Saturday Star
7 February 2009
By Peta Thornycroft
A Zimbabwean judge ended the treason trial of a top opposition leader this week, another indication that President Robert Mugabe’s party wants a proposed coalition government to work.
Magistrate Olivia Mariga ruled that Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Tendai Biti had been improperly arrested on charges of plotting to overthrow Mugabe’s government.
The MDC had accused the government of basing the treason case against Biti on a forged document.
Ending the Biti case removed a major irritant between the MDC and Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and raised hopes for the power-sharing government due to be formed next week.
Mugabe is understood to have signed Constitutional Amendment 19 after it sailed through parliament and the Senate on Thursday.
It provides the legislative foundation for a unity government, heralding what many Zimbabweans hope will be the beginning of the end of Mugabe’s era.
Front benchers of both Zanu-PF and members of on both sides of the house burst into song as they left the House of Assembly after adopting the bill: “We are now in agreement,” they sang, in a refrain used by both parties at political rallies.
Abdenico Bhebe, MP for Nkayi, one of the driest and poorest areas of south-western Zimbabwe, said: “Every fight must come to an end, and this is evidence that people are willing to try and work together to resolve the problems bedevilling the country.”
Paul Madzore, MP for a western Harare township where cholera is raging, said: “At least people in Zanu-PF have now come to the realisation that they are the main problem in Zimbabwe, and this time next year, Mugabe will be gone.”
Only two Western diplomats – one British – were in the speakers’ gallery during the 110-minute debate to push the amendment through a mutilated set of standing orders, which had earlier been fast-tracked through parliamentary processes to enable Mugabe to seize white farms.
Several African diplomats shook hands and grinned when the amendment was adopted by 184 legislators in the 210-seat parliament, which has several vacancies following the deaths of MPs since the March 2008 elections.
The amendment also passed easily through the upper house, the Senate, shortly afterwards.
“I am cautiously optimistic but I am not under any illusions of the problems ahead,” said MDC Senator David Coltart.
“This is the second time we have been given a chance as a nation,” he said, referring to the British-designed talks at Lancaster House in London which ended the civil war and white rule in 1980.
“Lancaster House failed because the draconian legislation of the Rhodesia Front was not amended, We didn’t renounce violence and we placed too much emphasis on the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law.”
Amendment 19 came before parliament despite MDC statements the day before that it would be delayed because of Zanu-PF foot-dragging.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai rushed to Cape Town to consult President Kgalema Motlanthe, and this may have kick-started the process back on track.
At a Southern African Development Community summit last week, regional leaders had set the Zimbabweans a timetable to form a new government, including passage of Constitutional Amendment 19 by February 4.
The passing of the bill now means Tsvangirai could still be sworn in as prime minister – and Arthur Mutambara, leader of another MDC faction, as deputy prime minister – by February 11, as the SADC timetable requires.
Then cabinet ministers could be sworn in by the scheduled date of February 13, and the unity government could then be under way.
But while MDC legislators were putting their names to what they hope is the start of a new, more democratic era in Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF supporters, army and police and militia were still evicting white farmers off their land and detaining them.
Chris Jarret, who was kicked off his farm six years ago, was arrested this week in Bulawayo because police said he had failed to pick up his personal property when he was kicked off his land.
Two others, Gary Godfrey, who had managed to survive on a small piece of his original farm, was picked up by police 60km north of Bulawayo.
In a nearby district, Paul Rogers, who also continued to farm nine years after the land grab began because his property was never listed for “acquisition”, was also arrested.
“Police arrived with an eviction order, but had the wrong name of the farm, but took him anyway,” according to the men’s spokesperson in Bulawayo, Mac Crawford.
“These guys had been to the SADC Tribunal in November, which granted an order protecting them from any interference from the state.”
Another three white farmers have been in detention for three weeks, accused of training terrorists. The three ran outdoor adventure courses for school children about 50km south-east of Harare.
Four smallholding owners on the northern outskirts of Harare have been evicted in the past week, and on Thursday, well-known mining consultant John Holloway and his wife Sue, a teacher, were under siege on their plot in the Christon Bank suburb, west of Harare.
Every day, more farmers who have survived Mugabe’s land seizures are being summonsed to court to defend accusations that they are illegally remaining on their properties.
“This sudden rush appears to be connected with the establishment of a unity government. In other words, some people feel that time is running out for taking farms, so they have stepped up pressure to get in before it happens,” said one farmer, who asked not to be named. – Sapa-AFP