Online Policy Dialogue Forum No. 7 of 2020 : The Recall of Parliamentarians in Zimbabwe скачать в хорошем качестве

Online Policy Dialogue Forum No. 7 of 2020 : The Recall of Parliamentarians in Zimbabwe

The Recall of Parliamentarians in Zimbabwe: An Assault on the Constitution and Democracy and therefore a Threat to the Prospects for a Political Settlement? The weeks following the visit of the South African envoys and the statement by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference have been tempestuous even by Zimbabwe’s standards. Whilst the government may claim that there is no crisis in the country, it is clear that this is not a view shared by the South African government, or regional churches and civil society organisations. Everyone bar the Zimbabwe government agrees that the country is in crisis, but what to do about is not clear. The suggestion that Zimbabwe needs a political settlement have been raised repeatedly in the past six SAPES Policy Dialogues, and most energetically in the last one that dealt explicitly with the issue of transitional arrangements. Despite all the pessimism about getting the political parties together for talks, most speakers see this as the fundamental pre-condition for any realistic solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis. The moves towards possible talks and political settlement are facing one very serious challenge in the recall of parliamentarians by the MDC-T. This has provoked endless comment about factionalism in the opposition as well as the dubious use of the courts to settle internal problems, but one serious issue has escaped the debate: the replacement of bona fide elected representatives of the voters with political appointees. This raises important questions: Does the recall violate the spirit of constitutionalism and possibly in breech of the Bill of Rights in that the rights of the voters, who elected those parliamentarians, are being violated? Should the choices of citizens be overturned conveniently for narrow political party interests; and, even under the constraints of Covid-19, should replacement of MPs be done without the voter having a say? Is this replacement not profoundly anti-democratic? For, representative democracy requires the voice of the people in an election, and not elite appointment, nor the blatant manipulation of the legislature by an unaccountable executive, with the assistance of a compliant judiciary. Or, is all this bound to fail in the face of the current dynamics in which the securocrat state finds itself increasingly besieged by the combined weight of the political and economic crises, not to mention the growing chorus for a political settlement? The seventh SAPES Policy Dialogue Forum will interrogate these and other questions.