|
SADC again fails to deal with Zimbabwe issue
I wish there were medals to give to loser organisations. I am still wondering what the purpose of the so-called Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) is.
This organisation has incubated many problems and I still want to know about any problem it ever solved since its creation.
I believe the whole world is just as mesmerised by the actors in the Zimbabwean tragicomedy as we Zimbabweans are.
The SADC leadership is still unable to recognise those situations in member countries that beckon for its intervention.
Our region is burdened with serious political, economic, health and social problems so much that were all these SADC presidents honestly working together, most of these ills would be halved.
More importantly, though, their efforts, even if they were not to bring immediate results, would encourage the citizens of this region to stand firm and try harder to improve their lot.
The SADC region is burdened with the instability in the DR Congo, where a little boy was bequeathed a whole country by an intellectually barren father warlord who enjoyed killing his own people, instead of healing the long troubled nation.
The SADC region is burdened with the instability in Swaziland, where another little boy was bequeathed a whole country by an old man whose only claim to existence was calling himself king in a country wreaked by poverty.
The SADC region is burdened with serious problems within its member states but SADC is known more for its silence, impotence and downright ineffectiveness than for action.
At the moment, the SADC region’s biggest and messiest problems are undoubtedly DR Congo and Zimbabwe.
Nowhere have they shown their moronic behaviour than in Zimbabwe.
I am surprised at how SADC, with the regional presidents, has always either kept quiet or pretended that there is no problem in Zimbabwe.
They do that with Swaziland and DR Congo, pretending that there is no problem.
SADC presidents are pathetic cowards who cannot take a stand over issues that clearly call for their harnessed wisdom.
They are an embarrassment to the continent and show a deep disregard for the citizens of this region.
Through this kind of stupid behaviour, SADC allowed and encouraged Mugabe to do what he has been doing for decades.
Mugabe killed thousands and SADC never said a word against it.
Zimbabweans were subjected to many ‘Operation this’, ‘Operation that’ but not a single SADC president said anything in defence of the defenceless people who Mugabe was abusing.
It pained us a lot to see these fools giving Mugabe hugs and standing ovations at international conferences after he had razed thousands of homes to the ground.
I thought that, at least, Operation Murambatsvina would incite some SADC presidents into talking Mugabe out of his barbarism, which they all know from the thousands he slaughtered in the infamous massacres of Matabeleland and Midlands Provinces.
Today, he continues with his gruesome crusade and is preparing to do more, camouflaging his behaviour with political violence.
But the presidential charlatans still cannot stand up in defence of the citizens of the region.
In 2008, SADC literally watched as Mugabe slaughtered hundreds of MDC supporters during elections.
SADC then twisted the knife in the backs of the Zimbabwean people by supporting Mugabe after he had lost an election.
SADC came up with the foolish Global Political Agreement (GPA), which, to this day, continues to haunt SADC.
Mugabe, the man SADC clearly supported against popular vote, is not honouring SADC’s own directives.
This past weekend, SADC again showed its insensitivity by opening a new multi-million dollar headquarters in Gaborone.
Surely, the money could have been put to better regional use even if SADC were a necessary organisation.
SADC creates fancy and useless “organs” that don’t mean anything.
Take, for example, SADC’s so-called Troika, responsible for Politics, Defence and Security.
This organ once included Mswati, and he was expected to give input on safeguarding democracy in the region when he himself has banned political parties in Swaziland and is abusing his citizens, taking their daughters from classrooms and turning them into instant wives.
Now the organ is chaired by that Zimbabwean-born coward, president Rupiah Banda of Zambia, who has his own problems at home.
Rupiah did not come to the SADC meeting because he knew that the Zimbabwean issue was on the table and, typical of SADC leaders, avoided taking a stand by absconding from the Summit.
Banda is said to have had a prior engagement in Brazil, which is poppycock because the SADC meeting was scheduled a long time ago and, were he putting the security of this region above all else, he could have scheduled his trips better and serve the people of his region. Why did he accept the responsibility if his interests do not extend beyond the Zambian border?
Like Mugabe says, African leaders are cowards, and I now see what he means.
The Mozambican president, Armando Guebuza, a member of the Troika, was so contemptuous of SADC that he felt he did not need to give any reason for his absence.
It, however, was not contempt for SADC only. Guebuza, like Rupiah Banda, stayed away to protect Mugabe.
How is it that Africans, especially regional leaders, do not see the tragedy in Zimbabwe?
Now Zuma is finding out first hand about the morons in SADC.
Because some SADC leaders chose to stay away, Zuma is forced to go to Zimbabwe to try and unlock the political logjam created by Mugabe.
Zuma feels let down by colleagues in SADC whom he feels are taking a soft approach on Mugabe.
“The South African president, who just before assuming presidency in South Africa was highly critical of Mugabe in the aftermath of the chaotic 2008 elections, is said to have concluded that some regional leaders are sabotaging his mediatory efforts in Zimbabwe,” said the (Zimbabwe) Daily News.
It quoted a South African diplomat based in Zimbabwe as saying that Zuma was so frustrated he now wants to flex his muscles and get the principals to an agreement with or without SADC’s support.
“President Zuma was particularly livid when Rupiah Banda and Armando Guebuza failed to turn up for a scheduled SADC Troika meeting,” he said.
Only President Zuma attended and this forced the cancellation of the meeting.
The heart of the matter is that SADC has become more of an impediment in the region.
SADC’s lack of autonomy has greatly interfered with its ability to tackle regional problems. Interference by presidents has rendered it a useless grouping that is costing us millions of dollars for jobs not done.
Instead of safeguarding the welfare and security of the people in the region, it is nothing more than a Public Relations arm of the governments that formed it.
SADC is not even called upon to clean up the mess caused by individual presidents; rather it exists to protect presidents from the citizens, not the other way round.
SADC is an expensive organisation that begs to be disbanded because it has done nothing but play cheerleader to growing problems in the region. It has established itself as a club set up for the gratification of regional leaders.
What do you think?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com
After the cancellation of the Troika meeting, Zuma immediately told Mugabe and Tsvangirai that he would be coming to Zimbabwe to mediate further.
Apparently, Zuma wants action and that is why he is going to Zimbabwe a week after the Troika meeting was abandoned.
So Zuma wants to lead the charge to arm-twist Mugabe into holding free and fair elections, but having first submitted a road map for such elections?
This is the man who, just several weeks ago, arm-twisted Botswana’s Ian Khama into softening his stand on Mugabe.
But that’s not all.
The situation is further complicated by Mugabe and Tsvangirai being the only ones who are demanding elections next year.
“People don’t see the need to rush to elections before the country recovers from political violence and all that trauma,” said a senior ZANU-PF official. “National healing is still in progress and people want peace and stability. The economy is still trying to recover, so what’s the rush?”
ZANU-PF is using the truth about what it did to the nation to refuse early elections.
SADC Executive Secretary, Tomaz Salamao, said it is premature for Mugabe and Tsvangirai to talk of holding elections next year when they have not fully implemented the issues agreed in the GPA.
He said this to civic society leaders with whom he met under the auspices of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on the sidelines of the SADC summit in Botswana last weekend.
Meanwhile, Mugabe is campaigning hard to ensure his demand for an early election is endorsed at ZANU-PF’s annual people’s conference next month, amid growing internal resistance from MPs and senior party officials to having polls mid-next year.
Even ZANU-PF parliamentarians who have their own personal fears for going into elections are discouraging elections next year.
The Independent reported last week that almost everyone in ZANU-PF, except the president, from MPs to politburo members, central committee members and ordinary party cadres are opposed to elections next year.
Like they say, don’t touch that dial!
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday, November 25, 2010.
|