Maputo — The SADC (Southern African Development Community) body on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (commonly referred to simply as "the Troika") will hold a summit in Maputo on Thursday, mainly to discuss the current crisis in Zimbabwe.

SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao told reporters on Wednesday that the three major players in Zimbabwean politics, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime Minister Arthud Mutambara, and President Robert Mugabe, will attend, as will all three members of the Troika, its current chairperson, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, its past chair, Swazi King Mswati III, and the Troika deputy chair, Zambian President Rupiah Banda

Also expected at the summit are the current chairperson of SADC, Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his predecessor, South African President Jacob Zuma. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has played the role of SADC "facilitator" on Zimbabwe will also fly to Maputo.

The current crisis arises from the failure of Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF to implement in full the Global Political Agreement (GPA) reached with the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in September 2008.

The larger MDC faction, led by Tsvangirai, objects in particular to Mugabe's unilateral re-appointment of Gideon Gono as chairperson of the central bank, and Johannes Tomana as Attorney-General. Gono is seen as largely responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean currency, and for the hyper-inflation it suffered before it switched to the use of foreign currencies. Tomana is accused of harassing opposition and human rights activists.

Other issues at stake include the appointment of provisional governors, and the recent re-arrest, on trumped up treason charges, of the MDC treasurer Roy Bennett, who is also the MDC nominee for the post of Deputy Agriculture Minister.

Failure to make any progress on these issues led Tsvangirai to disengage from the "inclusive government" last month. He refused to attend cabinet meetings, and made a tour of the region to explain his position to other SADC leaders.

The upshot of this tour, particularly of Tsvangirai's meeting with Guebuza, was that a SADC troika mission visited Zimbabwe from 28 to 31 October. Thursday's summit will receive a report from this mission.

Salomao gave no hint as to the specific contents of the report, but said it listed all the obstacles to the full and effective implementation of the GPA. He was sure that the summit would help pull Zimbabwe out of its latest crisis.

"Judging by the high level of commitment from the political actors", said Salomao, "we are confident in the success of the negotiations in order to implement effectively the government of national unity in Zimbabwe".

Salomao said the summit will also discuss the latest developments in Lesotho and in Madagascar.