By James Gwati-The recently concluded Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Harare sidestepped the issue of electoral fraud perpetrated by Zanu PF leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa during the August 2023 elections.

However, the summit did confirm the SADC Election Observer Mission’s report, which condemned the rigged election.

As Mnangagwa assumed the SADC chairmanship from Angola at the summit, he failed in his bid to persuade the regional bloc to retract the observer mission’s report, which had previously been endorsed by an extraordinary summit in Angola and a special ministerial meeting in Zambia.

The report, unprecedented in its rejection of Mnangagwa’s re-election as flawed, disputed, and fraudulent, remains the official stance of the regional body.

The summit’s silence on the disputed election effectively means that the SADC report remains the definitive record of how the regional body viewed the 2023 polls.

The opposition had hoped the summit would address the contentious election results.

Notably, the 2023 elections were condemned not just by SADC but by all regional and international observer missions that were invited to monitor the process.

Adding weight to Mnangagwa’s perceived illegitimacy, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema did not attend the Harare summit in person, opting to participate virtually in protest.

Hichilema, who oversaw the SADC Election Observer Mission as the chairperson of the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence, and Security, affirmed that elections in various SADC member states during his tenure were “reasonably peaceful.”

However, he made no move to retract the official report of the observer mission, which former Zambian Vice President Nevers Mumba had led in Zimbabwe.