/ 10 June 2011

Zanu-PF: It’s time to take decisive action

Zanu Pf: It's Time To Take Decisive Action

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting at an emergency summit on Zimbabwe in South Africa on June 11 will be hoping that their tougher stance on resolving the country’s political crisis eventually leads to democratic elections. But they have a long and challenging path ahead of them.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and his team of facilitators should be commended for their recent robust engagement with Zimbabwe, which has included insisting that elections should not take place in the present environment and drafting a road map for elections to be held next year.

But the two main parties in Zimbabwe’s government of national unity, Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), differ sharply over when elections should be held. Zanu-PF insists that elections should take place this year — under the terms of the global political agreement and not under SADC’s stewardship. The MDC contends persuasively that the environment in Zimbabwe is not conducive to the holding of free, fair and credible ­elections and would like greater monitoring of the elections by SADC.

Zanu-PF, the former ruling party, has proved to be the main obstacle to holding fair, democratic elections. It has yet to demonstrate that it is committed to bringing an end to the country’s crisis by ensuring an environment conducive to elections, respect for human rights and the rule of law.

The global political agreement calls for an end to violence and other abuses, and the holding of peaceful elections. But global watchdog Human Rights Watch has documented numerous incidents of politically motivated violence by Zanu-PF and its allies against real or perceived MDC supporters throughout the country. In the past six months the police, controlled by Zanu-PF, have arbitrarily arrested scores of civil society activists and routinely threatened and harassed MDC members and supporters.

On May 23 police in Matabeleland North province arrested two activists from the human rights organisation ZimRights for convening a workshop on torture and its effects. Lawyers were denied access to the activists for three days before they were released. The police then charged one of the activists under a vague criminal law with allegedly “communicating false statements prejudicial to the state”.

In another worrying development a senior commander in the Zimbabwe National Army told local newspaper the Independent that the army supported the holding of elections this year and remained loyal to President Robert Mugabe. The army’s role in Zimbabwe’s political crisis and its involvement — especially during the 2008 elections — in politically motivated violence and other abuses has been documented extensively by Human Rights Watch. Local human rights activists have reported that the army is once again being mobilised in the rural areas and is assisting youth militia and Zanu-PF supporters in intimidating and harassing the rural population.

At an extraordinary meeting held in Zambia in March, SADC leaders received a report from Zuma on the situation in Zimbabwe. It highlighted concerns about widespread human rights violations, including violent attacks on MDC supporters and arbitrary arrests. SADC issued a strong communiqué in support of the report, demanding an end to political violence and arbitrary arrests and calling for an expanded facilitation team to engage with the government. Zanu-PF’s response was highly critical and scathing of Zuma’s facilitation.

On his return from the meeting, Mugabe publicly accused SADC of interfering in the country’s sovereignty and its right to hold elections at a time of its choosing.

Given Zanu-PF’s continued reluctance to address the repressive human rights environment, it is clear that greater involvement in and enhanced monitoring of the elections by SADC is needed. SADC should be seeking resources to create a long-term monitoring mechanism that includes more than mere observation of the polling day.

SADC leaders should also demand an immediate end to ­violence, arbitrary arrests and intimidation of civil society activists and MDC supporters and call for reform of the state security sector, which is highly partisan, if not fully allied to Zanu-PF.

The regional body should set specific benchmarks and time lines for electoral and human rights reforms in its road map, and should review every step of the electoral process. SADC leaders must make it clear that there will be consequences if Zanu-PF fails to adhere to the terms of the election road map and the global political agreement.

Such robust engagement from SADC is likely to generate the necessary political pressure to achieve positive and concrete results for Zimbabwe and the region as a whole.

Tiseke Kasambala is a senior researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch