‘8. On the Republic of Zimbabwe
8.1 The Summit was pleased to note that all the political parties have committed themselves to ensuring that the forthcoming elections are held in a peaceful environment. Summit encouraged the Government, all political parties and leaders to continue with these commendable efforts which will help realize credible elections.
8.2 The Summit commended the Government of Zimbabwe for extending an invitation to SADC Member States to deploy election observers and the manner in which these (sic) Observer Mission has been received in Zimbabwe.
8.3 The Summit commended H.E. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa and SADC Facilitator for his tireless efforts in ensuring that the Zimbabwe political stakeholders hold successful elections.
8.4 The Summit noted the problems that arose during the special vote on 14-15 July 2013 and would like to commend ZEC for taking these up as challenges to be overcome on the 31st of July, and called upon all political parties to cooperate as fully as possible with ZEC in order to ensure that it is able to meet these challenges.’
The Vigil ‘commends’ the observers who went to such pains to see that the elections were ‘credible’, including President Zuma’s former wife, the AU Commission Chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who astonished Morgan Tsvangirai by saying he had told her he was ‘happy’ with the election environment. Tribute must also be paid to President Zuma himself and SADC’s ‘commendable’ support for the elections without which the people of Zimbabwe would not be able to look forward to such a ‘credible’ disaster. The Vigil further ‘commends’ the security forces who ensured that President Mugabe was ‘credibly’ returned to power.
Lastly, to the UK, the EU and the US: the Vigil was impressed by the weasel words by which they abandoned the standards of ‘free and fair’ for the slippery slopes of ‘credible’. We look to them to support President Mugabe’s ‘credible’ and ‘commendable’ nomination for the Nobel Economics, Peace and Literature Prizes.
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