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Financial Gazette

ZANU PF, which is pressing for the introduction of a 260-member bicameral parliament, is lobbying female legislators in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to support the proposed constitutional amendments, expected to be tabled in parliament in the next few weeks.

ZANU PF officials were this week tight-lipped on the details of the proposed amendments, envisaged to take root after the March 2005 parliamentary polls.
MDC insiders told The Financial Gazette that female legislators were inundated with calls from ZANU PF officials to fully endorse the proposed amendments to the constitution to allow the ruling party to increase the number of contested seats to 150, as well as to pave way for the introduction of a 60-member senate.

Of the 60-member senate, 40 senators would be brought to the august House through proportional representation from 10 of the country’s political provinces. President Robert Mugabe would have the prerogative of appointing 10 governors and 10 chiefs to sit in the senate, bringing the total number of people in the proposed senator to 60.
The Financial Gazette has it on good authority that there are also proposals to have 50 special seats for women, again to be determined by proportional representation, to be drawn per province through out the country.

A draft document on the proposed constitutional amendment to alter the present parliament with 120 elected and 30 non-elected legislators has been presented to the executive. It is being circulated among the members of the opposition.

MDC female legislators who spoke to this newspaper this week confirmed that they had received overtures from ruling party legislators and other top party officials to fully support the proposals to overhaul the parliamentary structure.

Financial Gazette

THE ruling ZANU PF, which is four seats shy of the two-thirds majority needed to effect constitutional reforms, is considering plans to split Parliament into two legislative chambers and increase the number of elected legislators to 150.

Highly places sources told The Financial Gazette this week that ZANU PF stalwarts executing the task were confident of capitalising on the well of disenchantment within the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to secure endorsements from at least four opposition party legislators.

They said the ruling party, under whose stewardship the once-robust economy has collapsed into a recessionary heap, is tinkering with a proposal to introduce a bicameral parliament that would have 150 elected legislators, up from the current 120, and 60 members of the senate.

A bicameral parliamentary system provides for two parliamentary chambers. Although it prevents the enactment of ill-considered laws by providing checks and balances, critics argue that it makes political reforms more difficult to achieve and increases the risk of deadlock, particularly in cases where both chambers have similar powers.

Fifty seats would be reserved for women to be brought to parliament through proportional representation from all the country’s 10 political provinces.

Of the proposed 60 senators, 40 would also be brought to the House through proportional representation per province. President Robert Mugabe would have the prerogative to appoint 10 governors and 10 traditional chiefs for the senate, bringing the total number of senators to 60.

The same sources said a draft of the proposals had been passed to the executive for perusal and would, in the next two weeks, be presented to Parliament.

“There are only two people with the draft, but the ruling ZANU PF party will need the support of the MDC in parliament to effect the constitutional changes,” said a source privy to the proposed changes.

The MDC notes with interest the ostensibly conciliatory remarks made by ZANU PF’s Secretary for Information and Publicity Nathan Shamuyarira at the Victoria Falls conference calling upon the MDC to enter into dialogue regarding electoral reforms.

The International Community should not be beguiled by these remarks because they are typical of ZANU PF duplicity. ZANU PF talks with a forked tongue. In one breath they talk reconciliation and democratic electoral reforms and yet at the same time they are busy pushing through parliament new draconian legislations such as the NGO Bill and out in the field they are busy torturing outstanding MDC members of parliament and supporters.

In the light of this pattern of duplicity, we remain unimpressed by the proposed cosmetic reforms to the electoral process. Until we hear from ZANU PF on when they are prepared to repeal draconian legislation, open up the air waves, give us access to voters roll, allocate the compilation of the voters roll to a new and independent body, disband youth militia, and generally restore the rule of law and a democratic environment, we will remain of the belief that ZANU PF is not genuine about electoral reforms. As the things stand, it is obvious that ZANU PF has cynically chosen aspects of our demands for electoral reforms, which if taken in the overall oppressive environment prevailing in Zimbabwe today, will complement other measures designed by ZANU PF to intimidate the electorate into voting for them. For example, whilst we have demanded that counting of votes be done at polling stations, if votes counting is done in the context of an oppressive environment, it will make communities even more fearful than before in voting for ZANU PF.

The Spectator

Jan Raath on the continuing story of murder and intimidation in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe Harare

Most brutal regimes dispatch troublesome colleagues and pretend afterward to know nothing about it. Lenin perfected the wiping from memory of freshly eliminated aides. President Robert Mugabe’s government, according to a decision just handed down by a high court judge in Harare, has now produced the ideal package for dealing with the disposal of a disloyal servant. Murder him when he becomes unreliable, declare him a national hero before the corpse grows cold, blame the opposition for his demise and then lay into them with righteous vengeance.

Cain Nkala was the leader of Mugabe’s war veteran rabble in Matabeleland in 2000. He directed both the violent invasion of white farms and the ruling Zanu PF party’s campaign of savage intimidation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) before the parliamentary elections in June that year. He was implicated in the abduction in Bulawayo of veteran opposition activist Patrick Nyabanyana, the day before the election. A year later Nyabanyana had still not been found and, as a reluctant concession to a huge outcry, authorities had Nkala charged with kidnapping and then murder.

Suddenly insecure, Nkala began talking. He admitted abducting Nyabanyana but said he had handed him over to one of Mugabe’s cabinet ministers. He spoke of fleeing to Britain. Retribution came fast. On 5 November 2001, Nkala himself was kidnapped from his home by eight men with AK47 assault rifles. A week later police announced that his body had been found, strangled, in a shallow grave outside Bulawayo.