SW Radio Africa (London)
Tererai Karimakwenda
1 June 2011
The state run Herald newspaper reported on Monday that South Africa’s facilitation team “has no intention” of meeting with Zimbabwe’s security chiefs to discuss key sector reforms, ahead of any elections in the country.
It had been reported that the MDC-T was requesting that facilitators meet with security heads to discuss critical issues. But the Herald quoted Charles Nqakula, a senior member of President Zuma’s three-member facilitation team, as saying such a meeting was outside the team’s mandate and the GPA “did not provide for such an arrangement”.
According to The Herald Nqakula made the comments in an interview on Tuesday, after meeting JOMIC co-chairpersons in Harare. The focus for the team, he reportedly said, was the implementation of issues agreed in the GPA.
But on Wednesday the MDC-T MP Elton Mangoma, who is also Energy Minister and a JOMIC co-chairperson, described the allegations as “the Herald version” and said he was not sure Nqakula had made those exact comments.
Mangoma said; “There has been no request from us or from any of the other negotiators that they should see the security personnel. And I think it is being thrown in as a red herring because we made no such request.” He added that the platform for such discussions would be the National Council meeting, where security chiefs meet with the country’s politicians.
The Herald also claimed that the MDC-T, through its negotiators, “is trying to smuggle” the issue of security sector reforms onto the elections roadmap agenda, in order “to weaken the country’s security forces”.
But Mangoma explained that the security sector is among the issues being discussed with the facilitation team. He said: “The issue of security sector changes is firmly on the discussion table.”
Mangoma said there are some security issues under discussion that he could not reveal yet, but the MDC was concerned about security personnel that are making “treasonous statements”, and the party wants them to sign statements saying “they will abide by the constitution of Zimbabwe and will respect the wishes of the people in an election”.
The security chiefs have frequently publicly declared their allegiance to Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF, and sworn that Zimbabwe would never be ruled by Tsvangirai and the MDC. Soldiers and the police also continue to play a key role in the ongoing crackdown in the country, arresting political and human rights activists illegally, and banning all public gatherings.
Faced with all this the MDC-T and civic groups are insisting on key changes in the military, police and intelligence divisions. They say the security sector in the country has been politicized and is used by ZANU PF to intimidate, harass and torture MDC supporters and innocent civilians perceived to be “enemies of the state”.
SADC has so far done very little to rein in ZANU PF and the regional grouping has lost much credibility as a result. But Mangoma confirmed that Zimbabwe is on the agenda of the SADC summit due this month in South Africa. He said a report will be handed to President Zuma before then.
AllAfrica – All the Time