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Zimbabwe Briefing Issue 28
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
June 01, 2011

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The Namibia summit: SADC said it best when it said nothing

In the week following the 16th African Union (AU) Heads of State Summit in January, Zimbabweans were inundated with propaganda celebrating Zimbabwe's absence on the AU agenda. This absence was couched as a victory for ZANU-PF, and a defeat for efforts of various pro-democracy groups including the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition in their advocacy efforts at the continental body. Similar assertions have been made in the aftermath of the Extraordinary SADC Summit which took place in Namibia on the 20th of May 2011, complete with celebrations in the 'captured' state media, of the Zimbabwe security-orchestrated ejection from summit venue, detention and harassment of Zimbabwe civil society leaders. This propaganda betrays a lack of understanding of civic society missions and their objective in engaging regional and continental bodies like SADC and the AU.

Missions to SADC and the AU, and their allied bodies, at least for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, are meant to ensure that these bodies set a firm precedence in dealing with errant regimes that refuse to leave power in the face of popular sentiments that they do so. In addition, they are meant to indicate how, from a civil society perspective, SADC and AU can avert situations like the Zimbabwean one from becoming replicated across the continent. This advocacy is always informed by the fact that Africa is a war-weary continent in dire need of peace and stability. Conflict related to elections is one of the main causes of instability, and therefor to address such conflicts through advocating for the establishment and respect for strong democratic institutions and practice is to contribute directly towards sustainable stability and peace.

To pursue such a mission with SADC and the African Union, it is preferable, but not necessary to have Zimbabwe on the agenda of key meetings when they take place. The Zimbabwean governance crisis, highlighted by the June 2008 violent sham election, can be indirectly engaged through the discussion of other trouble spots, like the Ivorian and Tunisian situations as was done in January by the AU, or indeed through the discussions on Madagascar and Swaziland as was done by SADC in Namibia. As policy bodies, the lobbying at the AU and SADC are around cogent policy frameworks to deal with these challenges and rallying around shared values, which can be used as basis for dealing with similar challenges.

Notwithstanding the hot air that continues to be blown by the architects of people's suffering in Zimbabwe, and the rhetoric and spin from their tired spin doctors, it is self-evident that there are significant shifts in Africa policy towards dictatorship and a growing impatience with petulant dictators. This clarity is there from how the Ivorian crisis was eventually dealt with, and the isolation for the Lybian dictator - our "Brother Leader " comrade Muammar Gadaffi - Head of State and Government of the Great Lybian Jamahiriya and Spiritual leader of the people.

Civic Society has often called on SADC to say something and do something on Zimbabwe, but Namibia was different, it showed us that silence is indeed sometimes golden, in spite of a raucous and noisy circus being in town. Indeed SADC said it best when it said nothing at all at the Namibia summit. The only allusion to Zimbabwe from Namibia Summit's communique was noting the presence of uncle Bob. This in itself says a lot in the context of the ZANU PF agenda, which was to reverse the Livingstone Troika resolutions, intimidate the mediator and purge his facilitation team. That strategy fell flat on its face despite ZANU-PF deploying a strong delegation comprising Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Foreign Affairs minister Mbengegwi together with bogus civil society outfits and members of the Youth militia's who clearly owed allegiance neither to Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

The bogus, ZANU-PF aligned civil society groups were led and comprised of one serial organization former, Goodson Nguni, who this time around was wearing four different hats depending on who he was talking to. From the Federation of NGO's (FONGO) which he formed in 2008, when the SADC Observer mission wanted to engage Civil Society, to the Civil Society Coalition he formed when the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme fact finding mission wanted to engage Civil Society in 2010, to the All Africa Associations of NGO's (AAANGO) which he claims to have formed in Lusaka two weeks prior to the Special Summit in Namibia, and a new formation which he called Zimbabwe Today, whose main weapon of engagement was a propaganda magazine which sought to blame the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai for all the political violence in Zimbabwe.

SADC clearly showed that they would not be held at ransom by unreasonable submissions from just one of the three political parties in the GPA, which sought to reverse the Livingston resolutions through a cocktail of abuses on SADC, personal attacks on the mediator and threats that if ZANU-PF does not have its way it would withdraw Zimbabwe from SADC as it did with the Commonwealth.

By the end of the day on the 20th of May 2011, the leadership of the of May 2011, the leadership of the official ZANU-PF delegation retreated to Harare, celebrating the death of the SADC Tribunal which had been engineered by justice minister Chinamasa. A reading of the Communique from the summit - and the conspicuous absence of Zimbabwe - showed that SADC is tired of baby-sitting Zimbabwe. And now, after spewing vitriol on president Zuma, soiling the name and repute of Ambassador Lindiwe Zulu and her colleagues in the facilitation team. And calling everyone else in SADC naïve - ZANU-PF will now have to do it all over again in South Africa on 10 and 11 June when SADC leaders meet to exclusively discuss Zimbabwe with no cover from Madagascar.

One can only hope that the region will be steadfast in its resolve not to tolerate hogwash, and stand up to ZANUPF. One also hopes that the issue of a meaningful road map to elections will be finalized, complete with coherent time framed implementation plan with clear monitoring mechanisms from the regional body. The regional body must ensure that there are clear demonstrable steps towards the implementation of the SADC Troika resolutions from Livingstone, Zambia. That was the call of Zimbabwean civics in Namibia, and that will be their call in South Africa.

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