Tsvangirai not running parallel govt

By Senator Obert Gutu

The Constitution of Zimbabwe,as amended by the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.19, provides for the creation of the office of Prime Minister.Clause 20.1.1 of Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.19 clearly and unequivocally states that executive authority of the inclusive government shall vest in,and be shared among the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

The Prime Minister is thus, constitutionally empowered to exercise executive authority as well as to oversee the formulation of Government policies by the Cabinet. Put simply,therefore, the Prime Minister is the chief executive officer of the Cabinet.He occupies a crucial and critical executive post that is tasked with ensuring that policies that are formulated by the Cabinet are implemented by the entirety of government.

Zimbabwe is a constitutional republic whose affairs are to be governed in accordance with the provisions of its written constitution; which constitution has been amended a record nineteen (19) times since independence in 1980.

In one of his usual acerbic aricles that are posted on various websites and also in The Herald newspaper, Jonathan Moyo makes the scandalous remark that ” the MDC-T is illegally running a parallel government in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Office in which civil servants who,like their peers in other Government offices are remunerated a paltry monthly allowance that is no more than US$170  are also paid salaries from foreign governments,some of which are as high as US$7000 a month.”

Whilst this wild allegation is as false as it is manifestly scandalous and patently preposterous and mischievous; there is need to further interrogate Jonathan Moyo’s article and to ultimately locate the exact reasons why Moyo is characteristically bitter and malicious.For the benefit of the readership, let me categorically state that the Prime Minister’s Office has got a small professional bureaucracy that earns the same salary as every civil servant.

Contrast this fact with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIO) bureaucracy in the President’s Office whose exact  staffing levels are unquantified.Add to this the more than 13000 ghost workers who are on the government’s pay roll courtesy of ZANU (PF). It is apparent that Jonathan Moyo is a very bitter man.For some strange reason,he initially expected the MDC led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai to offer him a safe political comfort zone that he will then use to selfishly advance his chameleonic and Machiavellian proclivities.

In essence, Moyo wanted to misuse and abuse the good name and popularity of the  MDC brand to advance his own political ambitions; hoping that somehow he will find himself appointed a Cabinet Minister. Perhaps, this was fortified by the apparently unwise move by the MDC-T not to field a candidate to contest the Tsholotsho North House of Assembly seat during the March 29,2008 harmonised elections.

The MDC-T thus,inadvertently contributed to the virtual political resurrection of Jonathan Moyo. Had the MDC-T fielded a candidate to contest the Tsholotsho North seat,this man would have been political history by now; he would have been nowhere near the House of Parliament.

After dismally failing to further his political ambitions through a loose alliance with the MDC-T, Jonathan Moyo then became  extremely bitter and angry with the MDC leadership; particularly with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Finance Minister Tendai Biti; the undoubted top dogs in the party.

This is what esssentially informs Jonathan Moyo’s recent vernom and anger against the MDC in general and Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti in particular. Moyo’s venomous attacks against these two high-flying politicians is just but a manifestation of personal anger, frustration, bitterness and a general deeply entrenched malignancy.

In typical turncoat  fashion, Jonathan Moyo is now courting ZANU (PF).He has gone out of his way to assume the position of the unofficial ZANU (PF) spokesperso. Of late,he is defending ZANU (PF) with his usual effervescence  and  delirium. They can have him.Only time will tell how dangerous it is to court this kind of character’s ” comradeship”.

Whilst the MDC under the able leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai, has tried to follow the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), ZANU (PF) has engaged combat mode. The State-controlled media such as Zimpapers and the ZBC have, of late, gone into overdrive demonising and generally trashing Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the MDC.

The issue of so-called ” illegal” sanctions has all of a sudden regained centre stage.ZANU (PF) is refusing to agree to the swearing in of Roy Bennett and the governors; allegedly because the MDC has not done enough to have the so-called ” illegal” sanctions lifted. Lifted by whom and for whose benefit? The MDC is  just a political party.

It is fallacious for any right-thinking person to assume that Morgan Tsvangirai can just pick up the phone and ” instruct” the European Union and the USA to lift travel restrictions and other targeted restrictive measures against some individuals in ZANU (PF). By refusing to fully democratise the country in accordance  with the basic tenets of the GPA, it is ZANU (PF)  and not the MDC, which is  running a parallel government in Zimbabwe.

The MDC is not making ” noise” over Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana. The MDC is raising genuine and legitimate transgressions of the GPA.Both Gono and Tomana were unilaterally appointed by Mr. Robert Mugabe in late 2008,long after the GPA had been solemnised on September 15,2008. For anyone to, therefore, argue that Gono and Tomana are not outstanding issues of the GPA is to completely miss the point.

This type of sterile argument is completely lacking in both factual and legal support. This argument ought to be dismissed with the contempt that it deserves.

On a different note,the State-controlled media has been,of late, celebrating Gideon Gono’s ” achievement” in arranging for the advancement of the IMF loan in the sum of US$510 million. If the truth be said this money is a poisoned chalice. In previous articles, I have written extensively on how the Bretton Woods institutions have pauperised and continue to pauperise developing countries by confining them to a debt trap.

Zimbabwe’s domestic and external debt is currently in excess of US$5 billion and we are struggling to repay this debt; even the interest on the debt. IMF money, coming as a loan, is very expensive money which Zimbabwe can ill-afford to use.There is always a catch with these IMF loans.Chapter and verse, the nation must be told of the exact details of the loan repayment conditions.

How can an honest and caring creditor demand that you repay outstanding interest on his old loan by using money that he is advancing to you by way of a fresh loan? This is a debt trap and Zimbabwe should immediately stop being excited about this money from the IMF. Jonathan Moyo has trashed Finance Minister Biti on this particular issue. Moyo alleges that ” Minister Biti has shown his mala fides, to the point of seeking to block the unconditional funds due to Zimbabwe from the IMF.”

I am unable to agree that Minister Biti has acted irresponsibly. If anything, he is an erudite and results-oriented Finance Minister who is honestly seeking to manage and administer the State’s coffers. For here we have a man with a razor-sharp intellect who is working his socks off to ensure that Zimbabwe is not unnecessarily further burdened by incurring huge and unsustainable loans from the Bretton Woods institutions.

At this critical juncture in it’s reconstruction efforts, the inclusive government in Zimbabwe can ill-afford expensive loans from loan sharks such as the IMF.

The inclusive government has tremendous scope to improve on its performance if all the contracting parties are motivated by utmost good faith and genuine patriotism. By trivialising the Office of the Prime Minister and generally seeking to demean both his person and the office that he holds,the State-controlled media,aided and abetted by the likes of Jonathan Moyo; is doing a major disservice to nation-building. Morgan Tsvangirai is a brand; like him or hate him.

The MDC, being the largest and most popular political party in Zimbabwe today, is here to stay. The MDC entered the inclusive government in order to save the people of Zimbabwe from the gloom and despondency that had characterised Zimbabwe for the past decade.

The MDC never called for the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe.By it’s renegade,repressive and corrupt style of governance, ZANU(PF) ostracised Zimbabwe from the comity of nations and placed into the family of pariah states. It is not too late for ZANU (PF) and its propagandists to mend their ways.