SADC Presses for Return of Ravalomanana

(APA)--The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, Tomaz Salomao, has said that the regional body is pressing for the reinstatement of ousted Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana.

Salomao told APA in an exclusive interview this week that a team from his secretariat was on the ground to access the situation with a mission to bring both parties to a talking table. ‘We have a team on the ground to try and bring the parties together and to restore constitutional order. It’s clear that our position is that we don’t recognise the higher authority and we don’t accept it. The constitutional order has to be restored, we want to bring all parties together to accept this,’ he said.

SADC, the African Union (AU) and France, Madagascar’s former colonial ruler, have branded Africa’s largest Island nation unconstitutional changes and Andry Rajoelina’s takeover a coup d’état. ‘They (SADC team) are making progress and towards the end of this week they will report back. But in the meantime, the minister of Foreign Affairs of Swaziland is off to Addis Ababa to attend a meeting of the AU Security Council to see how far we have gone with the Madagascar issue’, Salomao said.

SADC said there is no time frame for the restoration of Ravalomanana, who insists he remains the legal head of state despite stepping aside last month. Rajoelina’s government says elections will be held in October 2010 once a new electoral code and constitution are drawn up. The international community says that is too late.

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