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Zimbabwe: Botswana Threatens SADC Summit Boycott If Mugabe Invited
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SW Radio Africa (London)
4 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008
Alex Bell
Botswana government officials reiterated over the weekend that the country would boycott the upcoming SADC summit taking place in South Africa, if Robert Mugabe is invited as a head of state.
SADC member states are reportedly split on whether to allow Mugabe to attend next week's summit, but Botswana has taken the lead by renewing its call for other members not to recognise Mugabe as a legitimate leader.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister, Phandu Skelemani, said in an interview over the weekend that Mugabe should not be invited to attend the summit. But he added that Botswana's leaders would be willing to accept Mugabe and meet with him at the summit if the MDC and ZANU-PF come to an agreement that sees Mugabe emerge as a legitimate leader. He said the country will "boycott the forthcoming SADC summit if we feel the democratic process of setting up a new Zimbabwean government was questionable".
Mugabe is likely to be invited to next week's summit if the negotiations continue with no result, as he is regarded as the country's leader after the June 27 run-off poll saw him snatch victory in the one-man contest. His invitation will also likely rest with long time supporter South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is set to assume the presidency of SADC later this month, and it is doubtful that he will refuse Mugabe, regardless of Botswana's calls.
Botswana has been one of Mugabe's toughest critics and has made repeated calls for fellow African leaders to refuse to recognise the dictator's regime. It has also called for the Zimbabwean government to be suspended as a SADC member state until a legitimate leader is in place.
According to government sources late last year, Botswana plays host to an estimated 250 000 Zimbabweans - a number that was growing as conditions under Mugabe's regime went from bad to worse. The flood of exiles has seen the Botswana government make an appeal for international help, saying the number of Zimbabwean refugees is draining the country's resources.
Meanwhile Zimbabweans held a march in Gabarone on Saturday, urging the Southern African region to make it possible for them to return home. They called for SADC leaders to put pressure on the negotiating members of ZANU-PF and the two factions of the MDC, currently meeting in South Africa, to agree on a transitional authority rather than a power sharing deal.
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Simbarashe Chirimubwe from the Global Zimbabwe Forum based in Botswana told Newsreel on Monday the situation is desperate and the country is "strained by Zimbabweans". He said Zimbabweans are demanding "urgency in the talks" for the crisis to be resolved and added that many Zimbabweans feel they have "overstayed their welcome".
At last....leaders with values! Well done for standing up for the rights of the oppressed zimbabweans.
Our baby neighbor is seeking limelight, how nice for Bots to come into the real fray of colonial politics. Very soon it will realise why it has no friends no camaraderie within the region.
onesoul...the reason botswana does not have any friends in the region as you put it is because the rest of the crumbling economies are envious of botswana's success. You all wish you could run a country as efficiently as the motswanas run their country dude. just take a look at the new motorway built from SA all the way through to Plumtree. No wasting money on International runways and airports where only 2 flights land a week. No white elephant stadia sitting empty 364 days of the year only to be opened to let poor folk forcebily bussed in to... [Read Full Text]
Forcibly! pardon the typo!
the people of zimbabwe will rise again,yes the region especially those pressurised by our former colonisers will realise that their economies are being driven forward by the hardworking poor souls of zimbabwe.botswana is being run by their president who is half british,what then do us full africans expect,they are only keeping zimbabweans because they are hadrworking.
You make it sound like the Zimbabweans are being forced to live and work in Botswana. You forget that the reason why they have fled Zim is due to the violence and intimidation unleashed by Mugabe on his own people... So yes they are hard working, Zimbabweans are, the real issue lies with why they are in Botswana in the first place.
Geez there are some brainwashed sods out there.
Manlsza, and the 'full Africans' of South Africa are beating the Zimbabweans only because they are hard-working. See the different mind-set? Get a grip!
oh dear...those thoroughly awful british are at it again...this time in the form of a half british african prime minister...like kj says..get a grip pal...!!! mugabe ruined the country...not the british!!!
Mugabe is a dictator with no doubt and has ruined a beautiful and peaceful country he inherited. His failure was on economic issues a subject he shouldn't have been awarded a free degree in the first place. His economic policyis ruined by colour, nation of origin, age, sex and sexual orientation. What kind of a policy is that? How come noone branded him a British puppet when he used to spend State funds and time running phone bills and flights to Harrods (UK), and visiting Downing Street, and touring the world? He failed dismally and blamed it on the Ndebeles,... [Read Full Text]
What do you achieve by throwing insults at the State President of Zimbabwe? You may not like him but the man is in POWER. UNOTUKA 'driver we BUS' iye ari iye akabata chi Dhiraivo ... muno pinda mugomba. Bring up your points and arguments and we shall learn from your good self. "Ndebele" you said and you put it into the same category as "white" ... there is no logic in your classification. Ndebele from kwaNdebele in South Africa would belong to the same classification as English, Italians, Portuguse, etc. White goes with Black ...OK. I LOVE MY PRESIDENT despite... [Read Full Text]
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