HARARE - In May 2008, Thabo Mbeki, then president of South Africa, commissioned six retired South African generals to report on allegations of violence committed in the aftermath of the first round of Zimbabwes elections. That report was never made public and now, the presidency maintains that a written report was never compiled. (Pictured: Thabo Mbeki)Earlier this year, a consortium of non-governmental organisations the Southern African Centre for the Survivors of Torture, the South African History Archive and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre called for the release of the report. They were told written report had ever been produced, nor had any terms of reference been given the generals.
The report was commissioned under the auspices of Mbekis SADC-appointed role as facilitator of political dialogue in Zimbabwe. The existence, or non-existence, of the report has implications for the obligations owed by former president Mbeki and the current South African government to the SADC, and for the obligations of the SADC itself, said a statement from the consortium. Mbeki, in May 2008, commissioned the generals, led by Lieutenant-General Romano, to assess the allegations of post-election violence committed in Zimbabwe and to present a report to him on their findings.
In fact, on May 14, 2008, a media briefing said that Mbeki had already despatched the investigators.
The then deputy minister of the home affairs department, Aziz Pahad, said the report was expected to be finalised that week. He was also reported as saying the team had been deployed on May 4 and was expected to complete its fact-finding mission by May 20, following which it would present its report to the president. With no sign of a report, the NGOs have now submitted a second request for the minutes of the meetings at which the generals allegedly made their verbal reports, and are considering legal action.
However, they say, the non-disclosure of the generals report and, even accepting the presidencys contention that no written report was ever produced not only has implications for the South African executives constitutional obligations in respect of accountability for expenditure of state resources and the publics right of access to information, it also has implications for the obligations of accountability and collegiality owed by members of SADC in respect of one another.
They maintain that the value in sending such high-level retired generals to conduct an investigation would have been undermined had they only been required to provide an oral report rather than a properly documented report consistent with the highest standards of military efficiency that dealt systematically and comprehensively with the very complex and important matters they were tasked with investigating. More pertinently, however, given that the purpose of the mission was to inform the actions, both diplomatically and otherwise, of the SADC, it is difficult to understand how such a report could have been anything other than in writing, so that proper consideration of it could be undertaken by a broader spectrum of persons who may not have been able to consult directly with President Mbeki and the generals, said the consortium. Only by producing a written report could the obligations owed to SADC members be properly discharged.
Post published in: News