By Nobleman Runyanga
The MDC released its Roadmap to Economic Recovery, Legitimacy, Openness and Democracy (RELOAD) last Thursday amid expectation of rave media reviews of the policy document. The party was in for a rude shock as the comments on the document were ucharitable at best, and very abrasive at worst, and the MDC deserved every brickbat that was hauled in its direction.
The area of reforms, for example, exposed the MDC’s confusion and paucity of sound ideas, despite being replete with people who are erroneously described by some fawning pro-opposion media players as “sharp legal” minds such as that party’s vice president, Tendai Biti.
In its bid to to justify its refusal to join the rest of progressive Zimbabweans in putting our heads together to move the country forward, the MDC demanded a number of reforms in various areas such as legal, electoral and media as a way of addressing the challenges which are facing the country to enable Zimbabwe to move forward. Most of the issues it raised are already being addressed by Government and one onders what the opposition party was attempting to do by making these proposals.
Through the document, the MDC proposed a number of things which include “the drafting of a people and rights-centred public law to replace the Public Order and Security Act(POSA).” It is now public knowledge that Cabinet agreed to repeal the law and Government and Parliament are currently seized with the process of replacing it with theMaintenance of Peace and Order Bill.
Not only did the MDC use the RELOAD document to make senseless proposals, it also displayed to the world its inattention to detail as the document was fraught with embarrassing typographical errors and totally wrong dates. Apart from the foregoing proposal, the party went on to repeat it when it highlighted what it termed the need for the “repealing of the restrictive laws such as POSA, AIPPA and the Broadcasting Services Act.”
Government has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to media reforms and the alignment of media legislation to the Constitution. It has repealed AIPPA and is in the process of ireplacing it with three peaces of legislation: the Freedom of Informtion Bill, the Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill and the Protection of Personal Information/Data Protection Bill to address the concerns of various stakeholders. Cabinet has passed the principles of the Bills. The Broadcasting Services Act is also set to be reviewed.
Talking of AIPPA, President Emmerson Mnangagwa even began making changes before last year’s election. If the MDC was honest, it would be the first to attest to the fact that since its formation in 1999 it had never experienced the freedom to traverse the breadth and length of the country as it did last year, freely campaiging as a result of the fact that President Mnangagwa opened up the democratic space. In the 19 years of his leadership of the MDC, the late MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai was never able to chalk up a tally of over 70 campaign rallies in one election season as under the old administration the democratic space was not that open.
Regarding the Broadcasting Services Act, Government has already indicated its commitment to open the airwaves. Riding on the ongoing digitalisation programme, Zimbabweans are set to be spoilt for choice, as the counyry is going to have more than 20 television channels. Speaking recently during a tour of the Alpha Media Holdings news stable, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa announced that Government would soon, license community radio stations, something which the old administration was not keen to do.
Minister Mutsvangwa was not speaking from an uninformed point of view. Her address was based on what Government has done and continues to do with respct to the ongoing digitalisation programme. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development allocated $38.33 million to expedite the programme during the 2019 National Budget announcement which is set to go a long way in completing the project.
Once completed, the digitalisation programme is going to increase the available spectrum which will accommodate more television channels and radio stations creating more listener and viewer choices. This will also create opportunities for more electronic media players. The programme will also open employment opportunities for players in the creative industry
Elections are about contestation which involves fighting one’s opponents through endearing oneself or one’s political outfit to the electorate. This means establishing the electorate’s concens and anxieties and addressing them to their satisfaction. To the MDC, elections are won through pressing for reforms, unnecessary protests and crying to the West. This has become so irreversibly entrenched in the party’s psyche that even where some reforms are unnecessary or are being implemented the party continues to harp on about them.
Over the years, the MDC has failed to grasp this simple political principle of earning the electorate’s heart, hence, its monumental failure to make any meaningful inroads in achieving its main objective of unseating ZANU PF. The party overates itself so much that it misleads itself into thinking that politically, it is the best thing to ever happen to Zimbabwe since sliced bread. The party cannot even begin to think that anyone can vote any other party except the MDC.
The MDC has neglected carrying out basic pre-election initiatives such as establishing the electorate’s needs. When the polls are around the corner all that the party does is call for rallies whose campaign message is not only childish, but grossly out of touch with the electorate’s expectations. Dizzied by the recurrent defeats the party now thinks that the cause of its perenial poll losses is not itself but electoral laws.
In view of this, the MDC proposed for the “amending of the Electoral Act (sic), if not the Consitution, to ensure that the date of elections is more or less fixed. For instance, the election could be held in the last Monday of the month of July every five years.” It further proposed that “all election results are announced forthwith, and in any even,t no later than 48 hours.” The party also proposed that observer missions from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) be allowed into the country three months before the polls to not only observe but supervise the process.
The whole world (except the MDC, of course) now knows that Government has been working on poll reforms for some time now. During his recent visit to the UK the Minister of Foreign Affair and Internationa Trade, Dr Sibusiso Moyo indicated that by mid next year the process would have been completed. Government has even moved to address some concerns arising out of the comments and concerns noted by various local and foreign observer missions to last year’s elections. The rationale is to include them in the ongoing reforms to come up a robust electoral law which withstands the scrutiny of most democracy stakeholders.
The MDC called for the announcement of election results within 48 hours, but this is a non-issue. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) collated and announced results on time in August last year, and if anything,the real issue is the pre-mature illegal announcement of the 2018 election results by MDC members such as Tendai Biti and Godfrey Japajapa, who mischievously arrogated to themselves the right to announce election results while ZEC, which is mandated by law to do so, was still discharging it mandate. Thank God Japajapa got his just reward for that! It is the MDC which dispatched violent and mindless youths onto the streets of Harare to protests against ZEC while the latter as still collating and announcing results which is an issue.
The MDC’s puppetry under the West seems to be getting into its head. Zimbabwe is a sovereign country. It decides how it should run its elections in observance of global electoral best practices. It does not need any handholding, chaperoning or supervision from any foreign body its regional and continental colleagues included. These can only play an observation role.
The mumbo-jumbo of a document from the MDC also anachronistically asks for the revival of the social contract which brings togegther Government, labour and business. Last month, President Mnangagwa assented to the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) Act, thereby reviving the social contract. Parties to the TNF have already sat once. Such is how out-of-touch with national issues or stupidly obstinate the MDC has become.
When President Mnangagwa got into office in 2017, the opposition was expecting him to sit on his laurels so that they could continue criticising Government for not attending to some issues. The President had his work cut out for him and made a lot of progress to the chagrin of the MDC and other opposition parties.
The momentum and effect of the reforms effected by Government so far is running rings around the opposition so much that it does not know what to do anymore, hence, the poor and rushed document which seems to be a project from dizzied and confused persons who have survived a lighting strike. The United States (US), the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have recently adjudged Zimbabwe to be on the right track in terms of its ongoing efforts to revive the economy. Given this endorsement, one wonders which planet the MDC members live in.
The acronym RELOAD is interesting. The word reload in today’s lingo means refreshed, replenished, reinforced or improved. The document, therefore, seems to confirm that the MDC’s cluelessness and lack of political tact have scaled new heights.
Put differently, the party’s political ineptitude has been reloaded and, therefore, Zimbabwe and the world should expect more stupid documents, decisions and stunts from the MDC.
