News Day

By Fortune Mbele

178June 2013

FORMER Warriors coach and Zifa technical director Gibson Homela has blamed the domestic football governing body for the Warriors’ failures, saying the deep-seated problems bedevilling football in the country needed wide consultations with knowledgeable sportspersons for the revival and growth of the game.

The Warriors crashed out of the World Cup qualifiers for the umpteenth time, losing their last two matches in eight days 2-4 to Egypt at home on June 9 and 1-0 to Guinea in Conakry where they travelled with a depleted squad following chaotic preparations by Zifa for the tie.

The veteran Fifa instructor yesterday told NewsDay Sport that success for the senior national team was not in sight in the near future as long as the football authorities in the country behaved incompetently.

“It is clear that we still have challenges in assembling a team and this muddling starts with Zifa. They are amateurish standards as far as I am concerned. For instance, how does a player lose his passport?
“In our days it was known that the manager is in charge of the passports.

“What we are harvesting is the amateurish way of doing things. We are just doing things randomly. Zifa is bungling and I think a neutral man with a lot of experience in football is needed for the reconstruction of the Warriors,” Homela said.

Homela, who played for the national team and Zimbabwe Saints during his days, said football administration in the country needed a “Caesarean section”.

He is an ex-member of the Zifa high performance technical team together with the likes of former player and coach Misheck Chidzambwa.

Homela also took aim at the Education, Sport, Arts and Culture ministry which he said was also not playing its part in ensuring the national team’s success.

“People need to consult further. A Caesarean section of the whole system is called for with all stakeholders taking part: Premier Soccer League bosses and football veterans, among others, who can contribute positively towards the growth of the game. The ministry has also not done any enforcing.

“They are the biggest culprits. Maybe they should just drop the Sports and just be an Education and Culture ministry and these people who are running our football are not properly guided,” Homela said.

Amid the latest gaffe by Zifa, Education, Sport, Art and Culture minister David Coltart said his ministry had not been approached for assistance.

Homela was the Warriors coach from 1985 to 1988 on a part-time basis, resigning at the end of that year after he was employed by a clothing retail chain and then became the Zifa technical director from 2002 to 2006 before stepping down.

He is chairman at Chikwata and from last week on Monday, he conducted a Level Two coaching course in Kadoma which ended on Sunday.

In the Group G Africa 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Zimbabwe have played five matches and have only managed one draw, salvaging a meagre point from Mozambique away from home, and lost both home and away to Egypt and Guinea.

They host Mozambique in the remaining match on September 6.

Coaches that include Norman Mapeza, Madinda Ndlovu, Rahman Gumbo and incumbent Klaus Dieter Pagels have been thrown into the fray with no consistency and continuity in the Warriors camp.

News Day

By Wellington Toni 

17 June 2013

YESTERDAY’S Warriors disaster in Guinea was always in the making, following revelations that players were paid their allowances late for the Egypt match and had threatened to withdraw their services for last night’s match.

Reliable sources have informed NewsDay Sport that the players were only paid their allowances on Saturday — 24 hours before the match, while they received complimentary tickets from the national association at 10am — just a few hours before the match.

As if that was not enough, technical director Nelson Matongorere and team manager Sharif Mussa had to fork out money from their personnel pockets to buy fuel for the team to travel to training sessions at the National Sports Stadium from a local lodge.

“This explains why Peter (Ndlovu, assistant coach) and Pagels (Klaus, coach) were angry when Zifa CEO Jonathan Mashingaidze wanted to apportion blame on Matongorere.

“Players were not given complimentary tickets until 10am on match day. There was a lot of discomfort in camp that led to the heavy defeat,” sources said yesterday.

Mashingaidze questioned the presence of Matongorere on the Warriors bench during the Egypt tie.

Matongorere travelled with the team to Malawi and Zambia and also sat on the bench. Matongorere and Mussa did not travel with the national team to Guinea on Saturday morning.

Usual benefactor Zifa president Cuthbert Dube is away in Brazil for the 2013 Confederations Cup where he is a member of the organising committee.

Zimbabwe Football Trust chairman Tshinga Dube said all was in order.

“Everything has been taken care of,” he said on Friday.

NewsDay Sport then engaged Xolisani Gwesela, the new Zifa communications and media manager, on the issues raised, to no joy, referring all issues back to the technical team.

Minister of Education, Sport, Art and Culture David Coltart told this publication on Friday that he had not received any letter from the football trust requesting assistance.

But the timeline of events after the 4-2 home drubbing by Egypt reveal that this was disorder of the highest proportions.

The hosting of Egypt gobbled $234 000.

For the trip to Guinea, they needed $184 000, but they could only raise $100 000.

BancABC, a regional banking giant and sponsors of Castle Premiership clubs Dynamos, Highlanders, Black Mambas and a Super Eight competition, are reliably understood to have chipped in at the last moment with an unspecified amount of money to bail out Zifa.

MONDAY JUNE 10 — Warriors return to training after the loss to Egypt.

TUESDAY JUNE 11 — Warriors training in full swing at the National Sports Stadium, but Khama Billiat and Mathew Rusike are ruled out due to injuries. Chief striker Knowledge Musona also does not take part in the morning training session, although he is expected to travel.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 12 — At 1328hours, Zifa releases a statement that details the Warriors departure for Guinea the following day. It said the Warriors would depart on June 13 and arrive on June 14 in Conakry. The statement listed 33 people on the flight — five officials, eight technical members, 18 players and two journalists.

THURSDAY JUNE 13 — No trip. The Warriors are back in training at the Italian Sports Club late in the afternoon after only 16 tickets were secured — 12 for players and four for officials. The trip is rescheduled to Friday.

FRIDAY JUNE 14 — Pandhari Lodge asks the Warriors to leave their lodgings to make way for other parties that had booked the place as the Warriors try to organise a late training session at the NSS. Eventually, Pandhari gives them their courtesy bus which they use to go for training at 1500hrs.

There, coach Klaus Dieter Pagels, technical director Nelson Matongorere, team manager Sharif Mussa, assistants Lloyd Mutasa and Peter Ndlovu are engaged in serious discussions amid a flurry of phone calls on the trip, while the players continue their warm up on the field of play.

Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela confirms late in the evening that the team would leave aboard Kenyan Airways and were expected in Conakry on Saturday night. And everybody thought things, at least, were in order at the final hour.

Indications though had been that 14 players would travel, then 12 was the number being toyed around with later until Zifa release the following statement.

“The team will leave on Kenyan Airways at 0210hrs and arrive in Nairobi at 0615hrs. They will depart Nairobi at 0845hrs and arrive in Dakar, Senegal at 1530hrs.

They will then leave the Senegalese capital at 1920hrs and arrive in Conakry at 2115hrs,” Gwesela said then. “The delegation is made up of 25 members.”

This delegation supposedly included 18 players and seven officials.

SATURDAY JUNE 15 — 0200hrs — Knowlegde Musona, Ovidy Karuru and Patson Jaure are dropped from the squad due to injuries leaving only 15 players to make the trip. Hardlife Zvirekwi then loses his passport in Senegal.

SUNDAY JUNE 16 — News from Guinea is that both Washington Arubi and Max Nyamupanedengu — both goalkeepers will be fielded during the match.

The Chronicle

By The Chronicle Reporter

17 June 2013

MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube yesterday held its primary elections in Bulawayo with the party’s organising secretary Mr Esaph Mdlongwa losing the elections. Mr Mdlongwa was a distant third after Ms Loyiswa Ncube won the right to represent the party in the National Assembly in Pumula constituency.

Ms Ncube polled 123 votes beating Mr Blessed Ushe who got 79 votes while 63 people voted for Mr Mdlongwa.

The elections were dominated by women who won in five constituencies out of the eight constituencies where primaries were conducted.

The constituencies where primaries were held were Pumula, Mpopoma/ Pelandaba, Bulawayo South, Emakhandeni, Bulawayo Central, Nketa,  Luveve and Bulawayo East.

In Nketa constituency Mr Charles Mpofu polled 90 votes, beating former Bulawayo deputy Mayor Mr Angilacala Ndlovu, who got 51 votes.

In Mpopoma/Pelandaba, Ms Duduzile Dube polled 74 votes against Ms Patricia Tshabalala’s 54 votes.

In Bulawayo South, Ms Esnath Bulayani won the election after polling 151 votes against Mr John Mpala’s 69 votes.

In Emakhandeni constituency, Ms Cristabel Sibutha polled 170 votes beating Mr Lot Dumani who got 87 while in Bulawayo Central constituency, Ms Sibongile Maphosa was unopposed.

In Luveve constituency, there was a consensus that Mr Israel Mabaleka, the councillor for Ward 15 will run unopposed.

Senator David Coltart was also unopposed in Bulawayo East constituency.

The party’s director of policy and research, Mr Qhubani Moyo said the party failed to secure venues to conduct primaries for Nkulumane, Lobengula and Magwegwe constituencies and the primaries for the three constituencies would be held during the week or at the weekend. “The elections were peaceful and fair and everyone accepted the results and pledged to support those who won,” said Mr Moyo.

ZimEye

By ZimEye Reporter

17 June 2013

The MDC’s Legal Secretary, David Coltart at the weekend swung heavy blows on the State media after the latter published various falsehoods pertaining the much talked about SADC summit.

The misleading stories initially alleged that Coltart himself had broken ranks with his boss Welshman Ncube on the SADC Maputo initiative which later at the weekend resulted in the MDC formations trampling ZANU PF by obtaining a favourable ruling from the regional body.

Coltart on Sunday openly scoffed at the ZANU PF controlled Sunday paper which falsely claims that SADC has upheld Robert Mugabe’s 31st July election date. Said Coltart: “the Sunday Mail today is simply hilarious “SADC upholds July 31st poll date”; what are these fellows smoking?” The previous day, Coltart thumbed as nonsense a report by the sister paper the Herald which alleged he had criticised his own bosses. The Herald article had been printed without lifting a single quotation of the alleged uttered words it claimed Coltart spoke during a Bulawayo Initiative meeting on Thursday saying that Coltart said that although SADC was the facilitator to the Global Political Agreement, the onus was on Zimbabweans to determine their destiny. It even stated that he verbalised saying that Robert Mugabe was acting according to law by sideswiping parliament and imposing an election date.

Below was Coltart’s his response following the Herald Saturday article:

“I see that the Herald is up to its usual nonsense of distorting what people say to suit their own ends.

“The following report seriously distorts what I said on Thursday evening at the Bulawayo Press Club. What I actually said is that it is embarrassing that we cannot resolve problems ourselves and that results in SADC having to intervene. I have never questioned SADC’s role in Zimbabwe and in fact welcome it. It goes without saying that I fully support the actions of Minister Welshman Ncube and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in attending the SADC summit and the lobbying of SADC leaders to help us get out of the hole created by the unlawful and unconstitutional actions of ZANU PF, perpetrated this week.

“What is correct in the article is the portion which states that the only way we as a Government can restore legality to the electoral process is by going back to our own Constitutional Court to seek a review of the original order.

“Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love Zimbabwe and it deeply concerns me when our Nation cannot sort out its own problems and has to resort to the international community for help. It is indeed a national disgrace that we place ourselves in this situation and as a result leave ourselves open to international ridicule and interference.

The Sunday News

By Lulu Brenda Harris

16 June 2013

THE MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube has accepted the 31 July harmonised election date set by President Mugabe and is now raring to go. The party, now finalising its candidate list for the watershed polls, is one of the parties which expressed discontent with the election date, arguing that polls could not be held sooner than August.

However, in an about turn, Prof Ncube said although the election date “came as a thief”, they always knew the polls would catch up with them and have to contest in order to remain relevant.

This position differs from that of MDC-T which has threatened to boycott the elections.

Addressing party structures at a district assembly meeting in Tsholotsho last Thursday, Prof Ncube said there was no option but to comply with the date set by President Mugabe.

He said the party had grievances but ultimately, MDC was in the electoral race and would contest.

“The President has set the date. If Sadc fails to tell him otherwise, then we will go for the polls. It doesn’t matter anymore, we have to be in,” the party leader said.

Prof Ncube said MDC knew elections would be held this year even if the date was contentious.

He likened the impending elections to a biblical verse saying Jesus was coming but no one knew when, yet everyone had to prepare for judgement.

“Now, the race has started. The elections are upon us so we should finish what we started,” he said.

In Tsholotsho North, MDC has 14 councillor candidates, two candidates contesting for House of Assembly seats while in Tsholotsho South there are 17 candidates vying for the council seats.

Prof Ncube said there was no time to waste, as he told candidates to prepare their documentation in time for the Nomination Court that would sit on 28 June, which is two weeks from now.

“We have to be organised. All the candidates without proper documentation should make sure they fix that on time. As I said the elections are here. I am tired of hearing media reports that Prof Welshman Ncube is the leader of the smaller MDC. After elections it should be Prof Welshman Ncube, leader of MDC – the ruling party,” he said.

MDC, like the trend with other political parties, has resorted to door to door campaigns in the hope of getting closer to the people to garner more supporters.

Echoing Prof Ncube’s sentiments, MDC secretary for legal affairs, Senator David Coltart, who was speaking at the Bulawayo Press Club last Thursday night, said from his point of view, elections were around the corner hence there was no time to implement reforms, which were outstanding.

He said this in response to queries why there was talk of an election date and parties now seemed quiet about the reforms they had been clamouring for.

Sen Coltart said clearly there was no time, and the reforms would not be implemented.

The Standard

16 June 2013

There has been intense debate about the constitutionality of President Robert Mugabe’s election proclamation that was made using Presidential Powers.

Senator David Coltart points out why he considers Mugabe’s action profoundly deceptive and unbefitting of a Head of State who is obliged to respect both the spirit and letter of the Constitution.

In issuing an election proclamation, the President is obliged to act on the advice of the cabinet. This is laid down by section 31H of the old Zimbabwean Constitution, a provision that is still in force.

Although that section allows the President to act on his own initiative when dissolving Parliament, the President has not sought to consult Parliament in this proclamation: instead, he is allowing Parliament to run on until its five-year term expires automatically on June 29.

The President should have obtained the agreement of the cabinet, at least of a majority of the ministers, before issuing the proclamation which did not happen. Accordingly, the election proclamation itself is illegal and unconstitutional.

The Presidential Powers Act is only to be used in urgent situations. Section 2 deals with the making of “urgent regulations” and situations which need to be “dealt with urgently”. It has been clear for over two weeks that the time frame set by the Constitutional Court to hold the election by July 31 2013 could not be respected in compliance with the Constitution.

There has been and still remains ample time to go back to the Constitutional Court to request that it review its judgement.

As a reminder, the Chief Justice himself stated in his judgement that the court should not make orders which will result in the President having to breach other electoral provisions. In other words, the correct way to deal with the situation would have been to go back urgently to the Constitutional Court.

Section 2(1)(c) of the Presidential Powers Act states the President shall only issue a decree if “because of the urgency, it is inexpedient to await the passage through Parliament of an Act dealing with the situation”.

As pointed out above, had the three parties in Parliament been consulted about the “urgency”, there is no doubt that Parliament could have been convened urgently to debate and pass the Electoral Amendment Bill in the form it had been approved of by Cabinet on Tuesday.

Section 2(2)(c) of the Presidential Powers Act states that regulations cannot be made for any “matter or thing which the Constitution requires to be provided for by, rather than in terms of, an Act”. Section 157(1) of the new Constitution states that “An Act of Parliament must provide for the conduct of elections”.

In other words, the new Constitution specifically requires that the matter of electoral process be provided for by an Act. In other words, the Presidential Powers Act, as undemocratic as it is, cannot be used for this type of matter even if it is deemed urgent.
The flip side of the same coin is that Section 157(1) states that an “Act of Parliament” must provide for the conduct of elections. Section 2(1) makes it quite clear that the President can only issue “regulations”.

Regulations are not an Act of Parliament. As I have said elsewhere, a regulation issued in terms of the Presidential Powers Act is not an Act of Parliament; it is but an Act of the President.

The reason for the specific inclusion of this specific clause in the Constitution was to ensure that there was not the arbitrary and Nicodemian use of Presidential decrees to change the playing field in favour of one party, which ironically is precisely what has happened this week.

Section 157(4) of the Constitution states that “no amendments may be made to the Electoral Law unless the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has been consulted and any recommendations made by the Commission have been duly considered”.

As stated above, many changes were made to the Electoral Law Amendment Bill by Cabinet and there was at least one unilateral change (e.g the repeal of Section 27A) made by the Justice minister as late as Tuesday afternoon.

I suspect that there was no consultation made with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission regarding these last minute changes and if that is so, that alone would render them all unconstitutional.

Section 157(5) states that “after an election has been called, no change to the Electoral Law or to any other law relating to elections has effect for the purpose of that election”.

The regulations were published during the morning of June 13, the proclamation was published in the afternoon. Under Section 20 of the Interpretation Act, statutory instruments are deemed to have been published on midnight on the day on which they appear in the Gazette.

So on that basis, the regulations and the proclamation were published simultaneously, and the regulations cannot be said to have had effect before the election was called.

Accordingly, in terms of Section 157(5). these changes to the law have to be disregarded. If that is so, then the existing provisions of the Electoral Law apply.

For example Section 11 of the Electoral Amendment Bill 3 of 2012, which amended section 38 of the original Electoral Act, states that there has to be not less than 42 days between the nomination day and the election. Accordingly, if this law is to be respected, the election will have to be 42 days after June 28, namely on or about August 9!

Three further Statutory Instruments have been published since the amendments to the Electoral Law and the Proclamation of the Election were published in Statutory Instruments 85/2013 and 86/2013 respectively.

These are the Electoral (Amendment) Regulations 2013 (number – SI 87/2013, the Electoral (Nomination of Candidates) Regulations 2013-SI 88/2013 and the Electoral (Accreditation of Observers) Regulations 2013-SI 89/2013.

Clearly, under any interpretation of the law both from the timing of their publication and their SI numbering, they were gazetted after the Presidential Proclamation of the Electoral dates (SI86/2013) and therefore have no effect in terms of Section 157(5) of the Constitution.

It should be noted in this regard that in terms of section 332 of the new Constitution, a “law” includes any provision of a statutory instrument.

Indeed because of the purported proclamation, no further amendment to the Electoral laws are possible and give the chaos which now prevails in the entire electoral process. This will mean that even with the best of intentions, these problems cannot be addressed.

There is no doubt that the pre-existing Constitutional crisis created by the government’s inability to hold elections by the 31st July 2013 in compliance with the Constitution has now been greatly exacerbated by this rash move.

PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION MUST BE REPEALED

The President has been advised very poorly and those responsible for this poor advice should be held to account.

If the election goes ahead in terms of the current arrangement, it will be plainly unconstitutional and illegal.

That in turn will plunge Zimbabwe into further disarray which is not in the interests of anyone, save perhaps for the small cabal of hardliners who are behind these measures.

The only way out of this crisis is for the President to repeal the measures introduced by Presidential proclamation and for Government to apply to the Constitutional Court for its order to be reviewed to ensure that our elections are held in compliance with the Constitution.

Once we have secured an order from the Constitutional Court and the Electoral Act has been passed by Parliament and signed by the President, election dates should be proclaimed in terms of the new valid Act.

Coltart is MDC Secretary for
Legal Affairs

The Herald

By The Herald Reporter

15 June 2013

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is being misled into believing that the Sadc Extraordinary Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, today will overturn the proclamation of harmonised elections set for July 31,

Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara said yesterday.

MDC secretary for legal affairs Mr David Coltart also added his voice, saying Zimbabwe was a sovereign state that should solve its problems internally.

DPM Mutambara and Mr Coltart made the statements in the wake of PM Tsvangirai’s utterances on Thursday that he would leave for Sadc to brief regional leaders on what he called a “crisis” in Zimbabwe.

DPM Mutambara said Mr Tsvangirai was being vexatious by threatening to approach the courts to reverse the proclamation, saying he should accept the reality that the elections would be held without fail.

Mr Tsvangirai threatened that he would instruct his lawyers to file an application to stop the elections that would be held on a date that the same court ordered President Mugabe to call for elections.

The President proclaimed July 31 as the date for the harmonised elections after the Constitutional Court directed him to hold the polls by that date when Zaka-registered voter Mr Jealousy Mawarire argued that the elections were due by June 29.

“We must now concentrate on working within the election framework we now have in the country,” said Prof Mutambara.

“Elections are now on the 31st of July 2013. There is no point in taking legal action against this dispensation by appealing to the same judges we have been insulting. Neither is it prudent to expect Sadc to overturn our constitutional democracy.”

Prof Mutambara said Mr Tsvangirai was “confused” in attempting to seek relief from the same judges he was insulting for ordering President Mugabe to hold elections by July 31.

“More significantly, you do not achieve much by insulting the judges of the Constitutional Court and then proceeding to file numerous counter, but vexatious urgent court cases in the very same Court,” he said.

“What outcome do you expect from the court system through such reckless and contradictory efforts?”

Prof Mutambara said Mr Tsvangirai was calling for the absurd in expecting Sadc leaders to do to Zimbabwe what they could not do to their countries.

“This business of banking and waiting on Sadc without concentrating on internal processes also leads us astray,” he said. “What is it that Sadc will tell us to do that we already do not know? Why wait for Sadc?

“Within individual Sadc member states they respect their own laws. They value their sovereignty and defend their territorial integrity. Why would they want to prescribe to Zimbabwe what they do not accept internally? Does the Sadc constituting law allow that? These are questions we choose not to answer.”

Addressing the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday evening, Mr Coltart said the habit of taking domestic disputes to Sadc, which the MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is fond of, was embarrassing.

“We are a sovereign country and I am a proud Zimbabwean. I do not believe that as a nation we should be guided by any outside country in solving our problems,” said Mr Coltart, who is also the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

“It is not worthwhile to be running to Sadc all the time. The irony of it is that when we take our problems to them, we attract criticism and embarrass ourselves.”

Mr Coltart said although Sadc was the facilitator to the Global Political Agreement, the onus was on Zimbabweans to determine their destiny.

He acknowledged that President Mugabe acted according to law, adding that the Constitutional Court ruling was binding.

Mr Coltart, however, noted that there was room for parties to go back to the Constitutional Court, not Sadc, to argue their case citing reasons why they feel July 31 was not feasible.

“I am not one of those who say we should ignore the Constitutional Court ruling because it is binding. I also do not criticise the content of the ruling.

“The correct procedure in my view would be to go back to the Constitutional Court and say it would be difficult to comply with the ruling,” said Mr Coltart.

While the inclusive Government has been fragile, said Mr Coltart, party leaders should work together to ensure that what has been achieved during the transitional period was not destroyed.

The Chronicle

By Prosper Ndlovu

15 June 2013

MDC secretary for legal affairs Mr David Coltart says Zimbabwe is a sovereign state that should solve its domestic problems internally without seeking for solutions from the Southern Africa Developing Community (Sadc). Addressing the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday evening, Mr Coltart said the habit of taking domestic disputes to the regional body, which the MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is fond of, was embarrassing the country.

His sentiments came ahead of a Sadc Summit in Maputo, Mozambique today, which is set to deliberate on among other things, Zimbabwe’s electoral processes.

“We are a sovereign country and I am a proud Zimbabwean. I do not believe that as a nation we should be guided by any outside country in solving our problems,” said Mr Coltart, who is also the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

“It is not worthwhile to be running to Sadc all the time. The irony of it is that when we take our problems to them we attract criticism and embarrass ourselves.”

Mr Coltart said although Sadc was the facilitator to the Global Political Agreement (GPA), the onus was on Zimbabweans to determine their destiny.

Today’s Maputo Summit comes after President Mugabe’s proclamation of 31 July as the date for the next harmonised elections in compliance with a Constitutional Court ruling compelling him to do so.

Mr Coltart acknowledged that President Mugabe acted according to the law adding that the Constitutional Court ruling was binding to everyone.

He, however, noted that there was room for parties to go back to the Constitutional Court, not Sadc, to argue their case citing reasons why they feel 31 July is not a feasible date for polls.

“I am not one of those who say we should ignore the Constitutional Court ruling because it is binding. I also do not criticise the content of the ruling.

“The correct procedure in my view would be to go back to the Constitutional Court and say it would be difficult to comply with the ruling,” said Mr Coltart.

While the inclusive Government has been fragile, said Mr Coltart, party leaders should work together to ensure that what has been achieved during the transitional period was not destroyed.

President Mugabe set 28 June as the date for the sitting of the Nomination Court to accept presidential, parliamentary and council candidates.
He also invoked the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act Chapter 10:20 to effect amendments that were adopted by Cabinet on Tuesday to the Electoral Act.

The announcement of the July poll is in compliance with the recent Constitutional Court ruling, which ordered the President to set dates for the poll not later than the end of next month.

Speaking at the same occasion, Bulawayo lawyer Mr Kucaca Phulu said he felt it was incorrect for President Mugabe to make amendments to the Electoral Law outside parliamentary procedures.

He said he felt that judges at the Constitutional Court overlooked certain issues in their adjudication and their ruling was not immune to criticism.

The MDC formations want elections to be held in August.

Preparations for the elections are at an advanced stage with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the Registrar General’s Office already carrying out the mandatory intensive voter education and registration in all provinces.

Daily News

By Daily News Reporter

15 June 2013 

HARARE – President Jacob Zuma, the Sadc appointed mediator to the Zimbabwe crisis says Zimbabwe’s ruling parties will have to secure consensus before proclaiming election dates.

Reacting to President Robert Mugabe’s unilateral proclamation of an election on July 31, Zuma’s international relations advisor Lindiwe Zulu told the UK Telegraph that the regional body will not allow another sham election reminiscent of the 2008 vote which according to rights groups claimed over 200 lives.

She spoke ahead of a crucial regional summit of the Sadc in Maputo today convened to discuss a request to fund Zimbabwe’s forthcoming election and the state of preparedness for the poll.

The bankrupt Harare administration has appealed for $132 million from the regional bloc to bankroll the election.

“Sadc is concerned that there should be an election that is nowhere near what happened in 2008,” Zulu said.

“At the end of the day, there are three parties in the coalition and Sadc wants to see those three parties being in agreement rather than unilateral decisions.”

Fireworks are anticipated at the Sadc summit where the poll date dispute is expected to dominate the deliberations.

Mugabe invoked powers to sidestep Parliament in a move he claimed was meant to meet a Constitutional Court deadline to go to polls by July 31.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the proclamation, accusing Mugabe of precipitating a constitutional crisis by turning into a “chief attacker” of the Constitution instead of being the “chief defender” that he must be.

The MDC leader vowed to file an urgent constitutional court application to scuttle Mugabe’s move and putting up a strong protest at today’s extra-ordinary summit on Zimbabwe in Maputo.

Tsvangirai argues that there has to be reforms first which include media and security sector and alignment of laws to the new constitution ushered in on May 22 before any election could be held.

Tsvangirai wants Sadc heads of State and government to exert sufficient pressure on the president to oblige him to rescind his decision.

The PM, who says he was not consulted about the election dates, has hinted that he may boycott the election.

This would lead to an election which would have questionable credibility within the country and even less outside.

Mugabe’s proclamation has caused a stir, with political parties ganging up against his unilateral proclamation.

According to the position paper signed by Tsvangirai’s MDC, Simba Makoni’s Mavambo Kusile Dawn, Welshman Ncube’s MDC, Dumiso Dabengwa’s Zapu and Zanu Ndonga, the parties have resolved that Mugabe breached the country’s supreme law by unilaterally calling for elections without consulting his coalition partners.

“The situation created by President Mugabe’s proclamation will disenfranchise many people who are still registering to vote especially the first time voters and so called aliens,” reads the joint statement.

“The President is also denying political parties and voters the opportunity to exercise their right to inspect and agree on the voters’ roll. There should be a mandatory minimum 30-day period for voter registration that started on June 10. By invoking the presidential powers, the president unjustifiably and unconstitutionally usurped the powers of Parliament whose tenure subsides on June 29, 2013.”

Bulawayo East MDC Senator David Coltart Coltart said the regional body has for the past four years invested time, money and energy in the welfare of Zimbabwe therefore a free and fair election is a priority.

“The entire intention behind the Global Political Agreement was to resolve the 2008 crisis. If they realise that we are likely to go back to the same crisis, it is unlikely that they are going to be supportive of what is going on,” Coltart told reporters in Bulawayo yesterday.

“I will be very surprised if they don’t adopt a very hard line stance on this issue.

“What the region needs more than anything else is stability and what Mugabe’s decision can only do is to destabilise not only Zimbabwe but the whole region.

“I also believe this is not what Zimbabweans, Sadc and the AU need. We can just hope and pray that sanity will one day prevail.”

Coltart, who is also the minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture said this comes at a time the regional body has sacrificed its credibility on the international community to be sole guarantors to the wobbly Zimbabwean situation.

“A lot of time and money has been invested in this process, to draw a line on violence, to give our country a chance of moving forward and we have made amazing progress,” the minister said.

Coltart said the danger posed by Mugabe’s declaration on election date was that everything the inclusive government worked so hard to save the nation from further collapse is bound to be torn up.

“We could find ourselves going back to 2008 where we had an election that lacked credibility that plunge the country into another crisis.”

The MDC senator said Sadc was well-versed with political events on the ground.

“Sadc and AU have a good intelligence in Zimbabwe. They even know that in Zanu PF there are people who don’t agree with this process,” he said. - Mugove Tafirenyika, Xolisani Ncube and Jeffrey Muvundusi