SADC postpones Zim inclusive govt review

SADC postpones Zim inclusive govt review
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:12:26 PM

SADC heads of states have postponed a review of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government to next month, according to reports emanating from Kinshasa.

James Maridadi, the spokesperson for Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, told news agencies at the venue of the SADC summit in Kinshasa on Monday that Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal had been removed from the agenda of the summit.

“Zimbabwe is no longer on the agenda, and the SADC indicates that an extraordinary summit to discuss the issues will be held shortly,” Maridadi told the German Press Agency (DPA) on the sidelines of the two-day summit of heads of state, which ended yesterday.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila, who took over the chairmanship of the SADC from South African President Jacob Zuma, called on Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF to continue talks as outlined in the SADC-sponsored peace deal.

President Mugabe and Tsvangirai were both present at the summit. Other sources said an extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe had been scheduled for Maputo, Mozambique, in three weeks’ time.

SADC had been expected to review the allocation of ministerial positions in Zimbabwe’s inclusive government, which the 15-member regional bloc said it would review after six months. The inclusive government came into being in February and the assessment was due last month.

The summit was also expected to settle a dispute between ZANU-PF and MDC over what has been referred to as ‘outstanding issues’ in fully implementing the Global Political Agreement.

ZANU-PF and MDC have been bickering over a myriad of issues, among them President Mugabe’s ‘arbitrary’ appointment of central bank governor Dr Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana. MDC feels it should have been consulted but ZANU-PF argues that the president has the sole responsibility to make the appointments.

Other issues include delays in swearing in of provincial governors and Roy Bennett, Tsvangirai’s appointee as deputy minister of agriculture who has been facing criminal charges for orchestrating a move to topple the President three years ago by military means.

The other issue involves arrests and convictions of legislators from Tsvangirai’s party who have been found wanting by law for their involvement in various criminal activities. So far, more than five legislators have been convicted.

On the other hand, ZANU-PF accuses the MDC of not doing enough to call for the lifting of sanctions by Western countries against Zimbabwe, which it instigated to put pressure on ZANU-PF years ago. ZANU-PF also wants the MDC to end operations of ‘pirate’ radio stations based outside the country but broadcasting into Zimbabwe.

The summit was also expected to deal with Zimbabwe’s pull out from the SADC tribunal after it argued that the sub-regional court was improperly constituted, as two-thirds of members had not ratified it.