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Southern Africa: SADC Retains Confidence in Mbeki - Guebuza
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
21 April 2008
Posted to the web 21 April 2008
Paul Fauvet
Port Louis
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has reiterated its confidence in South African President Thabo Mbeki as facilitator in the Zimbabwean crisis.
According to Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, speaking to the Mozambican journalists who covered Sunday's SADC heads of state summit in Mauritus, SADC continues to deposit its trust in Mbeki, and is also insisting that Zimbabwean electoral legislation be respected.
Guebuza noted that opposition presidential candidates Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni, who were both present at the SADC extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe held in Lusaka earlier this month, had expressed their confidence in the good offices of SADC.
They had wanted SADC to send observers, and observers were present to watch the count in 23 disputed constituencies. Should there be a second round in the presidential election, SADC would send observers to that too, added Guebuza.
While the opposition has appreciated the role of SADC, the same cannot be said of the Zimbabwean government, which opposed the Lusaka summit. President Robert Mugabe himself refused to attend, and sent ministers instead. Subsequently a series of articles heaping abuse on the head of the SADC chairperson, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, have appeared in the government mouthpiece, the daily "Herald" newspaper.
When AIM asked Guebuza for his reaction to the campaign against Mwanawasa in the Zimbabwean press, he downplayed it, pointing out that the offending articles were not actually signed by members of the government. "We can't blame the government for what appears in the papers", he said.
But it was a government member, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who accused Tsvangirai of treason. Guebuza declined to condemn Chinamasa's remarks. "It's not up to us to judge people", he said "We can attack the central question - the elections have results, and the results haven't yet been published". Procedures were being followed, "and if the results are considered just by SADC, they should be respected by all the parties".
On the questions of poverty and development, which had been the main theme of the summit, Guebuza declared "We are increasingly clear of the need to use our own resources, and increase our self-esteem, so that assistance from outside complements our efforts, and not the other way round".
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He stressed that Mozambique remains committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed by virtually every country in the world at the UN's Millennium Summit in 2000. In particular, the government was striving to achieve the health-related MDGs, such as halting, and then reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, reducing child mortality by two thirds, and cutting maternal mortality by three quarters.
Women and children were dying "from illnesses than can be avoided", he stressed. The solution involved not only ensuring proper ante-natal consultations, a higher percentage of births in health facilities, and child vaccination, but also women's empowerment. "Women must have the power to take decisions for themselves", said the President.
Guebuza admitted that spiraling oil prices are a serious challenge to SADC, most of whose members are non-oil producers. One SADC suggestion, he said, was that a special fund should be set up to cushion SADC members against oil shocks, with the money provided by the wealthy countries, and particularly by oil producers. He wondered whether Angola, the only significant oil producer in SADC, would be able to supply its friends in the region.
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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