October 1, 2009

MDC must scrutinise documents before signing!

Tanonoka Joseph Whande

I sent my son to the bank to cash a cheque I had written in his farvour.

The cheque bounced.

Oh, there were sufficient funds in my account alright.

It is my signature that bounced!

I opened this checking account in 2006 and, unbelievably, my signature slowly started to shift away from the sample signatures that I had provided my bank with.

I went to the bank in person and tried to cash a cheque that I had made out in my own name.

It was rejected.

The cashier smiled sweetly and invited me into an inner office where I was shown the sample signatures. Yes, all the signatures were mine but they were different.

The bottom line is that my signature had literally changed and no longer represented the specimens I had provided my banker with.

We had transferred trust of each other to a scribbling on a piece of paper. The bank held me responsible to supply it with the same signature whenever I did business with them.

I had become an underling to my own signature; without it, no money.

The Bank Manager said it was done for my own protection.

Thank God for ATM Cards!

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC formation cannot use ATM Cards in lieu of their signatures on national documents.

Their signatures stand.

A signature is a representative of its owner. It remains valid long after we die.

Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC must take note: signatures are valid and they validate a thought, arrangement or promise that occurred or had to be agreed upon at some time before today.

The word of a dead person is no match for his or her signature. The ‘Last Will In Testament’ is validated by a signature of one long departed.

The constitution of any country, organization or company is an extremely important document, whose leaders swear, on the Bible, to uphold it.

Like a signature, the power of a constitution lies in the fact that it is not a personal document but is a “users’ guide” that has to be respected, used and followed by everyone who aspires to operate within the parameters of that country, organization or company.

But, apparently, in Africa, a constitution is just like a letter to mummy dearest.

Only a few weeks ago, Giles Mutsekwa, Tsvangirai’s co-minister of Home Affairs, appended his signature on a document that specified and forcibly took over a company in Zimbabwe.

He later made a u-turn and said that he was not aware of the significance of the document and should have listened to more than one person. In effect, Mutsekwa, admitted to signing a document specifying one of Zimbabwe’s most prosperous companies without even thinking about the weight of his signature yet that signature was on behalf of the nation.

Mutsekwa’s Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for the Police, Commissioners of Oath, passports, birth and death certificates. And yet Mutsekwa does not care to scrutinise a document before signing it.

Now Mutsekwa wants to retract his signature.

And after being throttled by the Constitution, Robert Mugabe tinkered with the constitution and neutralized not only those who were responsible for implementing it but also those who were meant to enforce it.

The Zimbabwean Constitution became a “dear John” letter that meant nothing to Mugabe.

And Mugabe set a regrettable precedent, picking up disciples along the way.

Lovemore Madhuku did a Mugabe on the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) faithful. He simply rebuffed the NCA constitution and steadfastly refused to step down and ran for extra terms, a terrible indictment on a lawyer who reportedly teaches Constitutional Law to University of Zimbabwe students. To this day, he remains the ‘Chairman’ of the NCA.

Not to be outdone, Tsvangirai, after being “caught” in the ‘rules and regulations’ of the MDC constitution also plainly refused to respect the party’s constitution and held on to the presidency of the organization, giving ammunition and reason to some well-positioned sell-outs who had already prepared to split the MDC.

While today Tsvangirai supporters acknowledge that Tsvangirai did indeed violate his party’s constitution, they “appreciate” that had he not “ignored” the constitution, there wouldn’t be any MDC to speak about nor would there be a government of national unity, which is “amazingly making all the difference to Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans” today.

Tsvangirai, like Mugabe, is Prime Minister today because he violated his own party’s constitution.

On September 30, 2007 the MDC and their ZANU-PF counterparts put their signatures on the Kariba Draft Constitution.

A year later, on September 15, 2008 the Kariba Draft Constitution became an ‘Annexure B To The Power-sharing Agreement’ with the consent of the three parties involved.

Now elections are looming on the Zimbabwean horizon. And Mugabe is in top gear.

“We look forward to the new constitution and for us (ZANU-PF), we will go by the Kariba Draft,” said Mugabe, in reference to a new constitution to govern the forthcoming elections. “That’s what we agreed upon. Every page of that draft has signatures of all parties and there’s no way anyone can run away from it.”

But, in spite of signing every page of that document, the MDC no longer wants the Kariba Draft Constitution to be part of the political process anymore.

In addition, the MDC admitted to signing the power sharing agreement before negotiations had been completed and that is precisely what is causing problems for them today.

Thus attorney general Johannes Tomana and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono have become the MDC’s rallying point, calling them “outstanding issues”.

Even after they realised that Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had made changes to the document without consulting the MDC, they appeared robust on stage with Mugabe and again signed the deal in front of SADC Heads of State and the international media.

Speaking of Chinamasa, in August, the man wrote a letter to the SADC Tribunal advising them that Zimbabwe “was withdrawing from all tribunal proceedings”.

Although Chinamasa is a “legitimate” member of government, sworn in by Mugabe in Tsvangirai’s presence and acceptance, Tsvangirai said “the decision by Chinamasa to write to the tribunal to withdraw Zimbabwe from participation in tribunal matters was null and void”.

“The decision to pull out of the SADC Tribunal was a comment by an individual minister and the country can not be bound by that,” said Tsvangirai.

Yes, it can, Mr Tsvangirai. These people are, unfortunately, your legitimate partners in this fake arrangement.

On Tuesday, Roy Bennett, Tsvangirai’s still to be sworn-in Deputy Minister of Agriculture said ZANU PF is completely ignoring a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the political rivals in July last year.

Yes, July last year, two months before signing another meaningless agreement called the Global Political Agreement.

Bennett said that the MoU signed in July said that there would be no more farm invasions and that there would be a land audit.

“Obviously this is being totally ignored and highlights the total disrespect for the rule of law and the total disrespect for court judgment,” said Bennett.

What really did Mr Bennett expect?

Signatures, signatures!

The heart of the matter is that a signature is a reminder that, wherever you go, wherever you might be, you must remember a responsibility that you, some time before today, promised to undertake or carry out.

After signing countless documents without bothering to consult or listen to the people, the MDC now wants to rope in the masses.

How shall we fire people we did not hire into this government of national unity?

Nelson Chamisa, MDC spokesperson, says that consulting the people is meant “to allow members of the public to give their views on whether or not the inclusive government “is still a worthy project”.

“We are simply throwing the argument to the people,” said Chamisa. “We want to hear from them whether they think it is worthy for us to continue in the inclusive government. Do they think this is a worthy project?”

May I remind Mr Chamisa that a signature represents good faith, which, from where I sit, is lacking in both the MDC and ZANU-PF? The MDC signed many documents against the wishes of the people and now they are literally “throwing the argument to the people”.

But it’s not even our argument like he says.

And we never thought the government of national unity was a worthy project. We tried to tell Tsvangirai and the MDC the same message but were ignored.

What do you think? Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com

Only last week did Mutsekwa tell reporter Violet Gonda that: “My personal attitude is that if you want to make a good leader you listen to everybody and unless you are capable of listening then you are no different from the dictatorship that Zimbabweans have experienced from Zanu-PF.”

Mutsekwa should direct this to his party president who now appears to listen less and less.

And that, my compatriots, is the way it is today, Thursday, October 1st, 2009.

MDC, IOU? N-o!