SADC Summit Report Delivered by Zimbabwe Government

Republic of Zimbabwe Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Patrick Chinamasa. Zimbabwe has recently declined funding for the upcoming elections from the United Nations., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Charamba speaks on Maputo Summit

Friday, 21 June 2013 00:00
Lloyd Gumbo Herald Reporter

SADC is just a political grouping of Southern African countries that does not have

jurisdiction over the courts of law of its member states, Presidential spokesperson, Mr George Charamba, has said.

He made the remarks on Star-FM radio last night during a live phone-in programme — “Election 2013: Zimbabwe Decides”.

Mr Charamba’s comments follow claims by some sections of the media and political parties that Sadc’s extraordinary summit recommendation for the Government to engage the Constitutional Court could supersede the same court’s earlier order.

“Sadc is a political grouping,” said Mr Charamba who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity.

“Sadc is a grouping of political formations and entities. It is not a court of law, therefore it cannot claim to have any jurisdiction over courts of law in any one of its member states.”

The regional bloc last week urged the Government to approach the Constitutional Court seeking an extension to the July 31 deadline, which the apex court ordered for the holding of the harmonised elections.

President Mugabe has already complied with the ruling by proclaiming July 31 as the poll date pending an appeal filed by Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa in compliance with the Sadc Summit recommendation.

Mr Charamba said in compliance with the Sadc recommendation to engage the Constitutional Court, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa was the only one who could file the application.

He dismissed claims by MDC formations that they were supposed to input in the application.

“The persona, the actor, is the Government of Zimbabwe. It is not Zanu-PF. It is not MDC-T. It is not MDC-N. Naturally, the actor for the Government of Zimbabwe in respect of that particular question is the Minister of Justice, which is why Minister Chinamasa is the one who bore the burden of noting an appeal in respect of the wish of the Summit to have the date of elections extended to two weeks from designated date of July 31, 2013 by the Constitutional Court.

“It was not about political wishes of parties. It was about interpreting that portion of the resolution correctly and recognising where the burden fell. In this case it fell on the Government of Zimbabwe and the agent for that Government was the Minister of Justice who in this case is Minister Chinamasa, so he did the correct thing,” said Mr Charamba.

He said the concerns raised by Minister Chinamasa about South African President Jacob Zuma’s report was because it only attached positions of the MDC formations brought about in the build up to the Maputo Summit.

President Zuma is the facilitator to the Zimbabwe political dialogue.

A case in point, Mr Charamba said, was the fact that President Zuma did not include a presentation by Minister Chinamasa and Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi to the Non-Aligned Movement.

The two ministers were justifying why President Mugabe invoked the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act [Chapter10:20] to amend the Electoral Act as agreed by Cabinet and proclaiming the date for the sitting of the nomination court and the election date.

Mr Charamba said Zimbabwe had invoked Presidential Powers on several occasions due to circumstances that did not allow the parliamentary processes of law making.

He said invoking Presidential Powers was legal in Zimbabwe adding that Finance Minister Tendai Biti recently recommended that President Mugabe invoke Presidential Powers to fast track the passage of a Bill that was meant to facilitate mobilisation of election funding.

Mr Charamba said the Maputo Summit was meant to deliberate on the funding for the elections.

He said the subject ended up not being debated at the summit, adding that Zimbabwe was supposed to raise its own money to fund the elections.

He said the country had the capacity to raise funds for the polls that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission say requires about US$120 million.

Mr Charamba said the new Constitution captured most of the reforms that the MDC formations were clamouring for.

He said a number of media reforms had been done since inception of the inclusive Government in 2009.

Mr Charamba said it was important for Zimbabweans to heed calls by the political leadership for them to peacefully co-exist and avoid politically-motivated violence.

He made a passionate plea for Zimbabweans to avoid politically-motivated violence.
“It is important for people to know that elections are not about bloodshed or violence or war.

Elections are about people electing MPs so that we can have a Government that is founded from Parliament.

“Our leaders regardless of which party they belong to, be it President Mugabe on behalf of Zanu-PF, Prime Minister Tsvangirai representing MDC-T, Professor Welshman Ncube of MDC-N, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, are all preaching the same message of peace,” said Mr Charamba.