OneWorld.net (U.S.)

HARARE, Nov 19 (OneWorld) - Why has the Home Affairs Ministry become the bone of contention in the Zimbabwe party talks? It's a question of police brutality versus law enforcement, Registrar General versus Rig-star General.

Protestors and police in Zimbabwe. © IRINIn Zimbabwe, Home Affairs is the ministry in charge of police force, which is in some circles deemed as brutal; running of elections, which are always marred with controversy; collection and publication of economic statistics, which are sometimes not published for political reasons; and issuing of passports, which prime minister designate, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, is yet to attain and has hereto been denied.

In the power-sharing deal, ZANU-PF wants to share the Ministry of Home Affairs if it cannot have it all to itself, while Mr. Tsvangirai is insisting that the control of uniformed forces has to be balanced, and has conceded the control of the Ministry of Defense to Mr. Mugabe.

Memories of Mar. 11, 2007 are fresh and images are vivid of the brutal attack by police force on Mr. Tsvangirai, Dr. Lovemore Madhuku, Ms. Sekai Holland, and Ms. Grace Kwinjie, among other civil society leaders. 

The Zimbabwe Republic Police's partisan stance and selective application of the law to punish and reward targeted persons -- thereby undermining the rule of law -- has caused the Ministry of Home Affairs to be a bone of contention.

Is it possible that ZANU-PF wants to cling on to the Ministry of Home Affairs at the expense of a hungry nation so that Mr. Tsvangirai must continue using an Emergency Traveling Document (ETD), or has it more to do with the running of elections?

The police have expertise in crushing divergent views and experience in suppressing dissent; ZANU-PF would obviously feel safer holding on to the leash of the vicious force it has created.

Running of elections, printing ballot papers, and telling the police who to beat and whom not to arrest is what there is to the post of Home Affairs Minister.

Zimbabwe just needs a fresh, free, and fair election observed by the international committee. The people need to have their say on whom they want to lead them and a constitution that does not entrench a dictator, after being quiet for so long.

* Ontibile Kababongwe is volunteer editor of the OneWorld Zimbabwe Guide. He has to use a pseudonym because of the danger faced by Zimbabwean journalists. The opinions expressed here are his own, and do not represent the positions of OneWorld.net.

OneWorld.net does not take political positions, wishing only to amplify the voices of those often overlooked or marginalized in media and political discussions.

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