{"id":427049,"date":"2011-05-19T19:27:11","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T19:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/19\/zimbabwe-bumped-off-regional-summit\/"},"modified":"2011-05-19T19:27:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T19:27:11","slug":"zimbabwe-bumped-off-regional-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/19\/zimbabwe-bumped-off-regional-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe Bumped Off Regional Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SW Radio Africa<\/a> (London)<\/p>\n

Alex Bell<\/p>\n

19 May 2011<\/p>\n

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Zimbabwe will not feature on the agenda of this weekend’s summit of Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders, after South African officials finally confirmed that President Jacob Zuma would not be attending the meeting.<\/p>\n

The Summit officially gets underway in Namibia on Friday, and the Zimbabwe crisis was meant to be high on the agenda of talks. But Zuma’s absence, because of ‘conflicting commitments’, means the matter cannot be properly dealt with, as he is the regional mediator in the ongoing political crisis. This is the official stance taken by SADC.<\/p>\n

But observers have expressed concern that the regional bloc is delaying dealing with a matter that holds such importance for the credibility of the region. SADC has repeatedly put off dealing with the Zim crisis, despite being the guarantor of the unity deal that ZANU PF has refused to implement. The regional bloc is now facing intense pressure to finally prove its commitment to democracy by endorsing a plan for Zimbabwe that includes a roadmap towards free, fair and credible elections.<\/p>\n

The roadmap was listed as crucial for ending the current political impasse, by a SADC Troika summit in March. That Summit also clearly stated that the Global Political Agreement (GPA) was not being implemented, in a veiled and surprise criticism of ZANU PF. It was hoped that this strong criticism and apparent new, tough stance on Zimbabwe, would be endorsed by the Summit of leaders this weekend.<\/p>\n

The matter is now only set to be dealt with at a special meeting in June, although the date is yet to be confirmed. There is speculation that meeting could be put off to as late as 20th June.<\/p>\n

Political analyst Professor John Makumbe told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that this delay is very “unfortunate,” because Zimbabweans desperately want some kind of direction or confirmation about when elections will be.<\/p>\n

“The Zimbabwe situation has always been largely trivialised and given a low priority,” Makumbe said, adding: “It is unfortunate that the region is once again back to its old format of viewing the Zimbabwe crisis as not being a crisis.”<\/p>\n

But Makumbe said the delay, if anything, will give the MDC time to put the record straight with SADC, on the back of a regional offensive launched by ZANU PF. Mugabe’s party has sent envoys across the region, trying to drum up support for elections this year. Presidential spokesman George Charamba meanwhile said this regional offensive was to ‘correct’ the misinformation supplied by the MDC, about the current situation in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

“This delay is a godsend for the MDC, because they now have the time to do a serious job of correcting what ZANU PF will have been saying to SADC. They can put together proper dossiers of the situation, and clearly show that elections cannot be held this year,” Makumbe said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Continued here:
\nZimbabwe Bumped Off Regional Summit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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