Zimbabwe Crisis Talks

Tichaona Sibanda (SW Radio Africa)—A delegation from the Southern African Development Community left Luanda, Angola for Harare to hold crisis talks with the regime and follow up the current situation in the country.

The weekend meeting in Luanda was held to decide how SADC can help ensure the electoral process in Zimbabwe is free and fair, if there is an election run-off.

This ministerial troika of political, defence and security organs within SADC will meet with Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, plus members of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Tsvangirai is currently in South Africa but is expected to fly back home this week.

The team is made up of the Foreign Affairs Ministers from Angola and Swaziland, Tanzania’s deputy minister of Defence and National Services and the executive secretary of SADC, Tomaz Salomao.

From Zimbabwe, the group is expected to fly to Lusaka, Zambia, to present to the SADC chairperson, Levy Mwanawassa, the results of the meeting.

In Arusha on Tuesday, Tanzania foreign ministers from the African Union discussed the Zimbabwe electoral crisis. The AU has been jolted into action following the post election violence against opposition supports. On Monday, the new AU chairman Jean Ping met both Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean Election Commission. Over the weekend he also met South African President Thabo Mbeki.

The AU has been under pressure from the United Nations and western countries, for African leaders to take a lead in resolving Zimbabwe’s crisis. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who met Tsvangirai in South Africa on Monday, said the political crisis in Zimbabwe was an embarrassment to Africa.

‘We are going to ask the African Union to be more proactive when dealing with this issue. The fact that elections can be held in an independent country and it takes more than a month for the results to be announced is sad. That is not really how you want to run a democracy. The rest of Africa is silent and this is not good for democracy. We must speak when an injustice is being done,’ Odinga said.

University of Cape Town political analyst Glen Mpani said the AU has been forced to act on the crisis following Morgan Tsvangirai’s regional diplomatic offensive to galvanise the international community into action over Zimbabwe.

Mpani said Tsvangirai has been telling African leaders that they must get involved in extricating the nation from the economic meltdown and political logjam that is causing severe suffering to millions and having a negative impact on the entire southern Africa region.

‘The major highlight of his shuttle diplomacy was the fact that he’s been telling the leaders the crisis was now a national emergency and that it needs international help,’ Mpani said.

The Mugabe regime is in serious breach of AU and SADC electoral laws with it’s delay in announcing the presidential results and the state organised violence against opposition supporters.

Both the AU and SADC require action when member states are in breach of their regulations. The AU has a ‘Constitutive Act’ which allows a challenge to sovereignty in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

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