Dumisani Muleya and Constantine Chimakure
13 November 2008
THERE was high drama at the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit in Sandton on Sunday when President Robert Mugabe refused to leave a session of the meeting after he was requested to do so by the chair, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Sources who attended the meeting said Mugabe refused to recuse himself to allow Sadc to deliberate on the dispute over ministries after the party leaders had made their remarks to the summit divided regional leaders.
Main MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai said it was shocking Motlanthe failed to eject Mugabe from the meeting as required by their agreed mediation procedure.
Tsvangirai said Sadc missed a golden chance to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis.
"In our view a great opportunity has been missed by Sadc to bring an end to the Zimbabwean Crisis. This omission has occurred because Sadc approached this summit without any concrete strategy and did not have the courage or the decency of looking Mugabe in the eye and telling him that his position was wrong," he said.
"For the record, in Sunday's meeting it had been agreed that all the Zimbabwean principals would recuse themselves to allow an open and unfettered dialogue to take place amongst the Sadc leaders. However, Mugabe refused and the chairman of Sadc did not tell him to leave. Thus, Mugabe became a judge in his own case."
Tsvangirai said "pressure was brought to bear on the MDC" instead of Mugabe.
Sources said the tense meeting had started under a cloud of uncertainty as to whether it was a formal gathering or not.
Motlanthe had set the ball rolling with an opening address in which he attacked Zimbabwean political leaders for "lack of political maturity".
Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao then presented his report to the summit.
Sources said after that Motlanthe asked Mugabe, Tsvangirai and smaller MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara to make some remarks. Mugabe made his first and was given a free rein. Tsvangirai then followed but during his presentation Mugabe protested and interrupted him, prompting Motlanthe to call him to order. Other leaders like the Lesotho premier Phakalitha Mosisili told Mugabe to show respect for Tsvangirai and Sadc leaders just as they had shown respect for him.
In one instance, sources said, Tsvangirai indicated that he had won the elections and Mugabe butted in, protesting "No you didn't!"
Sources said Mutambara then spoke, attacking Mugabe for refusing to give Home Affairs to Tsvangirai. Mutambara also slammed Tsvangirai for being inflexible.
During that session, Mugabe also barged in and asked: "Is this a formal meeting or not?" He asked because Tsvangirai and Mutambara who are not heads of state or government were given the floor.
Sources said Motlanthe said it was informal. Mugabe then requested that in that case flags should be lowered to show that the meeting was informal.
Following the dramatic first session, leaders took a break for 15 minutes and when they came back Mugabe dug in his heels and refused to concede the Home Affairs portfolio. In that session Tsvangirai and Mutambara were no longer present and Mugabe got his way, prompting Sadc leaders to settle for co-sharing of Home Affairs.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai are locked in a fierce battle of wits over power-sharing, including ministries and other issues.
Problems started when Mugabe reportedly claimed in October Tsvangirai had offered him the ministries of Local Government and Foreign Affairs for "free".
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This comment is on Mugabe. Mugabe help liberate Rhodesia,others should respect him as an old war horse. He paid his dues without him there would be no Zimbabwe,Perry Fisher,MD
Fisherperry you are certainly MD - Mentally Deficient. If Mugabe had murdered any member of your family you would be the first one to call him what he rally is, a murderer of Zimbabweans. How do you think those who lost loved ones through Mugabe feel reading your flippant post? Your appreciation of such a man shows what sort of person you really are, and I hope the MD does not stand for Doctor of medicine because if it did then I would be reminded of the doctors who like you, appreciated and worked with Hitler in his quest to torture and murder innocent Jews and others. Your admiration of Mugabe is repulsive.
This comment is on Mugabe. Mugabe help liberate Rhodesia,others should respect him as an old war horse. He paid his dues without him there would be no Zimbabwe,Perry Fisher,MD
Dear Mr Fisher, MD No less.....Please dso not comment on something towards which you have very limited knowledge. Adolf Hilter rejuvenated the German economy but was responsible for almost 25 million lost lives. Mugabe responsible for the death of at least 500000 since independance.
Dr Fisher, Mugabe paid his dues and became an idiot and now it is over! He has disgraced himself by holding onto power for too long and he is largely irrelevant to the lives of many in Zimbabweans. He has lost all credebility as a freedom fighter and will die in disgrace!
These leaders have failed, all of them, to drag an issues such as allocation of Ministries to a full SADC summit shows immaturity and lack of leadership abilities. The politicians to not get it, Obama made it very clear in his campaigns, in todays world,it is about the economy and the focus should be on the economy more than the security ministries. MDC needs to go to the drawing board before they drag the issue to AU or UN because the outcomes might not be in their favour and like ZPF, they will end up name calling for people who might not see things from their perspective, we are tired of this. Zimbabwe needs solutions, and food on our tables not mapurisa kana masoja, hatidye mapurisa nemasoja.
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