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(HERALD) Ball in your court, Sadc tells Zimbabwe

Ball in your court, Sadc tells Zimbabwe
Saturday, 02 June 2012 21:33

The Extraordinary Summit of Sadc Heads of State and Government has refused to interfere in Zimbabwe's issues by throwing back the ball into the court of the three Global Political Agreement parties, leaving it possible for elections to be held this year.

President Mugabe reiterated in Luanda last Friday afternoon after a three-hour Troika summit of the organ that elections will be held this year. The full summit issued out a communique on Friday evening commending the three political parties — Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC — for their commitment and co-operation towards the implementation of the GPA.

Paragraph 5:10 and 5:11 of the communique reads: “On Zimbabwe, summit commended stakeholders for their commitment, co-operation and efforts towards the implementation of the Global Political Agreement and urged the parties to the GPA to finalise the constitution-making process and subject it to a referendum thereafter.

“Summit also urged the parties to the GPA, assisted by the facilitator, to develop an implementation mechanism and to set out time frames for the full implementation of the roadmap to elections.” The summit further commended South African President Jacob Zuma — the facilitator — for his efforts towards the realisation of the full implementation of that GPA.

Commenting on the outcome of the summit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cde Mumbengegwi said the summit had told Zimbabweans to “go back home and resolve your issues.”

“There was a discussion during the full summit that the GPA should not be viewed as an end in itself. The GPA should lead to elections and the summit said we as Zimbabweans should come up with the timescale for elections on our own with the assistance from the facilitator. We still want to hold elections this year.

“It’s up to us as Zimbabweans to resolve whatever challenges we have and elections will be held as soon as possible. Sadc wants processes leading to elections to be expedited. They are saying elections are overdue," said the minister.

The Sadc Troika on Defence, Politics and Security Co-operation had earlier recommended to the full summit that elections in Zimbabwe should be held within the next 12 months and urged the GPA parties to agree on the timeline to hold harmonized elections.

The position by the Troika accommodated positions by both parties in terms of the timing for elections as Zanu-PF wants elections this year while the MDC formations want elections in March next year. This means that elections can still be held this year if the processes leading to the elections are expedited as called for by Sadc.

The concerns raised by the full Sadc summit that the GPA is not an end in itself and that parties should not become too comfortable with the GPA clearly showed that the regional grouping wants elections sooner rather than later.

President Mugabe told journalists after the Troika meeting that whatever processes leading to the holding of elections should be finalized early so that elections are held this year.

The full Sadc meeting called for the finalisation of the constitution-making process but did not specify whether elections should only be held under a new constitution, meaning that the three political parties can declare a deadlock on the constitution making process leading to the holding of elections under the current Constitution.

The Extraordinary Summit was attended by the Presidents of Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. Swaziland’s King Mswati and Tanzanian Prime Minister Peter Banda also attended the summit while the DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles were represented by their Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

However, Zambian President Sata stole the show as he on several occasions gave leaders of the two MDC formations a torrid time suggesting to them openly that they were afraid of elections because they did not have a message to go with to the electorate.

On other issues, the summit noted a concept paper, Vision 2050, and referred it to Member States for further consultations and reiterated it's support for South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Zuma as it's candidate for the chairperson of the AU Commission.

It also noted that the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan was being finalized to form the basis for implementing transboundary infrastructure networks in the key sectors such as energy, transport, information and communications technology and water.

The summit also directed the Council of Ministers in particular the Sadc ministers responsible for Finance and Investment to expedite the process of the establishment of the Sadc Development Fund in order to, among other issues, ensure the availability of adequate levels

Labels: MICHAEL SATA, SADC

posted by MrK @ 12:23 AM