The Sunday News
Khumbula Vodloza Sibanda
THERE has been talk that Zimbabwe must reform its political system to ensure that elections are free and fair. The basis of such discourse is an allegation that electoral fraud has been common over the years leading to the prevailing socio-economic challenges.
Interrogating the matter further, one realises that the call for reforms came after the MDC suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Zanu-PF in 2013. The opposition party went on to resolve not to contest any elections until the system was fair. The MDC, together with other opposition political parties and certain civil society organisations then gathered under the umbrella of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) — a group which purported to address problems that allegedly compromise the credibility of elections in Zimbabwe.
Before going any further, it can be safely argued here that the MDC used calls for reforms as a cover up for performing badly in the 2013 elections — a position now being held as a universal truth, owing to its popularisation by cheerleaders in the form of pseudo civic society organisation and hostile foreign governments.
To prove the above line of argument, the MDC and like-minded organisations dropped their “no reforms, no election” mantra hoping that an alliance of opposition political parties would defeat Zanu-PF in 2018. However, having failed to carry out a proper SWOT analysis, the MDC did not realise in time that coalescing with one-man parties, an unclear succession policy which led to the party’s 2018 spilt and the short amount of time between the death of Morgan Tsvangirai and the election would work against them in the July 2018 plebiscite.
After losing the elections, the opposition party employed the tried and tested cover up narrative — the elections were not free because reforms were not made. They even went a step further to insinuate that, since they were disputing the election result, His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa was an illegitimate leader. Despite failing to prove the alleged rigging of elections in a Court of Law, the usual cheerleaders picked up the song and have been sounding like a broken record ever since then. Such blatant disregard for what is empirically sound with regards to reforms and Zimbabwe’s economic revival has only saved to heighten the citizens’ expectations and disgruntlement, thereby creating a pool of ready picketers at regime change agents’ disposal.
Nonetheless, with hindsight of the 2018 electioneering period being the most peaceful this country has ever witnessed since independence, no one can doubt that President Mnangagwa is a reformist. But like he said, we are doing it at our own pace and not to please outsiders. As of present, a lot of areas that genuinely need reforming are being attended to. To begin with, in line with the Constitution, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) made some reforms prior to the July 2018 elections which saw voter registration being based on polling stations and biometric information, creation of a new voters’ roll and availing it to candidates in time and improving voter education.
Zec has also been working more closely with political parties, to stimulate confidence in the electoral process. These specific achievements are important, but seeming under-appreciated as those who are known to make noise about reforms have not come out acknowledging them.
On the fiscal and monetary side of things — two issues that are fundamental in stabilising the macro-economic situation, Government introduced the interbank market and the local currency. The above developments are meant to stifle the foreign currency parallel market and give local products a competitive edge on the international market.
The trading of foreign currency within the formal economy has potential to allay investors’ fear about its unavailability as well as repatriation to a country of their choice. A lot still needs to be done in that area, but the ball is already rolling.
Closely related to the above is the issue of corruption. In a bid to eradicate the scourge, Government saw it fit to give the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) arresting powers. This has resulted in a number of high profile people being arraigned before the courts to answer to a wide range of corruption charges. The only downside, which is not of Government making, is how difficult it has been to quickly conclude such cases owing to their complexity.
With regards to the maintenance of peace, order and security to ensure the enjoyment of rights and freedoms by any person, and in particular to make provision for the peaceful conduct of gatherings in a manner that protects the rights of freedom of assembly, association, demonstration and petitioning without prejudicing the rights and freedoms of others, Government repealed the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) and replaced it with the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (Mopa).
There has been an outcry, especially from the opposition political figures who argued that there are no changes at all in the new law compared to Posa, because they would still have the same problems of alleged criminalisation and abuse of people who fail to notify the police when they engage in demonstrations or gatherings.
If one may ask, what would the opposition lose by simply notifying the police? The point these people seem to miss is that Government has to perform a delicate balancing act of upholding the rights of the picketers as well as those who want to conduct normal business in the vicinity of any demonstration.
Others argue that the police might abuse the powers given to them by Mopa to prohibit meetings — an argument purely subjective considering that it cannot hold water when juxtaposed with the need to maintain national peace. Surely one cannot expect the police to allow a demonstration to proceed if there is sufficient intelligence that it might lead to the disturbance of peace as what happened on 1 August 2018. The country’s detractors are now deliberately misinterpreting events of that day as evidence that little had changed in Zimbabwe since the dawn of the news dispensation. Turning to media reforms, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), which some scribes have regarded as draconian, is on its way out. Sometime in July Government gazetted the Freedom of Information Bill, which seeks to repeal Aippa and give effect to Section 62 of the Constitution which provides for the right to access to information as enshrined in the Declaration of Rights. The development is part of the Second Republic’s efforts to fulfil the reform agenda aimed at seeing the country pursuing a new trajectory in its domestic and foreign policies. Taking all the above into consideration it can be safely concluded that Zimbabwe is on the right path with regards to reforms as every area that genuinely need reforming is being attended to.
