Mugabe fighting to stay put

President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF has rewritten the draft constitution, restoring as well as increasing unlimited executive presidential powers, in a move clearly aimed at preserving the status quo favourable to its octogenarian leader.

This comes as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitator in Zimbabwe's political dialogue to restore a legitimate government and democracy, South African President Jacob Zuma, is expected back in Harare soon to mediate in a fresh dispute over the draft between Mugabe and other principals in the coalition government.

Zuma's international advisor, Lindiwe Zulu, confirmed this week that her boss could be heading to Zimbabwe - for the second time in as many weeks - to tackle the impasse over the new constitution.

A perusal of the Zanu-PF draft, a copy of which The Sunday Times has in its possession, shows that Mugabe's party has also removed devolution of power entirely and deleted all references to it. The devolution of power resonates with the marginalised provinces of the Ndebele-speaking provinces of Matabeleland, which largely abandoned Zanu-PF in 2000 after the advent of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

During the constitution-making outreach exercise, residents of Matabeleland demanded devolution of power, which was captured in the Copac draft, but critics say it is surprising that Zanu-PF was going against the views of the people.

Zanu-PF spin-doctors argue that the people did not demand devolution of power but decentralisation of services.

The party has also removed the peace and reconciliation commission; making all indigenous languages official; the open, transparent and public interview process for the appointment of judges has been replaced with a presidential appointment system.

It has introduced mandatory national youth service, something flatly rejected by Zimbabweans during the out-reach programmes.

Zanu-PF has also done away with a separate Constitutional Court and decided to let the status quo remain - the Supreme Court doubles up as a Constitutional Court.

Dual citizenship has been banned for those who are Zimbabwean citizens by descent or registration, and Zanu-PF has mutilated the Bill of Rights by deleting all references to democratic society.

In the Zanu-PF draft, agricultural land has been redefined to include any land used for poultry, so that they would be able to take any buildings used to rear chickens.

They have also taken out the presidential running mate provisions and replaced them with the current system, with the new provision that in the event of the office becoming vacant the replacement will be chosen by the president's party.

The party has reposed all executive authority in the president by deleting the provision, which vested it in the president and cabinet, and reconstituted the imperial presidency by restoring virtually all the current presidential powers.

It has also restored the current presidential immunity provisions and the presidential power to declare war without any restraint.

Zanu-PF also wants to re-introduce the unfettered powers of the president to dissolve parliament.

The party has taken out the provisions requiring a law to regulate Mugabe's dreaded spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation, and requiring the CIO to be non- partisan and professional.

It has reintroduced the public protector, an office Zimbabweans found useless and unhelpful during the outreach.

Both factions of the MDC have roundly rejected Zanu-PF's amended draft, with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube dismissing it as unacceptable and an insult to Zimbabweans.

"I have studied the amendments Zanu-PF has made to the draft and I am astonished at the sheer scale of disrespect, contempt, insult and audacity exhibited by the amendments," charged Ncube.

"In many respects, their amendments make the draft worse than the current constitution, so that we would be better off with the current constitution. Even at our most foolish, there is no way we could ever accept those amendments.

"Anyone who does so would be committing political suicide. In fact, the draft is not just an insult to us but is also a mockery of the people who took time to make representations to Copac."

Ncube said it was clear that the Zanu-PF hawks were itching for an early election.

"And this move they have made has brought them very close to their wish to burn down the country by having a rerun of the 2008 elections," he said.

He added that it was his belief that the moderate elements in Zanu-PF have allowed the party to tinker with the Copac draft in the "mistaken belief that the MDC formations are so fearful of an election without reforms that we would accept not only to be insulted but also a constitution which is the worst we could possibly have".

"It's not going to happen. It's time to let the dice roll the way it will. If an election without a new constitution is the only way to move forward, then let it be. On our part we are not going to betray the people's struggle for a democratic constitution. We will not yield an inch. We will provide the leadership required for the people to take up the struggle at the elections. The battle lines are truly drawn," he said.

The haggling over the draft constitution is likely to incense Zuma.

At the SADC summit in Mozambique last week, regional leaders urged the Global Political Agreement principals to expedite the process by dealing with the contentious issues in the draft.

After surviving initial attempts to bar him standing for re-election in the watershed elections next year through term and age limits, Mugabe has been battling to change the draft, which his Zanu-PF loyalists say will reduce him to a "mere administrative clerk".

The Zanu-PF politburo, which was expected to meet this Wednesday, held a special session yesterday to discuss the situation, before Mugabe left for the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Iran. Senior politburo members tried to blackmail the MDC parties, saying if they continued to reject Mugabe's amendments then polls would be held under the current flawed constitution.

"If Zanu-PF is pushed into a corner, then we may consider holding elections under the present constitution," Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo warned on Friday.

However, Tsvangirai and Ncube rejected Mugabe's proposed amendments, prompting a stalemate. Ncube said his party had already written to Zuma, new SADC chairman Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, and troika chairman Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, asking them to intervene.

Kikwete and other SADC leaders hauled Mugabe over the coals in Maputo, over his attempt to impose Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara on their facilitation process. SADC leaders have now frozen Mutambara out of the process.

In his report to the SADC troika meeting in Maputo, Zuma said there were suggestions to put both drafts to the vote.

"MDC-T and MDC-N are of the view that the only way forward, if there are substantial issues for renegotiation on the part of Zanu-PF, is that the current draft be put to a straight 'yes' or 'no' referendum, or that the current draft and a Zanu-PF draft be put to a referendum," says Zuma's report, seen by the Sunday Times.

"Alternatively the referendum includes not only a 'yes' or 'no' vote on the constitution as a whole, but also a 'yes' or 'no' vote on each of the clauses of the constitution with regards to which Zanu-PF has an alternative formulation."