In his welcome statement Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting would allow leaders to harmonise their positions regarding “key current affairs issues that may affect the peace and stability necessary to ensure sustainable development and the consolidation of democracy.”?
But Dos Santos did not say whether the summit would discuss Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe continues to block democratic reforms while using loyal security forces to crackdown on supporters of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Angolan leader also silent on what action, if any, the summit would take regarding the political situations in Malawi and Swaziland. A security forces crackdown on anti-government protests in Malawi last month left 19 people dead, while Swaziland has in recent weeks witnessed growing protests against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch.
He also did not refer to Madagascar, which plunged into crisis following the 2009 army-backed ouster of former president Marc Ravalomanana.
But while Do Santos was silent on the region’s trouble spots, outgoing chairman, Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba suggested the region had, in fact, achieved “progress” in trying to resolve the political situations in Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
“As regards the peace and security situation in the region, progress has been made in Madagascar as well as facilitation of the implementation of the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe, all the issues were dealt with at the SADC extraordinary summit held in Sandton, South Africa in June,” Pohamba said without quite exactly elaborating what progress had been achieved.
The SADC brokered the power-sharing agreement officially known as the global political agreement (GPA) that gave birth to Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s unity government.
The regional bloc last month asked Mugabe and Tsvangirai to have concluded by this week’s summit implementing the GPA, including agreeing an elections charter or road map that should ensure the next polls are free and fair.
Under a draft election roadmap drawn up by Mugabe’s ZANU (PF) party, Tsvangirai’s MDC and a breakaway faction of the former opposition that is also in the unity government, Parliament must first pass amendments to two key electoral and security Acts, while the chaotic voters’ roll must be cleaned up and the country adopts a new constitution before polls can take place.
The parties say they have already reached agreement on most of the issues. But they remain bitterly divided on security reforms, especially MDC demands to keep the military out of elections and the withdrawal of the army from the countryside where Tsvangirai’s party made significant gains in the March 2008 general election.
Post published in: News