“SADC Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax has advised the opposition MDC Alliance that President Emmerson Mnangagwa's legitimacy is indisputable, underscoring that the regional bloc is preparing for Zimbabwe's Head of State and Government to take over as Chair of its influential Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation,” reported Zimpaper.
"In terms of the petition, I have not received the petition. What should be recognised is that Zimbabwe is a sovereign country, Zimbabwe has a Constitution and Zimbabwe is guided by a number of legislations. Our advice is that let those be observed, elections took place, elections were contested, the Constitutional Court also judged. So all those were processes and instruments to ensure that there is democracy," said Dr Tax.
No one should be surprised with the dismissal of the MDC Alliance’s petition for one very good reasons: SADC gave MDC leaders the chance to implement the same democratic reforms Chamisa is now saying he wants to implement. MDC had five years to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not even one!
Still, not even one SADC leader out there will deny that Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections and, more urgently, none of them can deny that the rigged elections has brought Zimbabwe ever closer to the dreaded failed state and political and economic chaos.
An upheaval in Zimbabwe will spill over into other countries in the region and beyond. This is a political reality every SADC leader has been warned of and must now accept.
Other than accepting MDC’s petition, is there anything else SADC can do?
There is no doubt that SADC’s decision to accept the election results was born out of the regional leaders’ disappointment with MDC leaders’ past performance. This was a big mistake on the part of SADC leaders because they boxed themselves into accepting Mnangagwa as legitimate when we all know he rigged the elections.
What SADC leaders should have done is judge the elections purely on the basis of the evidence and ignore MDC’s antics. This is what the EU, the Americans and all the other nations and organisation who observed the recent elections did.
What SADC leaders can do now is use the report of the other nation condemning the elections as having failed to meet international standards and the worsen economic situation in Zimbabwe to put pressure on President Mnangagwa to accept the need for meaningful political change in Zimbabwe. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is so bad doing nothing is a luxury SADC leaders do not have.
With unemployment now a nauseating 90%, all the basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapsed, the economy in turmoil because of shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel, medicine, etc.; there is no doubt that Zimbabwe is on the edge of the precipice.
“Zimbabwe is a sovereign country!” Sure, but so too is Libya, Somalia, Sudan, DRC, etc. but clearly that was not enough to stop these country sliding into political and economic chaos and dragging other nation along with them!
6 comments:
Boy oh boy! We are in serious, serious trouble in Zimbabwe! We have buffoons in State House and parliament, buffoons in the opposition bench and now we can confirm we have buffoons in SADC too!
Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections, that is an established historic fact, and the consequences of that is Mnangagwa and his junta regime are illegitimate. Zimbabwe is sovereign country, yes; but one that, at present, happens to have an illegitimate government in power.
SADC, as the regional body, should be helping Zimbabwe end this cursed culture of rigged elections that has usurped the people's freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The sovereignty of a nation is many things and respecting the democratic will of the people is a paramount component in it.
Zimbabwe belongs to all the people of Zimbabwe and not the the few corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging ruling elite!
If SADC cannot help the people secure their right to have a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe to whom are the people going to turn? SADC should be representing the people, the ordinary people, and not the selfish interest of the ruling elite.
Marailas Mechavio
You did not call for rule of law when ZEC failed to release a verfied voters' roll although this is a legal requirement!
There three key issues here which our learned Dr Tax has clearly failed to appreciate:
1) Sovereign country is the supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed and from which all specific political powers are derived; the intentional independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign interference.
2) Zimbabwe as independent country has laws determining the powers and rights of the individuals, state institutions and how the nation should be governed. What is at issue here is that the ruling elite have usurped the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
3) SADC is the regional body with clearly defined powers to address matters of common regional interest and to have an oversight on internal matters of individual nations. SADC had an election observer team in Zimbabwe tasked to give an honest assessment on the conduct of the elections and not rubber stamp what those in power in Zimbabwe wanted it to say. The elections were rigged and for SADC to falsely endorse them as free, fair and credible under the pretext that “Zimbabwe is a sovereign country” is a nonsense.
@ Mabhena
"It boggles one's mind why should a GNU be formed when we have an elected President who was declared an outright winner with over 50 percent-plus-one of the majority vote," you say.
What boggles one's mind is why apologists like you still pretend ED is legitimate when we all know that he is illegitimate because he blatantly rigged the elections. He denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, failed to release a verified voters' roll, there were numerous errors in the vote count and not even ZEC was able to verify its own figures, etc.
Worst of all, by rigging the elections Zanu PF confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state and thus chased away the would-be investors and lenders. Zimbabwe's economy is in a comatose state, it needs a injection of foreign investment and cash to revive it. We cannot have an meaningful economic recovery as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state and we are only fooling ourselves with all this nonsense of Mnangagwa "was declared an outright winner with over 50 percent-plus-one of the majority vote". The Investors and lenders know that he did not and have long walked away with their money!
You can declare Mnangagwa legitimate from the roof top of every house that will do nothing to end the shortages of cash, forex, food, fuel, medicine, etc. Indeed, the shortages will only get worse and the economic meltdown gathers speed.
It boggles one's mind that after 38 years of rigged elections and economic ruin that anyone would still expect a pariah state to bring economic prosperity! How insane some people are!
The United Bulawayo hospitals has closed the Outpatients department due to the ongoing strike by the doctors.
Here we go!
Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections and the consequences of which are the country's worsening economic meltdown. The Zimbabwe economy has suffered because of corruption, mismanagement and lawlessness and the only effective way to address these three evils is for the country to hold free, fair and credible elections. After 38 years of rigged elections and the country sinking deeper and deeper into this economic and political hell-hole, it is insane that anyone the Mnangagwa pariah state to deliver democracy and economic recovery.
Mnangagwa is but Mugabe mark 2 and per se the country will continue to sink deeper into the hell-hole Mugabe landed us in because nothing has changed!
“You also have to understand that Zimbabwe is our Incoming Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security. The intention is to make sure that we are doing this work together. We are looking at what are the areas that we are going to focus on and how we can work together with the Incoming Chair,” said Dr Tax.
What hope is there of any SADC nation holding free, fair and credible elections whilst Mnangagwa is chairperson of the Organ on Politics!!
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