Independent

OPPOSITION MDC Alliance (MDC-A) president Nelson Chamisa has expressed hope that the new SADC Chairperson on the Organ for Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation will take time to attend to the issues affecting Zimbabwe.

In an exclusive interview with the Zimbabwe Independent this week, Chamisa said that it would have been “expecting too much” for Mnangagwa, who was the chairperson of the Sadc Organ for Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation until this week, to have put himself on the Sadc summit agenda.

“Now that Mr Mnangagwa is no longer the chairperson of the Organ on Security and Defence, we remain hopeful that the new chairperson will consider the plight of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe and take active steps, as he is required by the Sadc Treaty and Protocols, and become seized with the fast deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe,” Chamisa said.

Despite the mounting pressure, Sadc — at its annual Heads of States and Government summit on Monday — did not include the Zimbabwean crisis on the agenda, resulting in sharp criticism by civil society organisations and a cross-section of Zimbabweans.

In fact, a communiqué issued by the Sadc secretariat at the end of the meeting extolled President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s virtues for “his sterling efforts” in ensuring peace and stability in the region and spoke of the need for Sadc member states to unite against external enemies, language synonymous with Harare’s official position.

“Although Zimbabwe was not included in the communiqué, it remains uncontested that the unfolding events in Zimbabwe were discussed. We know from past experiences that the communiqué does not often contain all matters discussed. Be that as it may, we remain convinced that Sadc plays a significant role in addressing the Zimbabwean crisis,” Chamisa said.

“No sane or rational citizen can argue that the current state of affairs in the country is not a threat to the security and peace of the people of Zimbabwe if not that of the Sadc region. The political situation in Zimbabwe constitutes a clear and present danger not just to the security and peace of the people of Zimbabwe, but also to the region’s peace and security,” Chamisa pointed out.

He said an economically and politically burning Zimbabwe sets ablaze its neighbours with its smoke choking the entire Sadc region, adding that his party would continue “to exhort and urge Sadc to be truly a southern African people’s union and not a trade union of leaders’ blind solidarity”.

The Zanu PF government accuses outside forces of interfering in Zimbabwe’s sovereignty, working in cohorts with alleged local partners.

But Chamisa said the concept of interference in the internal affairs of a country was an “archaic and old-fashioned concept” which had no place in the modern world in which nations or parties to various international treaties on various forms of human rights.

“It is the favourite shield of dictators desirous of being left to murder, abduct, abuse, wrongfully imprison and generally violate the human rights of citizens,” he said.

“In our view, the international community has set up adequate international mechanisms to intervene in situations which threaten not just regional and international security and peace, but also internal security and peace. We need to go further than Sadc Treaty and Protocols to realise that the bloc has a right, in fact an obligation, to intervene in Zimbabwe when the internal situation in the country is deemed to constitute a threat to the security and peace of the region.”