MALAWI President Lazarus Chakwera has said the recently concluded Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit was not a platform to rein in President Emmerson Mnangagwa over human rights abuse, but rather address issues of governance and democracy in a broader manner.
In the lead-up to the summit, Mnangagwa's government faced international scrutiny for its crackdown on pro-democracy activists and opposition supporters over suspicions of planning demonstrations.
Over 100 activists remain detained in remand prison with repeated attempts to secure bail hitting a snag.
SADC leaders appeared to avoid a confrontation with President Mnangagwa on the arrests when they converged in Harare for the Heads of States Summit.
In an interview with international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) in Germany recently Chakwera said the bloc's leaders "do not call each other names".
"We look at the picture. And so in the resolutions, we insisted that we put issues to do with governance, issues to do with democracy, and issues to do with human rights. We are not necessarily, in that summit of heads of state, calling each other names," said Chakwera.
"We had followed the kind of advice we always do when our ministers meet and they make recommendations, and then we said, this is the best way to do that. And so we discussed these in general terms, but not necessarily to say, can you stand up and tell us about one or two things in your country, even though there may be times when such things get talked about.
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"But it's usually through a program and an agenda that has been vetted by officials and then ministers and then the recommendations made, and we discussed those recommendations."
The resolutions of the SADC summit sparked debate over the effectiveness of the regional bloc.
Critics and political observers have accused SADC of turning a blind eye to the shrinking democratic spaces in member states.
Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Angola and Eswatini are some of the countries that have a poor track record of upholding democratic tenets.
Chakwera, while not providing specific details, confirmed he had held talks with President Mnangagwa over the human rights violations.
He added, "I had heard about it, and sometimes I talk with my brother, and it's not necessarily for public consumption because that's a stance that I have taken, dealing with each one of my brothers in Southern Africa. I personally take responsibility to discuss such, even when it is not necessarily for the media."
