By Vivid Gwede
Events are moving so fast in Zimbabwe that we might be on a roller-coaster.
The giant one that some had in mind when they thought of turning Victoria Falls into a Las Vegas. It is all because of CAB3.
One would struggle where to begin. First, there is the developing Zanu-PF factionalism reaching a boiling point.
Has anyone noticed that, from initial claims that the party was united, now letters confirming factionalism are emerging in the public, stamped and signed?
Rinamanyanga hariputirwe!
Second, during the CAB3’s Second Reading MPs refused midnight democracy and asked Parliament to consider their safety, after an initial proposal to debate and vote on the Bill at night.
Who might be behind the people’s representatives?
Some MPs reported being sidelined from the debate altogether by a captive Parliament.
These fears immediately burst the Bill’s central myth, as read by Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, that it is about stability, democracy and peace.
Third, talking about the Second Reading and Ziyambi’s speech.
It was a mixture of rare admissions and intellectual dishonesty. Zanu-PF rarely admits that elections in the country have been disputed, chaotic and violent.
Ziyambi finally did.
You could have been in the eaves of that giant chamber and thought it was an opposition MP reading a charge sheet of electoral manipulation against the ruling party.
Intellectual Dishonesty
The intellectual dishonesty comes when he deploys this evidence to argue against regular elections rather than electoral malpractice.
The Election Resource Centre (ERC), election observers, and academics like Prof. Brian Raftopolous might have been shocked to hear their reports being used to argue against regular elections rather than for electoral reform.
What an atrocious deployment of evidence! One might advise the Minister to go back and read the recommendations of those studies and reports.
Fourth, the Parliamentary Legal Committee presented its report on CAB3.
Its central claim lies not in legal arguments, but in a controversial statistic. Over half a million people endorsed the Bill, it says.
If the issue of the Amendment raises such interest, then why not present it to a referendum?
The law demands a referendum, which CAB3 apologists refute. But no agreement exists on this point, there can be no debate about the fact that the law does not prevent a referendum.
That democracy demands it more.
Fifth, and last, why is the judiciary silent?
Why reserve judgement on such a hot topic? In football, they have an analogy when a referee does what the honourable justices are doing.
They call it swallowing the whistle!
The test of an independent and vibrant judiciary is when it does not promote ambiguity and misrepresentations in key national disputes with legal implications that it has been asked to adjudicate.
However, if MPs fear shadows in the night of Mount Hampden, who knows if the judiciary is safe?
The rollercoaster has turned on the speed.
Many would not know where everything is headed. Even those in the corridors of power.
Read Zanu-PF Commissar Munyaradzi Machacha’s 13-page missive, penned like a defense lawyer’s heads of argument against a lengthy charge sheet, in the court of public opinion.
It is surprising to assume who is in the dock. Guess who also served the charge sheet?
Whoever starts a village fire, when the wind starts blowing, does not know if their granary will be safe.
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