Below is the communique on Zimbabwe issued after the Extra-Ordinary Summit of SADC leaders in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on Thursday, 29 March 2007. The leaders met to discuss the political, economic and security situation in the region, with special focus on the situations in Lesotho, DRC and Zimbabwe.
POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE
The Extra-Ordinary Summit noted and appreciated the briefing by His Excellency President Robert G Mugabe on the current political developments in Zimbabwe.
The Extra-Ordinary Summit recalled that free, fair and democratic presidential election were held in 2002 in Zimbabwe.
The Extra Ordinary Summit reaffirmed its solidarity with the government and people of Zimbabwe.
The Extra-Ordinary Summit mandated His Excellency President Thabo Mbeki to continue to facilitate dialogue between the opposition and the government and report back to the troika on progress.
The Extra ordinary summit also encouraged enhanced diplomatic contacts which will assist with the resolution of the situation in Zimbabwe.
The Extra Ordinary Summit mandated the SADC Executive Secretary to undertake a study on the economic situation in Zimbabwe and propose measures on how SADC can assist Zimbabwe recover economically.
The Extra-Ordinary summit reiterated the appeal to Britain to honour its compensation obligations with regards to land reform made at the Lancaster House.
The Extra Ordinary Summit appealed for the lifting of all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Courtesy of South African Department of Foreign Affairs
4 comments:
Mr. Kuthula, did you read the lead story in the Zimbabwe Times. If you have not, go and read it. To paraphrase, the story is about 10 MDC officials who collapsed in court following the arrest which two or so days ago you denied in your blog did not happen. Its time you stop burying your head in the sand like the proverbial ostritch and realise that Robert Mugabe has made Zimbabwe a laughing stock. From your level of discussions regarding matters politk, I do not have any doubt in my mind that you are a Zanu PF supporter who voted with his feet and went overseas. I wonder what those on the receiving end of Mugabe's hit squad would be saying regarding some of your discussions. Whatever he benefited from the SADC meeting does not change the truth of the matter that Mugabe botched the nation big time. In fact the country operated on auto-pilot for-a-while, while he was busy criss-crossing the world managing his personal investments. At 83 who in their right senses, except paranoid schizophrenics, would want to continue in such a demanding job without rest. Mandela retired, Masire did likewise and yet Mugabe thinks he is still young enough to lead the country. In fact he has turned himself into a village chief overnight. Goodluck to him and his adventures. For all I know he will succeed in fulfilling his ambition of life presidency considering that his factional colleagues in Zanu PF have capitulated. When you responded to my earlier contribution you skipped to answer the question I posed....Why did he amalgamate PF-Zapu and his Zanu PF?
Thanks for your comments. I have read the Zimbabwe Times and they do not say that Tsvangirai was arrested. And I did not say that no MDC people were arrested. I would be very glad if you pointed out that. My article was focused on Tsvangirai's alleged arrest. Here is the Zim Times intro:
"Ten Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) senior officials and workers who were abducted from the party headquarters, Harvest House and from their homes on Wednesday were rushed to Avenues Clinic after two of them collapsed in court today".
It does not talk about Tsvangirai confirming his arrest, which was my point of contention. Your claims make you a generally unreliable person because you set up your own scenarios and then attribute them to some other people. Who's really burying their heads in the sand here?? After setting up your own scenario, you then use that to say, "I do not have any doubt in my mind that you are a Zanu PF supporter". Interesting really. Even if I am a ZPF supporter, what has that got to do with you? You want me to be an MDC or Ndonga supporter? In my mind, I am not clear what party you support (and do not even want to know since its your democratic right) but have a very clear mind about your approach to issues and have outlined my evidence above about you. You are generally a person who likes setting up scenarios to suit your agenda of labelling.
You also talk about my staying overseas as if it’s a scandal. Why would you think that? If I stayed in SA, would it be a scandal too? Are people who approach issues with pragmatism not allowed to live overseas? I really do not understand your problem. Maybe you might explain better.
The funny thing about this Mugabe issue going on for the second term, is that before last Friday, we were told that definitely he was going to be ousted, and yet now after the very people whom many of us relied on to oust Mugabe have endorsed him, we are, I guess burying our heads in the sand and changing tunes.
We are now laying blame on other people and creating scenarios for comparison. I think that is not sophisticated political analysis. Its sour grapes of a defeated agenda.
Sorry, I might have missed the importance of your question in the last contribution. I' m not quite sure why he did it, but the official explanation was to create unity after the unnecessary Gukurahundi killings in Matabeleland and Midlands. And of course, there was an attempt to establish a one party state. But I do not know what point you want to put forward. Now that I have responded to this question, I await your view on this issue.
Glad to notice that your response to my comments this time around were more sane. In fact I am not fond of labelling people but at times people tend to put themselves into such situations that they end up having a tag. On Tsvangirai's arrest I think you are just trying to avoid the obvious because various news reports mentioned the fact that Tsvangirai was arrested and released within hours. Sad to notice that you are not ready to admit that he was, but on the flip side you seem to agree with some if not all the subsumed allegations of violence attributed to the opposition. I refer to your earlier blog contribution (sorry I cannot exactly pinpoint which one) in which you mention that the MDC has not condemned violence. One scenario which you have to bear in mind is that the MDC does not have access to local media especially radio and television. In most cases when they get media coverage it will be foreign media and this often comes after some mishap has been perpetrated against them. I believe it is naive to blame them on being silent in this regard because as regards the Western media stories are juicy when they have drama in them and hence a press release from the MDC condemning violence is not worthy publishing in the international media because it is a given and it is not published locally because it would tarnish the image of the government (being a scribe yourself I think you are better positioned to give an effective analysis of newsworthiness of press releases). So you see, the juxtaposition in which the opposition finds itself in. It is also interesting to note in your response that you also expected the politiburo to oust Mugabe. I did not believe that there would be anyone among that host of people who had and still have the guts to bite the bullet. In fact Mugabe is shrewd in that he is simply exploiting all these guys weaknesses. Most of them owe their political life to him, having picked them from oblivion into the limelight. That is the reason why some of them have taken it upon themselves to take leadership into championing violent reprisals to those that opposed the zanu pf way of doing things (I have in mind Dydimus Mutasa and Patrick Chinamasa, both ironically come from Manicaland fitting this profile. I hope you will not castigate me for labelling them as such.) are cases in point.
Finally I would like to refer you to this comment you make about my observation of you:
....You also talk about my staying overseas as if it’s a scandal. Why would you think that? If I stayed in SA, would it be a scandal too? Are people who approach issues with pragmatism not allowed to live overseas? I really do not understand your problem. Maybe you might explain better....
I did not mean that it is a scandal for you to stay overseas because the majority of 'educated' Zimbabweans are overseas as such. My point in raising the issue was to remind you that because you are there, you have the opportunity to voice you issues whether they be subversive or otherwise whilst in the comfort of working democracy whereas your compatriots, i.e. journalists in Zimbabwe have no such priviledge. At best it would be in the best interest of the success of your blog to be as neutral politically as possible and take on issues with no visible overtones of a love of one party and hate of another. The whole business of publishing centres around the fact that the reader will make an informed decision themselves without having certain views forced upon them by publishers. YOU SHOULD BE A NEUTRAL COMMENTATOR! Since you started you blog, I have been following closely your contributions and selection of articles you publish. I find most of your contributions are pro the current status quo and you have not written nor published anything that points to positive contribution by the opposition and other organisations opposed to Mugabe's rule in nation building. I think Mugabe is guilty of shutting down dissenting voices. I do not think your blog should be an extension of his public relations. Absence of balance in your contributions led me to infer that you seem to be a Zanu PF supporter.
So you see, I do not create scenarios for the purposes of labelling people. People create their labels unconsciously and it takes a considerable insight and skill to be able to make sense of the unconscious and translate it into a communication. It is only when people are pointed to the truth that they become defensive. Do not underestimate people who read through these contributions!!!!!
You say you are “Glad to notice that your response to my comments this time around were more sane”. Thanks you. I always try to keep sane. If its you who has made me sane, then the better. It demonstrates the power of engagement. That’s the whole point of engagement. Thank you for the kind words.
“On Tsvangirai's arrest I think you are just trying to avoid the obvious”. There is nothing for me to lose if I say Tsvangirai was not arrested, but I am merely saying that we do not have evidence and you know that. What makes you talk about the “obvious”. Or put in another way, what constitutes “arrest”?
In the Flip Side and my contribution you mention, I was talking about two different situations, the 11 March violence and the last week arrests.
Yes MDC does not have broadcast media access but it certainly has in print media. If you suggest that the MDC does not have any news outlet in Zimbabwe, how then do we know several issues that happen besides the international media?
You say a press release from the MDC condemning violence is not worthy publishing in the international media. That’s true, but Zimbabwean websites would certainly carry such a message seeing that it would be important in the current environment where MDC is portrayed as a violent party.
I did not expect the politburo to oust Mugabe, rather, I said many people, (meaning opposition mainly) were telling us that Mugabe was going to be ousted. In fact this issue is interesting for a topic because so much was said about it. A collection of past articles and then analysing them would be interesting.
In reference to my editorial slant, I do not discourage divergent voices; similarly, I would not expect anyone to tell me how to think – they must engage me. I would like to see people engaging. My friend, you must understand that people view Zimbabwe from different angles and able to split hairs to make sense of the situation. While I can support for instance land reform, I will not support corruption and lack of transparency. But of course, I will not try to be politically correct and support anti imperialists agendas. Unfortunately, this is one thing that I mainly differ with Tsvangirai very much. But I will always give him a fair hearing and fair comment.
So I think you make a very broad and general statement when you talk about me, for instance favouring the status quo. In other words you want me to agitate for regime change? But I can’t. Who am I am to disrespect the wishes of the majority of Zimbabweans who voted and those who stayed at home (did not vote) and chose the status quo to remain, and those who chose to go abroad and thus not vote?
Well, I never underestimate anyone, rather I am always engaging and I think it is through mutual engagement that we begin to understand each other. Can we not do it with Zimbabwe? I think we can if we have the will. You and I have shown it.
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