The Opposition Was Naive During GNU Era - Mutambara
Former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara says the opposition was naive and ended up being deceived by ZANU PF during the Government of National Unity (GNU) era.
Mutambara claimed that the opposition was made to tackle the country’s economic challenges while the ruling party entrenched its power.
GNU was a coalition government between the three major political parties in Zimbabwe (MDC-T, ZANU PF and MDC) formed on 13 February 2009 after the signing of the Global Political Agreement.
Speaking at the launch of his latest book, “Ideas and Solutions: In Search of the Elusive Zimbabwean Dream”, in Bulawayo last Friday, Mutambara said the opposition was foolish to only focus on addressing Zimbabwe’s economic crisis instead of pushing for political reforms. Said Mutambara:
We are where we are today because of the failure of the Government of National Unity to deliver political reforms, that is one definite failure. We were very successful on the Constitution and on the economy.
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We were so committed to a fault, ZANU PF were saying “let these fools help us revive the economy and we dump them” and they dumped us in 2013. We were naive in a way as ministers in the GNU.
In 2022, the MDC-T led by Douglas Mwonzora supported the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.2) Bill in Parliament arguing that some of the changes were progressive such as extending the quota of extra women MPs by two more terms and adding 10 more seats reserved for people aged 21 to 35.
The amendment was criticised by other opposition political parties particularly CCC as it gave the President unchecked authority to fill the seats of the three most senior judges in the country.
However, President Emmerson Mnangagwa proclaimed the 23rd of August 2023 as the day for the country’s general elections before Parliament had finalised the Electoral Amendment Bill.
The Bill seeks to operationalise the latest constitutional amendments for the election of 10 youth members to the National Assembly, one from each province, as well as the continued election of 60 women, six from each province, to the National Assembly under a quota system, among others.
Following the proclamation of the election date, work on the amendments has become an academic exercise when it comes to voting on 23 August.
This means that the opposition gave ZANU PF what it wanted, that is, giving Mnangagwa more powers in the appointment of top judges, but failed to get what it expected, that is, the passage of the Electoral Amendment Bill before the 2023 elections.
More: Pindula News
