by Gift Mashoko
MDC Alliance submitted to Parliament a petition on the so-called road map to legitimacy and democracy which political analysts said offered nothing new as the Government was already working on the issues they highlighted.
Addressing MDC demonstrators at the Africa Unity Square yesterday, Nelson Chamisa said the petition had been submitted on the roadmap to legitimacy and democracy to Parliament.
Part of the petition stated that, “Remain steadfastly committed to peaceful, non-violent, democratic and constitutional means to resolving our disputes.”
Chamisa is obviously ignorant of the fact that President Emmerson Mnangagwa afforded Zimbabweans and all political parties a democratic space which is enabling him to freely stage demonstrations and press conferences. How can they be questioning President Mnangagwa’s legitimacy when he clearly won the elections?
The petition noted a lot of issues pertaining to the Government and ZANU PF party.
“That those occupying the high offices are not there through the democratic process of a free, fair and credible election having imposed themselves into leadership through the 30th of July disputed election whose results are untraceable, unverifiable and unreliable,” it reads.
How can MDC Alliance say that when ZANU PF won in a free and fair elections? President Mnangagwa got 2,460,463 (50.8%) votes and Nelson Chamisa 2,147,436 (44.3%). The Constitutional Court confirmed President Mnangagwa’s victory after the MDC Alliance contested these results.
MDC demanded “immediate national dialogue amongst all key stakeholders to discuss and resolve key issues…Political and institutional reforms, legal reforms, legal reforms, media reforms, devolution, International re-engagement and re-integration, ending Zimbabwe’s isolation, re-joining Commonwealth.”
From the look of things MDC Alliance is looking for a way to get into the Government through the back door. The MDC Alliance has no patience to wait for the 2023 elections so they can have a go in the Presidential elections.
The issues they want to discuss are what Government is already seized with. There is clearly nothing new with what they want to discuss with the Government. The Government and ZANU PF are already working on devolution issues.
President Mnagagwa on 17 December 2017 expressed his plans of re-engagement with the international community.
“The government will soon unveil "a robust engagement and re-engagement programme with the international community in our continued bid to rejoin the community of nations," he said.
These are just some instances which show that Government has since started working on re-engagement issue and is already working with the international community.
“Key and credible observer missions condemned the election highlighting that the process fell short of minimum standards. In particular the Independent EU observer Mission, IRI and NDI report and the Commonwealth observer mission,” alleged MDC in the petition.
Chamisa said that he was going to table the petition before SADC and the African Union for their consideration. However, from what is stated in the petition, it seems SADC and African Union are not part of what they termed ‘credible observer missions.’ This means that the MDC Alliance did not deem SADC and African Union observer missions as credible. In this case, it is to be seen whether SADC and AU will accept and consider this petition.
The MDC also demanded the scrapping of the 2% tax introduced by Professor Mthuli Ncube in his 2019 budget.
This 2% was introduced by the Government in its efforts to revive Zimbabwe’s economy through widening revenue base. Minister Ncube, announced an increase in Zimbabwe’s budget surplus and this is attributed to this 2% and other economic interventions.
“We have balanced the budget deficit in the month of October. In fact in the month of October we have a primary surplus of $29 million. This is the first time this has happened in the longest while, so we are walking the talk when it comes to fiscal discipline and fiscal consolidation and balancing of the budget,” said Minister Ncube.
From what is mentioned in the petition, it seems there is nothing new they are mentioning and there is nothing new they are bringing up to the Government. It seems all they are gunning for is Government of National Unity and it would also seem that they are sabotaging Zimbabwe.
