Former Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Arthur Mutambara, has expressed regret about the failure of the opposition to push for political and electoral reforms during the Government of National Unity (GNU). Speaking in an interview with Alpha Media Holdings Chairman, Trevor Ncube, Mutambara highlighted the importance of carrying out political and electoral reforms during the GNU and lamented that they failed to deliver on this agenda. Mutambara said:
Some serious regrets. A key part of the agenda of the GNU was carrying out political reforms, electoral reforms. Zero out of 100. We failed to deliver political reforms we failed to deliver electoral reforms. That’s why the terrain is still problematic, because of our failure. We were very keen on delivering on the economy, the constitution, that we didn’t think about the post-GNU. What are we going to do post-GNU? We were so naive to the extent that we spent a lot of time doing good work on the economy, good work, constitution was another product we did okay but we failed to plan for the post-GNU in the sense that ZANU PF was working for us to be offloaded in 2013 and then continue on their own. So that post-GNU lack of planning was a failure and the issue of political reforms was a failure.
Asked why the GNU government failed to implement political reforms, Mutambara said:
A coalition government is never the best way to run a country. It was a team of rivals and there has to be agreement on many things and ZANU PF was not interested in political reforms. Well, we didn’t try hard enough, but also it was a difficult exercise because it was a team of rivals where agreement was required for the implementation of those political reforms, but failure nontheless.
Mutambara also highlighted some of the successes of the GNU which include stabilising the economy following a 2008 hyperinflation.
The Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe was a coalition government formed in 2009 between three political parties: ZANU-PF, MDC-T, and MDC-M. The GNU was formed following the disputed 2008 elections and aimed to address Zimbabwe’s political and economic challenges. The GNU had three principals, one from each of the three political parties in the coalition government. They were: Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe and the leader of the ruling party ZANU-PF; Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the leader of the opposition party MDC-T, and Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the leader of the MDC-M, a breakaway faction of the MDC-T.