak too, had the intentions of surrendering “Kingdom” to his son, Gammal

·         In Cameroon, Paul Biya who has been in power for almost 3 decades has made his eldest son Franck , his special advisor.(Newsday 23/02/2012)

However, this seems to be a threat in the African politics as a whole and Zimbabwe specifically as monarch systems are out of touch in the contemporary society.

Western countries failing to live the talk

France president Nicolas Sarkozy(blog.wblackegray.com)

Western countries declared themselves the first world , that is setting the agenda and the most democratic "world" in the globe. From their pride perspective point of view( western countries) they have labelled Africa the continent of disorder, corruption,violation of the human rights and dominated by the "worst dictators ".

However a cloud of shame has fallen upon them after Nicolas Sarkozy declared the re-election bid.The "democratic" leader rose into power on 16 may 2007. However, since his ascension France has gradually been hit by the economic melt down. According to France 24, Nicolas has been accused for squandering public funds in his fruitless political campaigns.Francois Hollande who is also the candidate revealed that the president candidate was already known (five years back) . The incumbent is fighting to run for the second term up coming presidential elections even though he is gradually sliding to the political dustbins.

The impact of Sarkozy stance seem to be less just because the incident has happened in the West . The story is not glamorised ,sensationalised neither trivialised like what the global media does when reporting on African issues. This piece seek to support the last posted story which was hammering that there is no direct democracy which is always claimed by the Western countries.
      

The Other Face Of Robert Mugabe

His Excellency Robert Gabriel Mugabe (str8talkchronicle.com)

It has been globally accepted that the regime of the President is "iron fisted". This ideology has been mainly reinforced by the so called local private media and even the international media that continue bombarding people with sensationalised political stories. This piece doesn’t discard that truth do exist in those stories.

However, after putting the journalistic lens of objectivity and balance there is a lot that the international community has to be aware concerning Mugabe. His image in the global community has been blurred not just because he is a failure but the comrades insulating him are “lost” in corruption and has pressurised him to assume irrelevant decisions.

Mugabe has been painted undemocratic, seldom the media zoom in his other face.

He empowered black people through

• land reform programme
• indegenization

Ideally, black empowerment is the greatest achievement however,  its implementation is ambiguous.

Moral conservation –He has often lambasted the universalization of the moral panic syndrome that has already engulfed Western  countries . He is impermeating the constitutionalization of homosexuality and bestiality. By realizing the African traditional values and morals and “killing” the western influence – International community has took a massive ride on this and labelled him an extremist. We do realize that to some extent  human rights have been violated( Gukurahundi) but this doesn’t disqualify him in the “holy book”.

He has been labelled “undemocratic”. I beg to differ to some stance. The local private media is myopia of the fact that democracy is in two classes;

1)Representative democracy                                                                                                                  2)Direct democracy

Direct democracy is not feasible. All the countries globally are perambulating within the parameters of representative democracy . The difference is on the level of democracy in the representative democracy

NB (The blogger is not a ZANU PF sympathiser rather a rational “armchair” critique).

                                                                                                                                               

Zim Politics Thwarts Development

Development of underdevelopment in Zimbabwe is largely attributed to the rugged political terrain. The need to  maintain political dominance and vibrancy has forced the government to engage on the military investment at the expense of the public plight.

Reflecting on the 2008 era which was characterised by harmonised elections, violence,hyper-inflation and hunger, the government 'piped' some funds to the military which could have been used to improve people's welfare. Weapons were imported from China via South Africa. A number of African countries have been mainly criticised for investing in the military ignoring the people's fundamental rights. Egypt is one the classic examples.

Underdevelopment in Zimbabwe is also caused by the extreme link that exists between politicts and the economics.Economic development of the country is determined by the nature of the politics. In an environment like this development is seldom. Considering the political environment of Libyia, its economiy was vibrant despite the unstableness in the country.

Minister of finance once lambasted the kind of relationship that exists between the politics and the economic. He highlighted that any shake in the politics direct and immediatetly affects the economy.

''We have not de-linked our politics from the economy so much that when the politics sneezes,the economy does not only catch a cold but goes straight into intensive care'' . He concurred.

In October 2009 MDC-T threatened to pull out of the Government of the National Unity(GNU) ,Zim Stock Exchange bencmark fell by 15 percent in a week. Mining index fell by 22 percent , market capitalization lost  11 percent of its value. (Newsday 19/01/2012)