Cape Town — Southern African leaders have responded to the deadlock in talks over Madagascar's future by appointing former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano as a mediator to lead an all-party dialogue for the island.
At the end of a day-long extraordinary summit on the deadlock, chaired by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, the leaders voiced their frustration at "the slow progress" of the talks and resolved to speed them up.
"The extraordinary summit expressed serious concern on the deteriorating political situation in Madagascar mainly characterized by exacerbating hostility among the different political groups in Madagascar," the leaders said.
The summit, held in Johannesburg, included heads of state and government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), among them King Mswati III of Swaziland, President President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
SADC and the African Union have both rejected as unconstitutional the seizure of power in March by opposition leader Andry Rajoelina, whose administration is now isolated internationally.
In a communique issued after the summit on Saturday, the leaders also urged the people of Madagascar "to take active ownership of the inclusive dialogue and refrain from any forms of exclusion in the process..." They also said a commonly-accepted venue for the dialogue within Southern Africa also needed to be found.
The ousted president of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, said he planned to be at the summit but one report said it was unclear whether he had been given an opportunity to address it. Madagascar was suspended from SADC membership after Rajoelina's power-grab.
Earlier this month, Ravalomanana was seated at a summit of member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The summit, chaired by Mugabe, resolved that all options for restoring constitutional rule in Madagascar needed to be examined, "including the possibility of military intervention."
Although there is considerable overlap between the membership of SADC and Comesa, the threat of military intervention was not taken up by Saturday's SADC summit.
