ARTICLES OF FAITH: ASSESSING ZIMBABWE’S “GPA” AS A MECHANISM FOR CHANGE – A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE By Derek Matyszak and Tony Reeler, Research and Advocacy Unit, Harare. MAY 2011 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction Zimbabwe‟s current Inclusive Government, more commonly referred to as a Government of National Unity (GNU), was established pursuant to an Interparty Political Agreement, itself more commonly referred to as the Global Political Agreement (GPA). This Agreement was signed by the “Principals” of the three main extant political parties: the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations. Rather than simply containing clauses which are subject to legal interpretation and enforcement, the larger part of the agreement comprises rhetoric and ideological bombast designed to facilitate political posturing and little else. The ideological bombast is symptomatic of the lack of any real consensus between the parties, and the GPA thus reflected a continuation of this discord rather than its resolution. In fact, only Article XX of the GPA has, and was intended to have, any real legal traction. The Articles of the GPA may be regarded as falling into one of three categories – Articles which are mere bombast, Articles which are of political relevance only, and Articles which have legal traction. Even those Articles intended to have legal traction are problematic. An agreement can only bind those who are party to it. Accordingly, the GPA can only bind the signatory political parties in their relationship with each other as political parties, and no one else. Yet the three political parties purported to oblige the both Government of Zimbabwe and its President, Robert Mugabe, to undertake certain acts. The Government of Zimbabwe is not party to the Agreement. Mugabe signed the agreement qua leader of ZANU PF and not as President of the country. Even if he had signed in the latter capacity, it is not possible for the President to limit his powers provided for in the Constitution by contract. The Articles which purported to do so only became legally enforceable once incorporated in the Constitution itself. The Articles a) Bombast. The Agreement commences with a Preamble, Definition Section and “Declaration of Commitment” all of which are lofty statements of little practical importance. The same may be said of several other Articles. In Article III, the parties agree to give priority to “the restoration of economic stability and growth”, but the agreement is largely meaningless without consensus as to the cause of Zimbabwe‟s economic collapse and the manner in which stability and growth might be restored. Article IV concerned “sanctions and measures” imposed by western powers who thus alone have the power to remove them and who have repeatedly stated the conditions necessary to this end – conditions which would be met if democratic reforms mentioned in the GPA were implemented. The phrasing of the Article does not explicitly link sanctions with these conditions and simply facilitates political posturing by ZANU PF around this issue. Article VIII 2 addresses the need to “observe Zimbabwe‘s national institutions, symbols, national programmes and events”. Given ZANU PF‟s control over these events and its conflation of patriotism with support for ZANU PF, the Article seeks to require the MDC to collude with such conflation and is mere political cant. The following Article, Article IX rejects foreign interference in Zimbabwe designed to facilitate regime change and has clearly been inserted solely to support ZANU PF‟s contention that the west is conspiring to overthrown Mugabe‟s government. It is political posturing and no more. By way of Article XI, the parties agree to abide by the rule of law in Zimbabwe, something already required in terms of Zimbabwe‟s legislative structure, and the GPA does not add to or strengthen this existing obligation. Similarly, Article XIV enjoins the Traditional Leaders to carry out their duties impartially - something already required by the Traditional Leaders Act. b) Political Relevance only i) The insincere and subjective Article X and Article XII provide that free political activity and freedom of assembly and association will be allowed “within the ambit of the law”. ZANU PF thus signaled its intention to retain the power to continue to distort and misinterpret draconian legislation in order to suppress these freedoms rather than allow them, as the events of 2011 have amply demonstrated. Humanitarian Aid and Assistance, by virtue of Article XVI, is also to be supplied impartially “within the confines of Zimbabwean law” a reference to ZANU PF inspired government directives designed to do the opposite - control the distribution of aid in favour of ZANU PF supporters. Article XIII requires that the police and military carry out their duties ethically and professionally, and then proposes that training programmes be instituted to facilitate this, cynically suggesting that past abuses arise out of ignorance and are not deliberate and premeditated. In Article XV the parties agree on the desirability of the National Youth Training Programme to instill patriotism in the youth. It has already been noted that ZANU PF conflates patriotism with ZANU PF ideology. The Article this allows the continuation of a programme whose graduates have been implicated in a large proportion of documented political violence. ZANU PF retains control over this programme. ii) Clear Political Undertakings In Article V the parties made a clear commitment to conduct a comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land audit, during the tenure of the current Parliament. Without control of the relevant Ministries, the MDC has been unable to compel the implementation of this Article. While the agreement to undertake a constitution-making process under Article VI has been fulfilled in part to date, the unaltered constitutional requirement that the new constitution be approved by a two-thirds majority in Parliament means that inter-party support will be required for the amending Bill. Such support will not be forthcoming from ZANU PF if the new constitution has the potential to open democratic space. The parties agreed in Article VII to give consideration to establishing a body to advise on what measures should be taken to achieve “national healing”. An “organ” on national healing was 3 established as required. However, it should be noted that its mandate is merely to advise on what should be done, and not, as is sometimes claimed, to actually implement a process of national healing. Partial policing and the impunity of perpetrators of violence is one of the main blights on Zimbabwe‟s polity. Article XVIII requires that the laws of the country be applied fully and impartially in bringing all perpetrators of politically motivated violence to book. Recent reports by several human rights organisations indicate that the converse prevails. In order to address this problem the institutions responsible for this problem needed to be wrested from the control of ZANU PF and the securocrats. Statutory control of the police and the military rests with the President. Accordingly, in order to ensure compliance with this Article, legislative amendments giving impartial civilian control over the personnel and institutions concerned was required and should have been specifically stipulated in the GPA and enshrined in the subsequent constitutional amendment. The consequences of the failure to do so have been starkly manifested in the early part of 2011 - reflected in the references to the breaches of this Article in the SADC Communiqué of 01.04.11. c) Articles with Legal Traction. The first of these is Article X, touched upon above and relating to political activity. This Article was given some legal muscle through the inclusion of a new section in the Constitution (through Constitutional Amendment 19), section 23A, which provides that every Zimbabwean citizen shall have the right to free, fair, and regular elections. The wording is drawn from the South African Constitution and has been interpreted there as requiring that South Africans outside the country be afforded the right to vote. The section can thus be used to try to gain the vote for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, currently excluded from voting by provisions of the Electoral Act. It is also an illustration as to how vaguely drawn and ineffectual provisions of the GPA could have been given teeth by incorporation into Constitutional Amendment 19, as the GPA itself required (see below). The importance of control over the relevant Ministries and other bodies with the power to ensure the implementation of the GPA is reflected in other Articles such as Article XIX concerning freedom of expression and communication. Some advances have been made in regard to the print media due to the fact that the Zimbabwe Media Commission has been reconstituted pursuant to legislative amendments introduced in 2007 (not the GPA), and several new daily papers are now available. The electronic media remains ZANU PF‟s exclusive domain and control lies partly with the Minister of Information and partly with the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ). BAZ has not been reconstituted as required by law, though it continues to purport to exercise authority. Legal action is viable and appropriate to compel its proper composition. The MDC has shown little interest in exerting pressure in this vitally important sector. By way of Article XXIV the parties agreed that a constitutional amendment would be passed to incorporate “appropriate” sections of the agreement into the Constitution to give effect to the agreement. Only section 23A (noted above); a clause on citizenship; a clause placing the Commissions and composition of the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders into the Constitution; and Article XX were in fact part of the subsequent Constitutional 4 Amendment. Article XX was incorporated without amendment as Schedule 8 to the Constitution and sets out the structure of the new Government.