Relations between Dictator Robert Mugabe and South African President Jacob Zuma are at an all time low following claims by the Zanu PF leader that Zuma and other SADC leaders could not dictate reforms in Zimbabwe.
A SADC Troika Summit in Zambia last week was very damning in its condemnation of the political violence and intimidation instigated by Mugabe’s regime. They also issued their strongest statement to date on Mugabe’s 31-year rule, calling for an end to “violence, arrests and intimidation”.
But an angry Mugabe on Friday accused the SADC grouping of trying to interfere in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. On Friday he told a Zanu-PF central committee meeting in Harare:
“The facilitator is the facilitator and must facilitate dialogue. (Zuma) cannot prescribe anything. We prescribe what we should do in accordance with our own laws and our agreement. The (opposition) MDC thinks SADC or the African Union can prescribe to us how we run our things.”
During the SADC summit in Livingstone, Zambia, this week, Zuma and other leaders cornered Mugabe over his refusal to implement sections of his political agreement with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The summit took place just days after Zuma held a private meeting with Tsvangirai at his Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, home.
A diplomat who attended the summit said SADC leaders had had enough of Mugabe’s antics and were demanding that he abide by their decisions.
“SADC is saying … ‘Enough is enough: there is a limit to (how many times) we can keep coming to meetings and taking decisions and those decisions are not implemented. We will end up looking foolish if these things are not being implemented,” the diplomat said.
SADC plans to call an extraordinary session – on a date still to be decided – to discuss the Zimbabwe issue. Additional reporting by the (SA) Times Live
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