SADC member states are reportedly split on whether to allow Mugabe to attend
next week’s summit, but Botswana has taken the lead by renewing its call for
other members not to recognise Mugabe as a legitimate leader.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister, Phandu Skelemani,
said in an interview over the weekend that Mugabe should not be invited to
attend the summit. But he added that Botswana’s leaders would be willing to
accept Mugabe and meet with him at the summit if the MDC and ZANU-PF come to
an agreement that sees Mugabe emerge as a legitimate leader. He said the
country will “boycott the forthcoming SADC summit if we feel the democratic
process of setting up a new Zimbabwean government was questionable”.
Mugabe is likely to be invited to next week’s summit if the negotiations
continue with no result, as he is regarded as the country’s leader after the
June 27 run-off poll saw him snatch victory in the one-man contest. His
invitation will also likely rest with long time supporter South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who is set to assume the presidency of SADC later
this month, and it is doubtful that he will refuse Mugabe, regardless of
Botswana’s calls.
Botswana has been one of Mugabe’s toughest critics and has made repeated
calls for fellow African leaders to refuse to recognise the dictator’s
regime. It has also called for the Zimbabwean government to be suspended as
a SADC member state until a legitimate leader is in place.
According to government sources late last year, Botswana plays host to an
estimated 250 000 Zimbabweans – a number that was growing as conditions
under Mugabe’s regime went from bad to worse. The flood of exiles has seen
the Botswana government make an appeal for international help, saying the
number of Zimbabwean refugees is draining the country’s resources.
Meanwhile Zimbabweans held a march in Gabarone on Saturday, urging the
Southern African region to make it possible for them to return home. They
called for SADC leaders to put pressure on the negotiating members of
ZANU-PF and the two factions of the MDC, currently meeting in South Africa,
to agree on a transitional authority rather than a power sharing deal.
Simbarashe Chirimubwe from the Global Zimbabwe Forum based in Botswana told
Newsreel on Monday the situation is desperate and the country is “strained
by Zimbabweans”. He said Zimbabweans are demanding “urgency in the talks”
for the crisis to be resolved and added that many Zimbabweans feel they have
“overstayed their welcome”.
 SWRadio Africa
Post published in: News