parties to the Agreement bickered over the allocation of ministerial positions. Without a
substantively legitimate government in place, policy interventions to address the gargantuan
problems were knee-jerk and at worst ad hoc leading to the outbreak of a devastating cholera
outbreak which has so far claimed close to 900 lives.
Evidence of the decline is clearly demonstrated by the government’s failure to contain the
spread of an otherwise easily preventable disease and to deliver on basic services such as
clean water, drugs, electricity, refuse collection and repair of burst sewer pipes. As the year
drew to a close all sense of national pride took a serious dent with the declaration of the
cholera outbreak as a national emergency. A team of health experts from the United Nations
and SADC arrived in the country on 8 December 2008 to assess the impact of the epidemic as
assistance in the form of drugs; water treatment chemicals; water drips and vaccines started
pouring into the country from the European Union, Namibia and Tanzania.
The presence of the SADC and UN teams ironically came on the backdrop of the refusal of
entry visas to a team of members of the Elderly group comprising former United States
President Jimmy Carter, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and human
rights activist Graca Machel who is the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela
on a fact finding mission to assess the country’s humanitarian crisis2.
Concomitant with this deleterious situation, Zimbabwe’s human rights record coming on the
backdrop of the violence that preceded the June 27 presidential election runoff took a dent that
triggered a crescendo of international outcry following the abduction of prominent human rights
defender and director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) director Jestina Mukoko. Mukoko
was abducted from her home in Norton, about 40 km west of Harare by armed men who sped
off with her in an unmarked vehicle on 3 December 2008. She has not been seen since raising
fears on her safety. While the nation was battling to come to grips with Mukoko’s ordeal, two of
her workmates were abducted almost in similar fashion seven days later from the ZPP offices
in Harare. Mukoko was reportedly bundled into the vehicle in her night dress and bare footed.
Family members expressed great concern on her circumstances as she is on medication which
she is supposed to take three times a day.
These developments vitiate against the letter and spirit of the September 15 Agreement more
so at a time when the key political parties had just agreed on a draft Constitutional Amendment
No 19 Bill which is expected to consummate and legitimise the formation of the inclusive
government with MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. In terms of Article XVIII
of the GPA which deals with security of persons and prevention of violence, parties to the
Agreement pledged to acknowledge that violence dehumanises and engenders feelings of
hatred and polarisation within the country3.
The media, especially the state-controlled, has not helped matters in that regard by continuing
to spew hate language post the GPA which speaks and commits the political leadership on the
The World Food Programme estimates that about 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s estimated 13 million people face
starvation in a country with a world record inflation of 230 million percent, 80 percent unemployment and
shortages of basic commodities that are not easily accessible by the poor majority in an economy that has since
been dollarised in desperate efforts to contain the runaway inflation.
3
Under the Agreement, the parties pledged to work together to ensure the security of all persons and property
and to refrain from using abusive language that may incite hostility, political intolerance and et hnic hatred or
unfairly undermine each other.
2

3

Select target paragraph3