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Time for honest presidents to quit SADC
I find it revolting that the Movement for Democratic Change expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the just ended SADC summit.
It is either that the MDC is really desperate or they are part of the whole sting operation.
What did SADC say or do that made Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti express joy at SADC pronouncements over Zimbabwe?
Do Tsvangirai and Biti remember who got them into this mess in the first place?
Do they remember how many such “demands” SADC has made so far and how many of them have been attended to?
Does the MDC realise that everyone is aware that Mugabe has been given ultimatums before and they all came and went without anything being done?
The MDC must and should have pressed SADC for better involvement than what they are now euphoric about.
It is all stage managed.
SADC’s habit of being involved in regional issues by remote control must stop as of now. SADC is killing the region; SADC is promoting human rights violations by its inactivity.
But then, SADC was not formed to perform any meaningful purpose; SADC was formed to fan the egos of regional leaders who today still continue to blame “the colonialists” decades after we drove them out.
Thus I was astounded when SADC “came down hard” on Mugabe and Tsvangirai and directed that Zimbabwe must hold elections next year.
Zimbabweans are not that stupid; SADC leaders are, because we know that SADC has no punitive measures to apply on its wayward member states.
So when those SADC leaders “demanded” that Zimbabwe holds elections by next year, we knew that what they meant was that their bosom buddy, Mugabe, can continue beating up and killing Zimbabweans at will.
Over the years, how many directives on Zimbabwe has SADC issued and how many of those directives were heeded?
And what did SADC do about that?
SADC is so chicken-livered that it now makes regional leaders look really stupid for dabbling in politics of futility in which they are supposed to either keep quiet or say something nonsensical in support of mindless communiqués that betray regional public trust.
Citizens of this region accepted SADC in their midst because we believed and expected the organisation to take a leading role in protecting citizens, not presidents, of this region.
We expected SADC to keep an eye on our leaders and shepherd them towards the right direction.
We expected those of our leaders who came together to form this organisation to themselves respect the organisation’s role because SADC was meant to be people-driven and was expected to formulate policies for regional integration.
SADC was meant to provide regional public safety, regional conflict resolution, along with imposing and monitoring the rule of law.
Instead, SADC publicly and undiplomatically undermines its own organs to appease dictators here and there.
Mswati’s annual abuse of schoolgirls is an embarrassment to Africa.
SADC does not care about such behaviour and calls the Casanova “His Majesty”.
Mugabe simply refuses to abide by rulings of the SADC Tribunal.
Imagine what this says to the people in our region.
Imagine what this says to those professionals who sit on the Tribunal and what it says about those individual Heads of State who allow themselves to be used by murderous, narcissist dictators.
Above all else, this misguided, selfish and short-sighted SADC reaction, which could only have been hatched and promoted by people like Jacob Zuma, has laid bear the credibility of SADC, especially its organs, like the SADC Tribunal.
As far back as 2008, the SADC Tribunal ordered the Zimbabwean government to compensate owners for the farms that were seized and to protect the farmers’ rights to their land.
Mugabe ignored those orders, prompting the SADC Tribunal to find the Zimbabwe government in contempt of court three times.
Mugabe and Patrick Chinamasa, his Justice Minister, both declared that the Tribunal’s rulings were “null and void”.
One of Mugabe’s men on the bench, Justice Bharat Patel, then went on to rule that “the Tribunal’s orders on land reform have no authority in Zimbabwe”.
It’s not the land issue in question here; it is the flouting of laws of an organisation to which Zimbabwe is a legal signatory.
During its policy formulations, did SADC ever try to harmonise laws from its different member countries to fit the SADC framework and membership?
If SADC itself does not uphold findings of its own emissaries, who should?
Earlier this year, South African courts set a precedent by recognizing SADC rulings as being enforceable.
But this week, instead of SADC standing by its Tribunal, SADC preferred to disband the regional human rights court because Mugabe had refused to honour its pronouncements and there was nothing SADC could do about it.
What kind of nonsense is this?
SADC Summits are talk shops where problems afflicting the region are never discussed.
SADC “demanded” elections in Zimbabwe by next year. I dare ask “who the hell is SADC?”
Zimbabwe is not ready for elections and SADC knows it.
I would have hoped that this grouping would be aware of that, but they are not.
SADC wants elections in Zimbabwe next year, but what are they doing about the on-going violence, which has already started interfering with that expectation?
Is SADC aware that Zimbabwe needs a new constitution to hold such elections?
Is SADC aware of the problem it created in Zimbabwe where they made a party that won elections continue as an opposition party?
If SADC means well, how come it always sides with the person who is messing up not only Zimbabwe but the region?
Is SADC not aware of the on-going violence in Zimbabwe today?
Is SADC aware that people are being prevented from giving views for a new constitution that would make SADC’s demand for elections next year a reality?
SADC must not, SADC cannot, SADC should not order elections when they have not put safeguards in place to intervene when their Prince of Darkness starts slaughtering our citizens as happened in 2008.
The heart of the matter is that SADC should have told Mugabe and Tsvangirai that SADC was coming into Zimbabwe now, to monitor the constitutional outreach programme, to set the stage for free and fair elections and to ensure safety for voters and safe campaigning, along with access to media, etc, then and only then, would SADC leave.
How is SADC preparing for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe? Who is going to protect the voters?
I now hold SADC‘s individual Heads of State and Government as co-conspirators in the abuse and subjugation of the people in our region.
SADC leaders must now choose whether or not to remain in this stupid organisation, which tarnishes every office of the president in the region.
Those Heads of State with shame and with any semblance of decency must quit this hopeless organisation.
SADC insults the citizens of the region that it is supposed to protect.
The death of SADC is a plus for the region.
Let Jacob Zuma take endless showers in SADC pools but, please, get our countries out of SADC.
Because of its powerlessness, SADC is lowering human rights standards in the region.
Human Rights is a scary word to most of our SADC leaders.
Jacob Zuma has absolutely no capacity to understand all this; his job is to deliver Zimbabwe to South Africa’s business people.
I am not amused by the outcome of the SADC Summit in Namibia.
It was a useless, cowardly gathering which was not able to scratch its own itching behind and we knew that before all of them even gathered.
SADC is a dangerous, phony organisation that must be stopped because it is using its existence to oppress our people.
Call in the CIO from Zimbabwe, the Scorpions from South Africa, DIS from Botswana, and any of the prevalent intelligence services in our region, SADC is organised crime and it has its roots in presidential offices across the so-called SADC region.
If we have honest, well-meaning presidents in the region, it is time for them to get out of SADC because SADC is tarnishing everyone’s image here.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is, today, Thursday, August 19, 2010.
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