SADC wrap up

Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders, who many had expected to take a tougher stance on Mugabe and pressure him to step down after losing the presidential election, also called on Zimbabwean  authorities to immediately announce presidential election results following a two week delay, which they feared could spark post-election violence.

SADC chairman and Zambia President Levy Mwanawasa said the emergency summit of the 14-nation bloc, snubbed by Mugabe, appealed to all parties in Zimbabwe to co-operate and pull back from the brink.  

The decision has been to promote dialogue of parties in Zimbabwe, Mwanawasa told a news conference.  He added: The appeal to parties is to be co-operative and, also for the parties to exercise restraint and avoid anything that’s going to inflame the situation.

SADC leaders, blamed in the past for standing by while Zimbabwe’s crisis worsened, called the emergency summit in Lusaka amid an international outcry over Mugabe’s refusal to announce presidential election results, which the opposition claims he has lost to president-in-waiting Morgan Tsvangirai.

The MDC leader attended the opening plenary but was barred from the closed door session, after protestations by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Patrick Chainamasa, who was part of the Zimbabwe delegation representing Mugabe, together with two other senior government officials.

Regional leaders were also concerned by escalating State sanctioned violence and renewed land grab in the aftermath of the historic poll. Diplomats speaking ahead of the summit had said SADC leaders would tell Mugabe to hand over power peacefully,  while Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, Britain, the United States and other Western powers had all urged African leaders to take a tougher stance against the 84-year old President.  

A joint communiqué issued Sunday morning after the meeting, which lasted a record 13 hours, stated: The summit congratulated and thanked the SADC facilitator, President Mbeki and his facilitation team for the role they had played in helping to contribute to the successful holding of election, a joint statement said.

Summit requested president Mbeki to continue in his role as facilitator on Zimbabwe on the outstanding issue.

But the opposition said Mbeki was not an honest broker. The South African president, who passed through Harare for a one hour meeting with Mugabe en route to the SADC summit on Saturday, denied that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe despite the two-week blackout on election results.

The final communiqué further said: The summit urged the electoral authorities in Zimbabwe that verification and release of results are expeditiously done in accordance with the due process of law. Summit also urged all the parties in the electoral process in Zimbabwe to accept the results when they are announced.

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said his party had been largely satisfied with the outcome of the summit.

This is a major improvement, SADC has acquitted itself fairly well, he said. However, President Mbeki must show more vigour, more openness and a complete abandonment of the policy of quiet diplomacy.

I think in many ways this statement exposes the limitation of quiet diplomacy, he said, referring to the SADC communiqué.

Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Joey Bimha appears to have been spot on when he told journalists earlier on Friday that the summit was unnecessary.

Mugabe, the interim civilian leader of a military junta now running the country, has ruled Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence from Britain.

Analysts say his insane policies, which are responsible for an economic meltdown, which has left the majority of the country’s 11,9 million people mired in poverty, unemployment and record inflation of 165,000 percent, were largely responsible for the humiliating loss he suffered during the March 29 poll.