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No government position on SADC summit
Movement for Democratic Change
May 17, 2011

The MDC dismisses the false claims by George Charamba in The Herald (17/05/11) in which he lies to the nation on the so called government's position at this week's expected SADC summit in Windhoek, Namibia.

The MDC would like to set the record straight. Charamba does not and can never speak on behalf of the three principals to the GPA. He also does not and can never speak on behalf of the negotiators. What Charamba purports to outline in his statement as the government position is simply a position of his party, Zanu PFand its president Robert Mugabe.

Through the backdoor, Charamba is trying to sneak in the Zanu PF's position and thus prescribe the agenda for the summit. Unfortunately, the agenda set by Charamba on behalf of Zanu PF amounts to an attempt to rescind clear SADC Troika resolution made in Livingstone, Zambia.

The resolutions made by the SADC leaders in Zambia are very clear and unambiguous. At that last summit, Zanu PF was correctly exposed as a grave violator of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Contrary to Charamba there is no threat to SADC unity at all. What Zanu PF is doing is to try to use the threats of regional disunity in order to coerce the SADC leadership into accepting its already discredited position. Just like it foolishly moved out of the Commonwealth after being called upon to account for its actions almost a decade ago, Zanu PF wants to use the same weapon against SADC.

An impression is created by Charamba that President Mugabe dispatched government envoys to the various capitals in SADC. A simple glance at the list of the so-called envoys shows that these were Zanu PF ministers and officials. They were dispatched simply to ratchet support for the Zanu PF partisan.

As far as the MDC is concerned, what must be discussed at the Extra-ordinary summit is the progress that has been made by the negotiators in resolving the outstanding GPA issues. At the very least we want to see a clear roadmap to the holding of free and fair elections in the country. New security sector reforms must also be put in place before the holding of free and fair elections.

It is further the MDC's position that the Windhoek summit must put in place measures to curb politically motivated violence that is being perpetrated against MDC and civil society members by Zanu PF thugs across the country.

We demand an end to the selective application of the law by the police and other law enforcement agents. This also includes the immediate removal of soldiers and militia in the countryside and arrest of all known political violence perpetrators.

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