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Sadc needs to show real leadership
Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa has a called an emergency meeting to discuss the Zimbabwe election crisis and I hope that this time the Sadc meeting will come with some meaningful results.
Although Sadc managed to get changes made to the Electoral Act in Zimbabwe through Thabo Mbeki's mediation process, I still think that for a long time Sadc has stood and watched as events in Zimbabwe deteriorated.
I wonder why the situation is allowed to deteriorate to such an extent before somebody acts.
Sadc should serve the interests of the people but right now it appears to only serve the interests of the leaders.
This time the situation has got worse with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) not releasing the presidential election results nearly two weeks after the election and for no apparent reason and I am keen to see what Sadc will do.
If Sadc withdraws their support for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe that will be a good step but I doubt that Sadc will do that.
Sadc should demand that the results be released and immediately and I think anything short of that will be a failure.
Its interesting to see that the Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete is also the current Chairperson of the African Union which has been very silent on this issue and maybe its not surprising why because he seems to have so much respect for Mugabe.
The issue of the release of the election results has been dragging for a long time now and I wonder under what conditions the results will be finally be released.
This is a very bizarre situation which I hope will never be repeated anywhere as it creates unnecessary tension among the electorate and moreso when the results are not surprising to anyone.
Its good to see that the Zimbabweans have been very patient so far and I hope they continue to be because at one point the results will be released and if a run-off is called for chances of Morgan Tsvangirai winning will have increased so much.
How many times have we heard about African solutions to African problems? You can interpret that to mean whatever you want but in some cases I think it means just look the other side. However, in Kenya some solution seems to have been reached but I think election losers should not be allowed to stay in power through govts of national unity because when will that cycle be broken. People should be able accept defeat and let others have a turn and cannot just rule forever. To me thats the problem in Zim - some people never saw themselves out of power even when they were killing the economy they still believe theirs is the right to rule for as long as they want. To me that is the root problem and that should be stamped out outright.
Yes Justin, the African solution this time must be an easy one and that is to say that those who lost elections must peacefully leave power. That will be good for the rest of the region if people can learn to know that when you lose an election you make way for others and you can always come back in power if you re-organise yourself. That happened in Zambia when Kaunda lost to Chiluba and the same should happen in Zim, I think.
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You did not mention it in your post but it is being reported that Mugabe will attend this meeting. I wonder in what capacity and his presence may mean his Sadc colleagues will just listen to his side of the story and give him a sympathetic ear when in my opinion he doesn't deserve it.
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