Victoria Falls — Zimbabwe fully supports the transformation of the Sadc Parliamentary Forum into a full legislative organ with commensurate authority, President Mugabe has said.

The President, who was addressing delegates attending the Sadc Parliamentary Forum's 26th plenary session here, said Zimbabwe would endorse the conferment of legislative authority on the body when the issue is formally brought before a summit of regional leaders.

"May I assure you of Zimbabwe's support of the establishment of a Sadc Parliament," said President Mugabe, departing from his prepared speech.

"I will be one of those people who want the issue to be brought up, debated and concluded at our next Sadc summit.

"Zimbabwe's commitment to the noble ideals and collective vision of a prosperous Sadc region is well-known," said the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

"My country firmly supports the African Union structures for a Pan African Parliament and is convinced that this project should not be suffocated by more organisations than we can handle," he said

Chronicling Sadc's history, President Mugabe said the regional bloc had its roots in the Frontline States whose objective was not only to see the political liberation of Southern Africa, but its emancipation from racial and colonial oppression, suppression and bondage as well.

He said Zimbabwe deeply valued Sadc's solidarity as it was indeed truthful, well-meaning and that it flowed from well-known Sadc ideals.

He said the session's theme - "Towards Benefiting Sadc Citizens" - heightened focus on the optimum use of Sadc's natural and human resources in a people-centred manner.

He said his Government had deliberately pursued policies to benefit the majority, such as the land reform programme that the West viciously resisted.

"Government has also, through legislation such as the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, considered other avenues of empowering Zimbabweans in other sectors of the economy," he said.

He told the legislators that their representative role provided vital links with national constituencies in all Sadc countries, thus providing a comprehensive people-oriented platform for regional integration.

"Without the people, Sadc efforts to integrate at the regional level will remain hollow rhetoric or, at worst, archival material in various governmental warehouses accessed only by the privileged few," he said.

Turning to domestic political developments, President Mugabe said the inclusive Government, whose creation was facilitated by Sadc, was working well despite some discord which he said was normal in any family.

"While there is discord once in a while, we have pledged to maintain our governmental unity and proceed to re-invigorate our country's economic performance.

"There is always going to be discord in a family, but none of the parties have said they will go out of the inclusive Government.

"The Prime Minister has already said that (he will not move out of the inclusive Government) and you will hear him when he addresses you," said President Mugabe to applause from the delegates.

The President had delegates in stitches when he narrated an encounter with a Briton in Dubai who boasted that he was selling English tea.

When he asked her where she was getting the leaves, she conceded that they originated from African countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.

"How can you make English tea out of products from Africa? They (the West) can't even acknowledge on their packets where they are getting it," he remarked.

The President noted that the Sadc Parliamentary Forum session was being held on the eve of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup and the coveted trophy would be arriving in Zimbabwe today on its phased journey to South Africa.

Earlier various speakers gave accounts of the work they were doing to lobby regional governments to model the organ along the lines of the South Africa-based Pan-African Parliament.

Forum chairperson Prince Guduza Dlamini, Swaziland's Speaker of Parliament, said the regional bloc's Council of Ministers had already adopted the idea of a Sadc Parliament and now awaited a full summit to deliberate on it.

Sadc Parliamentary Forum secretary-general Dr Esau Chivhiya said there were peculiar regional issues that would require the platform of a regional legislative assembly.

The issues, he said, included ratification of Sadc treaties and protocols, trade, and cross-border movement, among others.

Matabeleland North Governor and Resident Minister Thokozile Mathuthu, Senate President Edna Madzongwe, Secretary for Media, Information and Publicity Mr George Charamba, Sadc diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe and various legislators from the regional bloc attended yesterday's session.