SA position on Zim issues after SADC Summit

These excerpts below, were taken from South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad’s briefing of the media (4 April) on the way forward after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Extra-ordinary Summit of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation on 28-29 March 2007:

On national Elections
Parliamentary elections will be held concurrently with the presidential election. There is no need for a constitutional amendment as the President is allowed, according to the current constitution, to bring parliamentary elections forward.

On Presidential Term
The Presidential term will be reduced from six to five years and this will necessitate a constitutional amendment.

On Presidential Succession
Previously the constitution stated that presidential elections should be held within 90 days of the retirement, death, or resignation of the President. The Central Committee decided that should the incumbent President resign, die or be not capable of continuing with the duties of President, Parliament will sit as an electoral college and elect a new President.

On Local Elections
Local government elections will also be held in 2008, which will mean that [they] will be held every five years instead of every four years.

On the senate
The elections for the Senate will be scrapped and senators will now be chosen on the basis of proportional representation. In other word the number of votes garnered by a party in the elections for the House of Assembly would be allocated on a proportional basis to decide on the number of representatives in the Senate. During the 2005 Senatorial elections, senators were elected according to constituencies specifically demarcated for this purpose.

On the House of Assembly
The number of seats in the House of Assembly will be increased from 150 to 210 while seats in the Senate will go up from 66 to 84. It is not clear how this will impact on President Mugabe's presidential prerogative to nominate some MP's and senators. Until now President Mugabe could nominate 20 parliamentarians to the House of Assembly. Of the 66 members of the Senate, President Mugabe nominated six and ten senators came from the ranks of the traditional leaders - in effect another ten pro-government senators.

On Sabotage
To ensure that the necessary climate is created, all Zimbabweans must act with restraint and within the rule of law. Decisive action must be taken against those that are carrying out sabotage activities. Zimbabweans must continue to respect the independence and integrity of the justice system.

On creating an environment for free and fair elections
Given that there has been movement with regard to the situation in Zimbabwe, the principal challenge facing all Zimbabweans is what should be done between now and the elections (possible in March 2008) to create a climate that will be truly free and fair elections for an outcome that will not be contested by anybody.

Who is responsible for Progress?
"It is the view of the region that the only way to deal with these problems and the only way to achieve results, is if we encourage the Zimbabwean political parties to engage with one another” – President Mbeki

On Regime Change
[W]hile we are concerned about the negative effects of the crisis in Zimbabwe on the region, we would not ever support any proposition about regime change. So that is not an option for us, whatever other people might think in the rest of the world.

Excerpts courtesy of the South African Department of Foreign Affairs