ACDP calla on SADC and Mbeki to speak out

Rev Kenneth Meshoe, MP and President of the ACDP, today expressed frustration at African leaders over the Zimbabwe crisis:

Are our African leaders bewitched or under Robert Mugabe’s spell? Why are they remaining silent while Zimbabwe is being pushed towards potential violence, bloodshed and a humanitarian crisis? African leaders with their indifference and don’t care’ attitude have not only disappointed the people of this continent but many throughout the world who thought that their talk about democracy was more than lip service.

We fail to understand why not one of them has spoken out against the refusal of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release presidential election results nearly two weeks after the elections.

The reports that some ZEC officials have been arrested for under-counting in some regions where ZANU PF lost elections raises very serious concerns and suspicions that the intimidating tactics by ZANU PF are meant to prevent the ZEC from announcing results until their manipulation have produced results favourable and acceptable to Robert Mugabe.

This delay and the arrest of ZEC members makes a mockery of the declaration by the SADC observer mission leader that the elections were free and credible. We maintain that their pronouncements should have been withheld until the election process had been concluded and the results announced. If ZANU-PF had won the election, the results would have been announced almost immediately. It is clear they are being tampered with.

We call on SADC leadership and their appointed mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis,President Mbeki, to rise up and show the world that they are not under Robert Mugabe’s spell. If they deny that they are under his spell, then they must tell us why they are under a perceived state of paralysis evidenced by their failure to speak out on behalf of the suffering, poor people of Zimbabwe and their failure to condemn the unending and increasing persecution of the members of opposition parties and those perceived not to have voted for ZANU PF.