Ncube slams 'malicious' report over changes to power share document

DENIAL: Professor Welshman Ncube

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Posted to the web: 03/11/2008 18:22:06
REPORTS claiming that Professor Welshman Ncube “fraudulently altered” the power sharing agreement signed between Zimbabwe’s three main parties on September 15 are “a creation of fiction”, the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC secretary general said last night.

Ncube confirmed two paragraphs from the agreement signed privately by President Robert Mugabe, Mutambara and his MDC rival Morgan Tsvangirai on September 11 were missing from the agreement signed at a public ceremony on September 15.

One line had also been altered, he said, and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had “freely admitted” responsibility because he had been advised by President Mugabe that both Mutambara and Tsvangirai had agreed to such an alteration.

The Zimbabwean newspaper first raised the allegations, which were later picked up by SW Radio Africa which reported on October 31 that “the Tsvangirai MDC accused Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Secretary General of the MDC Mutambara group Welshman Ncube, and Thabo Mbeki’s representative at the talks Mujanku Gumbi, of making the changes to the document, without Tsvangirai’s knowledge.”

The report did not say who had made the accusations and Ncube was not asked to comment on the claims at the time.

On Monday, Ncube told the same radio station that the reports betrayed a “malicious agenda” and were “a creation of fiction”.

“It can only be the product of people who are extremely malicious, who have no journalistic ethics who run with a stupid false story without even the decency of talking to the people who are accused of the fraudulent alteration of a document,” Ncube said.

“As far as I know, I did not take part or participate in any alteration of any agreement at all.”

Ncube said after the signing of a draft power sharing agreement at the conclusion of talks on September 11, the document had been handed over to Patrick Chinamasa as the Justice Minister to oversee the production and printing of the final legal document.

The first clause that was altered by Chinamasa, he said, related to Senate seats. Ncube said Zanu PF already had five non-constituency seats. So it had been agreed that an additional six senators would be appointed.

Out of the six, four would be from the Tsvangirai-led MDC and two from the Mutambara-led MDC. However, Ncube said, that paragraph was completely changed and Chinamasa inserted a clause saying there would be nine new senate seats, to be shared equally between the three rival parties.

Ncube said he had been told by Chinamasa that he inserted that particular clause on the directions of Mugabe, who said both Tsvangirai and Mutambara agreed to the change. Mutambara has denied such an agreement, Ncube said.

One paragraph, present in the September 11 agreement, was completely removed from the September 15 document, and Chinamasa has said it was “deleted by accident,” Ncube said.

The missing paragraph says anyone appointed to the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Vice President would automatically be a Member of Parliament. If that person is already an MP, his/her party will appoint a non-constituency MP.

Another missing paragraph states that the Prime Minister and his Deputy Prime Ministers and the President and his Vice Presidents shall sit together and make appointments of senior government employees like Ambassadors and Permanent Secretaries. Chinamasa has also put that omission down to an error, Ncube said.

Ncube, a constitutional law expert, also rejected claims that Mbeki’s officials had been involved in the alterations.

He added: “It is pure nonsense for anyone to suggest that I would have participated in the alteration of a document in a manner which prejudices my party. You need to be a fool to actually believe such nonsense.”
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