SADC Troika Ministerial Committee: Removal of Zimbabwe from agenda a step in the wrong direction
Stevens Mokgalapa, Shadow Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
29 June 2011
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply concerned by the decision of the SADC Troika’s Ministerial Committee to remove Zimbabwe from its agenda, on the grounds that the situation in the country has “normalized”.
- Stevens Mokgalapa, Shadow Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
Less than three months ago, the SADC’s security organ troika issued a stern communiqué regarding Zimbabwe’s political climate, stating “there must be an immediate end of violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit” of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that forms the basis of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU).
The DA will be writing to both the Troika’s Ministerial Committee, and President Zuma, in his capacity as the SADC-appointed mediator in Zimbabwe, to ascertain on what grounds the Ministerial Committee deemed conditions in Zimbabwe sufficiently stable for it to be removed from the Committee’s agenda.
Just last week, minister of state in the office of the Zimbabwean prime minister, Jameson Timba, was arrested and detained for two days- reportedly without food and access to his legal team- under the country’s sweeping security laws. These are not the actions of a regime with a stable political environment.
Reports of intimidation, violence and voter fraud in Zimbabwe continue. This most recent incident is a powerful illustration of President Robert Mugabe’s determination to entrench repressive, tyrannical rule.
Despite the harsh words issued in the recent Livingstone communiqué, the decision by the Committee to remove Zimbabwe from its agenda is the second recent show of weakness by SADC regarding the Zimbabwean situation.
The decision taken at last month’s SADC summit to effectively dissolve the SADC Tribunal- an important legal resource for Zimbabwean citizens, whose domestic legal system is deeply flawed- is of grave concern. The disbanding of the Tribunal followed its handing down of a landmark judgment that found against the Zimbabwean government regarding its disastrous land reform policy.
President Mugabe’s representatives’ frantic lobbying of SADC delegates prior to the recent summit in Johannesburg clearly illustrated that the Mugabe regime regards the support of the regional bloc as politically important. It was a powerful sign that the decisions of that body can have a decisive impact in Zimbabwe.
The SADC must use this to its advantage, and exert its full might to pressure the Mugabe government into taking decisive steps towards democratic reform. Until conditions in Zimbabwe are sufficiently stable to allow for the hosting of free and fair elections, Zimbabwe should remain very much on the Ministerial Committee’s agenda.
Stevens Mokgalapa, Shadow Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
