Zimbabwe: Regional Leaders to Focus on Security Reforms

SW Radio Africa (London)

Tichaona Sibanda

8 June 2011

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa is expected to use his negotiating skills to resolve the most contentious issues still dividing ZANU PF and the MDC formations during a SADC session on Zimbabwe this Saturday.

While it is almost certain that an electoral roadmap will be endorsed on Saturday, matters surrounding security sector reform and the composition of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission still divide the warring parties.

A source who will be attending the Johannesburg meeting told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that Zuma, the SADC appointed mediator on Zimbabwe, will have to use tact to resolve the outstanding issues.

‘I can safely say the roadmap is done and will be adopted by all parties. The other issue to be worked on is the timetable of when certain things can be done,’ our source said.

He added; ‘On the contentious issues, I believe the mediator will not want to deal with these in an open forum like a SADC session. What I believe will happen is that he will invite the three principals to a private session where he will try to hammer out the differences.’

The MDC-T is adamant that security sector reform is necessary if the country is to hold an election that is free and fair. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in an article published in his official newsletter, said the army must embrace a new culture that promotes loyalty to the constitution and respect for human rights.

He said Zimbabwe’s security sector has, in the last 30 years, been turned into virtually a military wing of Mugabe’s ZANU PF, saying senior military and police personnel have bragged about their allegiance to the former ruling party, in clear breach of the security sector work ethic.

MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told us they expect SADC to come out with clear benchmarks and timelines that would lead to an uncontestable poll.

‘As a party, the Prime Minister will raise the issue of security sector reform because this group of securocrats has become a source of great insecurity when they should be source of security in Zimbabwe,’ Mwonzora said.

He added that besides the roadmap, the SADC meeting will also discuss the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Many of the issues in GPA have long been agreed upon by all the parties but Robert Mugabe has stubbornly refused to implement them.

‘If it wasn’t for Mugabe’s intransigency, we wouldn’t be at this crisis level and we definitely wouldn’t be the topic of each SADC summit in the last three years,’ the party spokesman said.

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