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Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
Mugabe
AU summit claims a mystery
Obey Manayiti,
NewsDay
July 17, 2013
http://www.newsday.co.zw/2013/07/17/mugabe-au-summit-claims-a-mystery/
Both MDC parties
and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) - the regional
body overseeing political developments in Zimbabwe - yesterday said
they knew nothing about a special African Union (AU) summit on Zimbabwe
which President Robert Mugabe said was due on Friday.
Mugabe on Monday
angrily accused his political protagonists, the MDC parties, of
taking the Zimbabwean election issue to the AU, claiming they were
seeking a postponement. He vowed not to accept any such move, saying
he had ordered Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa to convey the
rejection message to the AU.
But the MDC
parties and the Sadc facilitation team yesterday expressed surprise
at Mugabe’s claims, professing ignorance of any such AU summit.
“We do
not know anything about that. All we know is that we have taken
our concerns to Sadc, the guarantors of the GPA (Global
Political Agreement),” said MDC-T secretary-general Tendai
Biti in an interview with NewsDay.
His MDC counterpart
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga added: “I do not know about
that summit. We only read it in the papers.”
Sadc facilitator
and South African President Jacob Zuma’s international relations
adviser Lindiwe Zulu also said she was unaware of the alleged special
summit on Zimbabwe.
“I do
not know about that summit. I have made enquiries and no one seems
to know. Maybe it was discussed at Presidential level, but the norm
is that Sadc has to be in the picture, which they do not seem to
be,” she said before referring NewsDay to Sadc executive secretary
Tomaz Salomão, who could, however, not be reached for comment.
Addressing a
Zanu-PF campaign rally in Marondera on Monday, Mugabe claimed that
a special AU summit had been scheduled for Friday.
“They
(MDCs) have taken the matter to the AU, which used to be our OAU
(Organisation of African Unity), so we have sent (Justice minister
Patrick) Chinamasa to be prepared on the 19th of July.
They want to
postpone elections, but that will never happen. . . ,” said
Mugabe.
Mugabe’s
claims were confirmed by his spokesperson George Charamba, who said
the MDC parties had bypassed Sadc to take their concerns to the
AU and that their efforts were bound to fail.
He said: “When
MDCs realised they had failed to stop elections through Sadc intervention,
they decided to go to the AU.”
Efforts to get
comment from him in the wake of the denials by the MDCs and the
Sadc facilitation team yesterday were unsuccessful.
The MDCs are
accusing Zanu-PF of stampeding the nation into elections
on July 31 without reforms as stipulated in the GPA and without
proper planning or preparation.
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