Zimpapers Logo

DPM Mutambara

Patrick Chitumba Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Sadc Summit on Zimbabwe to be held in Maputo, Mozambique, today will not bring any changes to the election date proclaimed by President Mugabe, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said. President Mugabe has proclaimed 31 July as the date for the harmonised elections.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) annual general meeting in Victoria Falls on Thursday, DPM Mutambara said Sadc cannot dictate on issues determined by Zimbabwean courts.
He said Sadc could only encourage or nudge the GNU parties to work together.

The regional body announced in a statement on Tuesday that the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government would be held in Maputo and issues to be discussed included the election process in Zimbabwe.

DPM Mutambara said the Sadc meeting would discuss issues to do with election funding and not dates.
“I am in Victoria Falls and I haven’t had the time to look at the exact communication from the President. But the most important thing is that if there are any challenges in implementing the Constitutional Court ruling, the remedies come from Zimbabweans. If there is anything to be done to expedite, fix or enable parties to work together, it will not come from Sadc,” he said.

Commenting on demands by MDC-T to delay the elections until August to allow for security sector reforms, DPM Mutambara said what was needed in Zimbabwe was cooperation, political will and collective approach to ensure the country delivers credible, free and fair elections. “If there is no political will, cooperation and Team Zimbabwe approach there will be no reforms. So time is just one variable. We have been in Government for four-and-a-half years, why have the reforms not been done. If they were not done in four-and-a-half years, what will allow them to be done in three months,” he said.

DPM Mutambara said Zimbabweans should start working together for the growth of the country.
“We need dialogue, we don’t need to be confrontational. The GPA was delivered by talking to each other and the constitution was not imposed on us. It was negotiated by Zimbabweans and why now the challenge on elections. We should not be pinning our hopes on a foreign body. We have lost two weeks now of which we could have been dialoging ever since the Constitutional Court made the ruling on elections. We have not been talking to each other and that is bad for us,” he said.

Meanwhile, addressing the congress, DPM Mutambara said competition in the GNU (between the political parties) was killing a number of good projects.

“There is little cooperation in the GNU right now. It is difficult to find a common agenda right now as people are pushing their own manifestos. We are caught up in the politics of the country and it is a very difficult process as competition is killing good ideas. We have been in competition for the past four and half years and political bickering is killing projects and good will,” he said.