SADC Finance and Investment deal ignores lawlessness in Zimbabwe

By Tererai Karimakwenda
24 October 2006

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of government and state held an extraordinary summit just outside Johannesburg on Monday, where Zimbabwe signed onto a regional finance deal. This deal has been described as a first step towards a ‘Common Market and Economic and Monetary Union’ envisioned for 2018. And with the ink barely dry, the SADC leaders are being criticised for ignoring the Zimbabwe government’s appalling human rights record and its policies that are keeping away much needed foreign investment in the region.

Botswana and Swaziland also signed the deal, known as the Protocol on Finance and Investment, which is meant to harmonise regional finance, investment and economic policies. Back home in Zimbabwe the secretary general of the Tsvangirai MDC, Tendai Biti, criticised the SADC leaders for “conducting business as usual” and separating politics from business. He said they are all to blame but South Africa must bear the brunt because it was President Thabo Mbeki who engineered the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which calls for international investment in the region based on good governance, democracy and peer review. By ignoring the Zimbabwe crisis Biti said SADC cannot prosper.

Biti explained that the Finance Protocol will not make things better for Zimbabweans. He said: “It will not reduce inflation which is over 1000%. It will not get jobs for our 80% unemployed. And it will not increase our productivity.” He also believes Mbeki and SADC need to remember they agreed to shepherd each other and as long as peer review is dead there will be no progress. Biti added that Mbeki can no longer speak of peer review, given his record of defending the Mugabe regime. “As long as bad, errant cases like Zimbabwe exist,” he said, “SADC will not be able to produce.”