Mugabe leaves SADC summit in a huff

By Tichaona Sibanda
21 August 2006

Reports from Maseru, Lesotho, venue of the just ended two-day SADC summit, suggest the Zimbabwe crisis was a burning issue behind closed doors. Sources believe regional leaders wanted to tell Robert Mugabe to his face that his controversial policies were scaring investors away from the region.

It’s also believed the insistence of other Heads of State to put the Zimbabwe issue on the agenda led to a fallout with Mugabe who reportedly left the summit midway through the second day of the talks.

Journalists covering the event were quick to notice Mugabe’s absence, forcing them to seek clarification from the new head of the SADC bloc Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili.

Diplomatically Mosisili told observers and the media not to read too much in the early departure saying Mugabe ‘is not a young man, is over 80 and surely the old man is slowing down.’

But human rights activist Gabriel Shumba who was in Maseru last week said Mosisili was far from the truth with his explanation as all indications pointed to a walkout by Mugabe.

‘This (Zimbabwe crisis) was a burning issue and in all the forums I attended prior to the two-day summit everyone was talking about how Zimbabwe was dragging the region backwards with its policies. There is an unwritten rule in SADC that leaders never discuss another country publicly, but my opinion on this issue is that it was discussed privately by the leaders and Mugabe didn’t like it,’ Shumba said.

He also disagreed with Mosisili on Mugabe ‘trying to slowdown because of old age’ because on a recent trip to Malaysia Mugabe indicated on his return to Harare that he was in good health and was fit enough to box and ‘ready to commemorate the dead heroes of Zimbabwe’s bloody liberation war next week in a grand style.’

‘This is a man who told the whole world last week that he couldn’t wait to celebrate Heroes and Defence Forces in grand style and all of a sudden you hear he wants to slow down, more so during an important summit like SADC. These are lies, the man stormed out of the summit,’ said Shumba.

Before last week’s summit analysts blamed SADC, especially South Africa the region’s largest economy, for not doing enough to push Mugabe to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in order and to re-integrate isolated Zimbabwe into the international community.

Shumba believes all this could have changed during the two days of the summit as other regional leaders felt Mugabe was dragging the region backwards and decided to let him know of their feelings.