Western sponsored parties trigger local funding review Mr George Charamba

george charambaTendai Mugabe Harare Bureau
THE government will soon revise its position regarding funding of political parties from the fiscus following stunning admission by the MDC-T that three Western governments were bankrolling its preparations for the next harmonised elections in 2018.

The review might see the government completely stopping some political parties from accessing local funding from the fiscus or tightening the current requirements to access funding.

In terms of Section 6 of the Political Parties Finance Act, political parties are not allowed to accept foreign funding.

In direct contravention of this law, MDC-T secretary general Douglas Mwonzora, on Monday announced that a delegation of senior MDC-T officials would on Friday visit three Western countries to receive funding and to brief the host governments on political developments here.

The visit will cover England, Australia and Norway and the delegation will complete its tour on August 4.

In light of this development, Presidential spokesperson George Charamba said the move by MDC-T naturally called for a review of funding of political parties by the government among other issues.

“There are three things we’re worried about with the move taken by the MDC-T,” he said. “Firstly, we’re worried about the issue of external funding because the whole essence of funding political parties from the fiscus is to develop politics loyal to the nation.

“When we’ve foreigners funding local political parties, we’ve reason to revise the legal parameters that govern the funding.”

Charamba said the stance taken by the MDC-T might also scuttle re-engagement efforts currently underway between Zimbabwe and the European Union.

“We also have political-cum-diplomatic processes underway. When you’ve an overtly hostile stance hinted by the MDC-T, we’ve to reassess our own re-engagement efforts with the EU.

“Surely the EU can’t run with hares at the same time hunting with the hounds.

“Thirdly, are we surprised by the move taken by the MDC-T? Not at all. The essence of MDC-T politics has always been external. MDC-T has proved to be a true proverbial chip off a corrupt block.”

Legal experts also condemned the MDC-T saying it was openly flouting the law.

Prominent Harare lawyer Terrance Hussein said: “That’s in violation of the Political Parties Finance Act and there are some penalties that come along with that.

“In terms of Section 6 of the Act, no political party or a member of the political party shall accept any foreign donation directly or indirectly.

“Any person or party which contravenes Section 6 shall be guilty of a fine equivalent to level 12 or equivalent to the market value of the donation. So if it happens that you receive a foreign donation of $20 million, the fine you will pay is also $20 million.”

Another lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, said the law should take its course on such issues.

“When a political party violates the law it’s the responsibility of the police to do their work,” he said.

“Even if you don’t get the money they can be charged for attempting.”

Mwonzora said the four-day visit was made possible by the host countries that invited them although the party’s spokesperson tried to do a damage control by claiming that they were invited by their external province of England and Ireland.

“The four-day visit has been made possible by the host countries, which have invited us,” Mwonzora said.

“We’re also going to take that chance to meet with our party structures in these countries and intensify our 2018 political campaigns, which have already started in earnest.”

Asked about the “No Reforms No Elections” mantra, Mwonzora said they had changed their political strategy.

“The game will never be the same in 2018 as we’ve changed our approach to the election,” he was quoted as saying.

“I can’t tell you our new strategy at this moment because it’s still premature to reveal it, but I want to assure you that the game has changed for the better.”

The MDC-T poll U-turn follows the censure the party received from US Congressman Gregory Simpkins, who was in Zimbabwe recently where he slammed the party’s boycott stance.

“We’ve heard that political parties here argue that it’s tough to compete in elections. But we’re saying they’ve to find a way of being effective rather than just saying it’s too tough to compete.

“How can you criticise a process that you aren’t part of, one can’t criticise a process that they haven’t even taken time to test. When you test the process, you can say we tried to register our candidates or observers were turned away; you can point to examples. If you aren’t a part of it at all then it’s as good as there’s no opposition,” Simpkins said.

 

You Might Also Like

Comments