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Reflections after the SADC Summit
Arthur G O Mutambara
November 15, 2008

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Introduction

During the Extraordinary SADC Summit on the 9th of November 2008, the regional leaders considered the political and security situation obtaining in our country. They released a communiqué in which, among other resolutions, they decided that: (1) the inclusive government be formed forthwith; (2) the Ministry of Home Affairs be co-managed between ZANU-PF and MDC-T; (3) the efficacy of the arrangement in (2) be reviewed after 6 months; (4) Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment 19 to give legal effect to the global political agreement be introduced without delay. There have been various responses to this SADC ruling on Zimbabwe. The purpose of this treatise is to contextualize all these healthy debates and try to proffer a structured and systematic way forward.
The urgency of now

At this juncture in the history of our country we should be seeking solutions that enable us to unite our people. We need to bring supporters of all the three political parties together. Being Zimbabwean should take precedence over political affiliation. Our country is going through a humanitarian, social and political crisis of immense proportions, and our challenge is to pursue the national interest ahead of personal and partisan aspirations. The question is; what is it that we should do to unite our people, and salvage our country? Going into the SADC summit, the position of our party was very clear. We were totally and unequivocally in support of Tsvangirai getting the Ministry of Home Affairs given the distribution of the other security ministries, and in pursuit of fairness and equity. Our position was that MDC-T should be given sole ownership of that ministry. We clearly and vigorously articulated our position before the SADC leaders in defence of Morgan Tsvangirai and his Party. We dismissed Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF-s claim to the ministry as not only baseless, but unreasonable, frivolous and vexatious. We dismissed the allegations of banditry against MDC-T with the contempt that they deserved. We fought a good fight against a greedy and intransigent ZANU-PF regime, but lost at the Summit.

However, it must be emphasized that it was a clear understanding among the three political parties that we were going to SADC for a firm ruling, some kind of arbitration. This ruling we sought from the regional leaders was meant to be binding on all three protagonists. Although there is no legal instrument to ensure enforcement and compliance of such SADC decisions, the understanding was that given the eight weeks of dialogue that had taken place, since the signing of Global Political Agreement, we were going to SADC for finality and closure. Clearly, from the communiqué, the SADC ruling was not favourable to both MDC formations. It was particularly devastating to MDC-T. As a party, we sought a particular outcome and got a different result. The Summit decision is not what we wanted. We were disappointed. As we move forward, the challenge is not whether one likes the SADC decision or not, but rather how to respond to the negative outcome. Zimbabwe is still a member of SADC. We have not left. Until such time that as a nation we leave SADC we must respect it as one of our regional institutions. We must find a way of remaining engaged with SADC. We can-t disengage. We must clearly explain and outline our reservations about the ruling, but at the same time respecting SADC processes and outcomes. This is more so because we, as Zimbabwean leaders are the ones who went to SADC seeking a ruling. If we had no faith in the SADC system we should not have gone there with our national matters in the first place.

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