Botswana threatens SADC summit boycott if Mugabe invited

By Alex Bell
04 August 2008

Botswana government officials reiterated over the weekend that the country would boycott the upcoming SADC summit taking place in South Africa, if Robert Mugabe is invited as a head of state.

SADC member states are reportedly split on whether to allow Mugabe to attend next week’s summit, but Botswana has taken the lead by renewing its call for other members not to recognise Mugabe as a legitimate leader.

Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister, Phandu Skelemani, said in an interview over the weekend that Mugabe should not be invited to attend the summit. But he added that Botswana’s leaders would be willing to accept Mugabe and meet with him at the summit if the MDC and ZANU-PF come to an agreement that sees Mugabe emerge as a legitimate leader. He said the country will “boycott the forthcoming SADC summit if we feel the democratic process of setting up a new Zimbabwean government was questionable”.

Mugabe is likely to be invited to next week’s summit if the negotiations continue with no result, as he is regarded as the country’s leader after the June 27 run-off poll saw him snatch victory in the one-man contest. His invitation will also likely rest with long time supporter South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is set to assume the presidency of SADC later this month, and it is doubtful that he will refuse Mugabe, regardless of Botswana’s calls.

Botswana has been one of Mugabe’s toughest critics and has made repeated calls for fellow African leaders to refuse to recognise the dictator’s regime. It has also called for the Zimbabwean government to be suspended as a SADC member state until a legitimate leader is in place.

According to government sources late last year, Botswana plays host to an estimated 250 000 Zimbabweans – a number that was growing as conditions under Mugabe’s regime went from bad to worse. The flood of exiles has seen the Botswana government make an appeal for international help, saying the number of Zimbabwean refugees is draining the country’s resources.

Meanwhile Zimbabweans held a march in Gabarone on Saturday, urging the Southern African region to make it possible for them to return home. They called for SADC leaders to put pressure on the negotiating members of ZANU-PF and the two factions of the MDC, currently meeting in South Africa, to agree on a transitional authority rather than a power sharing deal.

Simbarashe Chirimubwe from the Global Zimbabwe Forum based in Botswana told Newsreel on Monday the situation is desperate and the country is “strained by Zimbabweans”. He said Zimbabweans are demanding “urgency in the talks” for the crisis to be resolved and added that many Zimbabweans feel they have “overstayed their welcome”.