9 September 2009

Kinshasa — AN MDC-T delegation that was lobbying Sadc to take "stern measures" against President Mugabe and Zanu-PF left Kinshasa disappointed yesterday after regional leaders made it clear that they would not be pressured into making decisions by political parties.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an MDC-T official said "the lowest point" was when their ally Lieutenant-General Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana conceded that the biggest threat to the inclusive Government was the negative attitude of the West towards Zimbabwe.

Sadc, Lt Gen Khama said, needed to redouble efforts to help Zimbabwe counter these negative attitudes.

The development came against the backdrop of MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's admission that a summit on Zimbabwe was not on the cards, and he did not have the power to convene one.

The MDC-T delegation came here hoping to get Zimbabwe on the agenda in the hope that regional leaders would deal with the "outstanding issues" of who should head the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Attorney-General's Office.

When it became evident that this was not going to happen, the party's spin-doctors told the media that Sadc leaders were going to arrange a "special summit" that would specifically deal with Zimbabwe "without being clouded by issues like Madagascar".

Though the final communiqué was yet to be released at the time of writing, a senior Zimbabwe Government official close to deliberations said it was highly unlikely that Zimbabwe would be "mentioned except perhaps in passing or in relation to the issue of sanctions".

Sources privy to the discussions in the closed-door session said Lt-Gen Khama had agreed with President Mugabe that economic sanctions were the most pressing issue facing Zimbabwe and not who occupied what office.

The MDC official said, "We had an opportunity to brief President Khama on what was happening in the country and he told us that our report coincided exactly with what President Mugabe had also told him.

"He then said it seemed to him that we were in agreement on what was happening in Zimbabwe and hence there was no real conflict to speak off."

A source close to the proceedings said after South Africa's President Jacob Zuma tabled his report in his capacity as out-going Sadc chair on developments in Zimbabwe, Lt-Gen Khama pointed out that there was need for concerted effort by the bloc to help the country recover.

"Yesterday (Monday), President Zuma tabled a report on Zimbabwe and the report clearly registered enormous progress in the country since February this year when the inclusive Government was formed.

"President Mugabe then gave the Heads of State (and Government) a blow-by-blow account of the events and developments since the constitution of the inclusive Government.

"President Khama then said Zimbabwe's problem was not one of 'outstanding issues' but rather one of perceptions and this cannot be dealt with by the people of Zimbabwe alone.

"He said everyone in Sadc at every level must speak out vouching for the workability of the inclusive Government. He said it was important that Sadc committed itself in a very specific way to taking this campaign to Europe and America.

"President Khama suggested that the new Sadc chair (DRC President Joseph Kabila) must be mandated to lead this campaign. It was amazing because Lt Gen Khama has been sceptical of the inclusive Government."

Another source said President Zuma's recommendation to the summit was that Zimbabweans must resolve any other matters pertaining to the Global Political Agreement because these are "domestic issues". President Mugabe, the source said, indicated that the appointments of the Reserve Bank Governor and the Attorney-General were never in the GPA and President Zuma agreed to this.

"President Zuma, however, pointed out that the MDC party led by (Professor Arthur) Mutambara had said a previous Sadc summit had said the three parties must go and discuss these appointments.

"It was here that President Mugabe said he was aware of this and the matter had been discussed. The result of the discussion, President Mugabe told his colleagues, was that the answer to the MDC's demands was 'no'.

"He said the summit had asked them to discuss and had not ordered Zanu-PF to acquiesce to every MDC demand. His exact words were there were only two possible outcomes to the discussion; either yes or no. In this case it was a 'no'."

It is also understood that President Mugabe had said the issue of appointing Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister could not be considered a "make or break issue" for the inclusive Government.

"He said this appeared to be a matter of prestige on the part of MDC-T and pitching the matter highly would not make him relent to their search for prestige.

"He said the higher they pitched the issue the harder their egos would be bruised because he was not prepared as a matter of principle to swear into office someone who was facing criminal charges.

"He said he had not taken away the portfolio from them and they could proceed to nominate someone else in Bennett's stead if they were so concerned about the issue. "President Mugabe said he was baffled by the fascination MDC-T had with the 'appointment of this particular white man with the kind of history he has into Government as if they are short of manpower'.

"A senior Sadc secretariat official told this writer that they were not going to have an extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe anytime soon.

"We know where this talk is coming from and you should be careful who you are taking as your authorities. "The people who told you this are not aware of how Sadc works and I suspect they are trying to soothe their egos after they lost out on having your country placed on the summit agenda.

"And I think it must be pointed out that Zimbabwe was not removed from the agenda as some are saying. It was never on the agenda in the first place," he said.

President Mugabe's spokesperson Mr George Charamba echoed the same sentiments saying Sadc leaders were more concerned right now over how minutes from a meeting of regional heads on the Sadc Tribunal last year were "distorted" and consequently implemented incorrectly.

He said: "A representative of the Sadc tribunal tabled the two so-called judgments against Zimbabwe. It emerged that whilst Sadc leaders had last year asked their Ministers of Justice to look into the mandate and terms of reference of the tribunal, the minutes of that meeting were recast to suggest that the ministers must examine the implications of Zimbabwe's non-compliance with the rulings.

"Clearly someone was lobbied to distort a resolution of summit and to every man, every Head of State expressed consternation at the role of the tribunal as a vanguard of minority interests and as a bulwark against the objectives of the liberation struggles of Southern Africa.

"Last year President (Jakaya) Kikwete (of Tanzania) said 'we have created a monster that will devour us all. Can our Justice Ministers make sure that this monster is destroyed before it devours us all'.

"It would appear that there is some minute-taker who has decided to feed the monster. President Mugabe has said that the issue of ratifying a protocol entails a country ceding some of its sovereignty to a regional body and this is not a matter that should be taken lightly."

On the issue of a "special summit" on Zimbabwe, Mr Charamba said it was not going to happen and he was happy that "Mr Tsvangirai has admitted that he does not have the power to coerce Sadc into convening one".

"Sadc is not an inter-party body, it is an inter-governmental organisation. An extraordinary summit is only convened by member states to deal with an urgent and threatening issue.

"The remarkable progress registered by the inclusive Government is far from being a menace and is in fact a happy occurrence in which Sadc leaders are celebrating and will not call an extraordinary summit for.

"While the GPA provides for a review of the arrangement, it does not say this should take the form of a summit, let alone an extraordinary one. I am quite happy that Mr Tsvangirai has corrected himself on the issue."

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