The MDC formations and civic groups had hoped this week’s summit would resolve the contentious issues that have created a deadlock in the ongoing negotiations towards an electoral roadmap. They had also hoped for pressure to be exerted on Robert Mugabe to end the ongoing harassment of activists.
But a communiqué issued by the Heads of State as they ended the 31st SADC summit in Angola on Thursday, only reiterated resolutions that were made at the last summit in Sandton, South Africa.
McDonald Lewanika from the Crisis Coalition criticized the absence of progress, but said the consolation lay in the fact that no ground was lost. “We were made to understand that no substantive issues were discussed and that it is not the business of summit to deal with specifics,” he added.
Lewanika also blamed Angola’s government for the summit’s outcome. “We need to also look at the environment in which the summit was held. Angola was not amenable to the discussion of so-called controversial issues,” he explained.
The Angolan authorities detained and deported over 17 civic activists and 2 journalists on their arrival at Luanda airport on Tuesday. They also seized printed lobbying material from the Zim activists who had travelled to Luanda. Lewanika said this was a sure sign nothing was going to be done.
The Sandton summit called for the appointment of a three member team to work with President Zuma’s facilitation team and the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), in order to move forward on the GPA. That was in June, but the team has still not been appointed. But ‘foreigner’s working with JOMIC is something that Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF have stated they will absolutely not allow in any case.
The issue of security sector reform was also not tackled at SADC, as the MDC-T had hoped. Many other key issues, including the constitutional referendum, media and electoral reforms and timelines for implementation still divide the political parties.
Instead of pointing to this glaring lack of action on the GPA, SADC leaders “noted progress” and “acknowledged” existing disagreements between the parties. There was no mention of the ongoing arrests and intimidation of MDC officials and activists by the police, army and ZANU PF thugs.
The Crisis Coalition members held a press conference in South Africa on Friday and said although the communiqué “does not have significant forward strides, at least it is not retrogressive – it leaves much up to Zimbabwe political leaders to implement the GPA and carry out reforms.”
Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, concern has been raised over the lack of transparency in the process of drafting the new Constitution. A coalition of civic groups monitoring the process said the parliamentary committee in charge, COPAC, has denied them access to reports that were compiled during the outreach process.
Working as the Independent Constitution Monitoring Project (ICOMP), the groups include the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
“We insist on greater transparency and continue to pressure for the availability of information, monitoring of the drafting stage and other subsequent events leading to the referendum,” ICOMP said in a statement.
They urged COPAC “to select qualified and capable people who will support the drafting team which will commence soon”, as this would build confidence in the process.”
Post published in: News