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Southern Africa: Zimbabwe Divides SADC


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Financial Gazette (Harare)

17 April 2008
Posted to the web 17 April 2008

Rangarirai Mberi
Harare

DIVISIONS within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) over how to deal with Zimbabwe widened at the weekend emergency summit in Lusaka, Zambia, leaving the region no closer to a solution to the crisis.

South Africa led a group of SADC nations opposed to taking a strong public stand against President Robert Mugabe.

But another camp, led at the summit by Zambia, began a campaign to end the region's moderate approach on Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean delegation to the summit, led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, has taken a mild communiqué issued by the heads of state at the end of the summit as a victory for its diplomatic offensive.

But the communiqué was only released after 13 hours of bitter debate that left SADC more divided than ever on Zimbabwe, raising fears that the summit left the region paralysed and farther away from finding a solution to the crisis.

SADC called on Zimbabwe to speedily release the results of the presidential polls, and offered to send back its observer mission to Zimbabwe in the event of a runoff.

But there was none of the condemnation of President Mugabe that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and international observers had hoped would emerge from the meeting.

Hopes had been raised that SADC was ready to push a tougher line against President Mugabe at the opening of the summit when Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said SADC could "no longer stand by" and watch Zimbabwe's decline continue.

But at the end of the meeting, the regional bloc was more divided than it has ever been.

At the start of the meeting, Mwanawasa, current SADC chair, tabled a four-item agenda; a presentation of the report by the SADC electoral observer group to Zimbabwe, a report by Mbeki on his mediation process, a brief by the Zimbabwe delegation, and addresses to the summit by Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni.

Diplomats said Mbeki and Mwanawasa had clashed bitterly behind closed doors over the agenda.

Mbeki, backed by Malawi's Bingu wa Mutharika, Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia, Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Joseph Kabila and Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, current chair of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security, supported a continuation of the regional body's current policy on Zimbabwe.

This group believes SADC should not bow to pressure from western nations and the MDC, which want more strident public criticism of President Mugabe's rule.

But Zambia, supported mainly by what one diplomat in Lusaka called "a fiercely radical" Ian Khama of Botswana, sought to have SADC take on a new, critical position against President Mugabe.

Khama had hosted Tsvangirai in Gaborone ahead of the summit.

The two have apparently forged a strong alliance, and were photographed together at Seretse Khama airport as they prepared to leave Gaborone, for Lusaka on separate planes.

Mwanawasa also questioned why President Mugabe had declined to attend the meeting, and whether Mbeki was now speaking on the Zimbabwe president's behalf, according to diplomats.

The two sides bickered over a proposal by Zambia, to declare in the final communiqué that Zimbabwe was indeed in crisis and to demand from government an immediate release of presidential election results.

But the Mbeki group supported the Zimbabweans' argument that government had no influence over the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), "since ZEC's independence is enshrined in the constitution".

There was also a massive row over Mwanawasa's invitation of Tsvangirai and Makoni to the summit. Mbeki supported Mnangagwa's protests that inviting the two set "a dangerous precedent" for SADC.

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At one point in the heated deliberations, Mwanawasa openly questioned Mbeki's "sincerity" in his mediation in Zimbabwe, diplomats said. It was said Mwanawasa claimed Mbeki had earlier not shown any opposition to either Tsvangirai or Makoni being invited to the summit.

"A lengthy debate ensued with an overwhelming majority of the member states supporting the Zimbabwean position," Mnangagwa said this week.

It was only agreed, "after another protracted debate," said Mnangagwa, that the two would not address the summit, but that leaders would suspend talks to allow informal consultations with Tsvangirai and Makoni.

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Author: mickey mouse

Respect for the Zimbabwe constituition is a good start so Mbeki's position should not surprise.

Mbeki continues to impress - !

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