The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.
crisisgroup.org
Timetable for Zim polls set | Times Live
By Fanuel Jongwe
In a High Court filing seen Thursday, Mugabe set out his most concrete timetable to date for two votes that are key to a bipartisan deal designed to stop Zimbabwe descending further into political violence.
Detailing the popular votes to be held in the next six months, Mugabe listed a “referendum, expected to take place during the first week of November.”
FULL ARTICLE (Sapa-AFP via Times Live)
Photo: Al Jazeera English/Flickr
Zimbabwe — Crisis Over? | allAfrica
European governments placed targeted sanctions on the leadership of ZANU-PF, then Zimbabwe’s ruling party, after flawed presidential elections in 2002. Two kinds of sanctions were used, “restrictive measures” and “appropriate measures”, said Piers Pigou, the project director of Southern Africa for the International Crisis Group. Restrictive measures included a travel ban and asset freeze on President Robert Mugabe and over 100 senior party officials, while appropriate measures suspended EU aid to the Zimbabwe government under Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement.
FULL ARTICLE (IRIN via allAfrica)
Photo: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center/Flickr
Zimbabwe’s draft constitution remains in limbo | Mail & Guardian
By Ray Ndlovu
But the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wants to put it to a referendum.
Political observers have interpreted this as a sign that Zanu-PF will spurn the mediation efforts led by the Southern African Development Community and South African President Jacob Zuma. Earlier this year, Mugabe said his party reserved the right to reject Zuma as the SADC facilitator if he showed “any bias”.
FULL ARTICLE (Mail & Guardian)
Photo: Jesse B. Awalt, U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons
Zimbabwe: Anti-Graft Crusade Real or Politicking? | allAfrica.com
By Njabulo Ncube
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) summarily fired 12 councillors last month, including the deputy mayor of Harare and the mayor of Gweru, over graft charges, in what critics say is probably the first salvo in the aftermath of a damning report about his party’s diminishing political fortunes.
FULL ARTICLE (The Financial Gazette via allAfrica.com)
Photo: Sokwanele - Zimbabwe/Flickr
COMMENT | Lifting Zimbabwe sanctions might aid reform before elections | The Guardian
By PIERS PIGOU
Almost four years since the signing of the global political agreement (GPA) that brought Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) into a lopsided power-sharing arrangement with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, the country is once again heading towards elections, now expected within a year.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt/Wikimedia Commons
Zanu Elder Backtracks on ‘Mugabe Tired’ | Business Day
By Ray Ndlovu
Enos Nkala, one of Zanu (PF)’s founding fathers, has distanced himself from media reports at the weekend that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told him he was “tired and wanted to retire”.
Mr Nkala, fired from Zanu (PF) in the late 1980s, held a 45-minute private talk with Mr Mugabe at the Joshua Mqabuko International Airport in Bulawayo on Friday.
Quoted in the weekly Standard newspaper yesterday, Mr Nkala said: “From what we discussed, Mr Mugabe said he was tired and wants to retire, but he cannot do so now because Zanu (PF) would die. He cannot leave when the party is in such a state. What is holding him now is managing and containing Zanu (PF) to prevent it from disintegrating.”
But Mr Nkala told Business Day yesterday his “comments” were taken out of context by journalists itching to get a scoop.
Photo: Financial Mail
AllAfrica | Zimbabwe: ‘No Lifting of Sanctions Without Real Reforms’
By Elias Mambo
WHILE Zimbabwe’s re-engagement team with the European Union (EU) was upbeat about the possibility of the bloc lifting sanctions after its trip to Brussels last week, analysts have warned that without meaningful reforms on the ground it would still be difficult to ensure the removal of the restrictive measures.
Energy and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma (MDC-T), Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa (Zanu PF) and Regional Integration and International Co-operation minister Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC) led the re-engagement team in talks with the EU in the Belgian capital.
Talks have been ongoing since 2009 as part of broad efforts to implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to restore political and economic stability before free and fair elections are held.
Negotiations are going on within the framework and context of the EU-Africa Cotonou Agreement, Article 96, which says “political dialogue concerning respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law shall be conducted within the parameters of internationally recognised standards and norms”.
“The parties may agree on joint agendas and priorities. Benchmarks are mechanisms for reaching targets through the setting of intermediate objectives and timeframes for compliance,” it reads.
The EU slapped President Robert Mugabe and his top allies and associated companies who either owned, controlled or were linked to Zanu PF with the measures in 2002, citing rampant political violence and gross human rights violations which it said hindered the holding of free and fair elections in the country.
The targeted sanctions specifically followed the expulsion of EU election observer Pierre Schori, a Swedish UN diplomat whom the group had designated head of its proposed 150-strong team for the disputed March 2002 presidential polls.
Photo: Mangwanani/Wikimedia Commons
Voice of America | Zimbabwe’s Military Takes Aim At Draft Constitution
By: Blessing Zulu
Zimbabwe’s constitutional-making process faces collapse as members of the military and hardliners from President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF team-up to resist key reforms.
As a result, the parliamentary select committee writing the nation’s new charter has called for an urgent meeting Monday to deal with the impending crisis.
Army chief of staff Major General Martin Chedondo this week accused the select committee of “trying to bring in and popularize foreign ideas, values and ethos which were never the way Zimbabweans used to live and respect.”
Zanu PF sources told VOA throughout this week that securocrats have been meeting the party’s technical committee on the constitution to make demands that are likely to torpedo the process.
Among the demands being made by the army and also adopted by the party, is the view that President Mugabe retains his executive powers and be allowed to unilaterally appoint service chiefs.
Proposals in the draft constitution say the president must appoint service chiefs in consultation with the Defense Services Commission, which is appointed by the president and subject to approval by parliament.
The army is also bitter about what it is calling over-regulation of the military’s political activities. This comes amid reports that securocrats are increasingly tightening their grip on Zanu PF as several members of the Central Intelligence Organization, police and retired army officers, line up to stand on party tickets in the next election.
The hardliners also want the attorney general to retain his sweeping powers. The draft takes prosecuting powers from the AG, who becomes only a legal adviser to the president while a new National Prosecuting Authority is created.
Zanu PF hardliners are also not happy with clauses that they say give women unnecessary rights.
Co-chairman Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, Zanu PF’s point person in the select committee, told VOA that the Constitution seeks no security sector reforms.
But Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s representative co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora says the army is trying to hijack the constitution-making process.
Co-chairman Edward Mkhosi of the Welshman Ncube MDC says the army has no right to interfere with the select committee’s process.
Political analyst Trevor Maisiri of the International Crisis Group says the army’s intervention spells disaster for the constitutional writing process.
Photo: Al Jazeera English
“The constitution-making process at the moment is the litmus test for whether there is any real prospect for reforms that can lay the ground for free and fair elections. If the constitution process is rejected or thrown out then there’s a real danger that an attempt will be made to fast-track an election process that won’t be credible.”
—Piers Pigou, Southern Africa Project Director, International Crisis Group
