SADC leaders snub Bot50 party
Tefo Pheage | Tuesday October 4, 2016 18:00
While the event attracted high-ranking dignitaries from the United States and Britain, Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders were nowhere to be seen at the country’s highly publicised event.
For a highly decorated country with a lot of enviable titles, among them the Africa’s diamond nation and shining example of democracy, expectations were that African statesmen, especially from SADC would descend on Gaborone en-masse in honour of Botswana’s enviable track record. However, that was not the case and the Presidents decided to stay home with some mysteriously withdrawing at the 11th hour, among them Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Sources say the no-show by the Presidents came as a shock to the government, although no one is ready to confirm that.
“We were expecting eight from SADC but others cancelled at the last minute. What we can say is that it is normal for statesmen to be held up. We need not to politicise the issue,” minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi said yesterday in a brief interview with Mmegi.
Venson-Moitoi said it was normal of Presidents to delegate, choosing to say we find nothing wrong with it.
Venson-Moitoi, who has been nominated by SADC member states for the position of African Union Commission to be contested for in January, declined to make comments on Mugabe saga. In the last two weeks, the Zimbabwean government through a government-controlled daily newspaper, had been calling on Botswana government to clarify their position on Mugabe.
“We thus call on our brothers and sisters in Gaborone to set the record straight,” the paper said. Last week, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation, Gaeimelwe Goitsemang, told Mmegi that the invite was extended to every statesman in the region, but declined to share the details of those who had already confirmed citing security reasons.
The Ministry’s protocol office later changed their statement to say that they do not have any information on the invited Presidents. All eyes were focused on how Mugabe will react to the invitation following an interview in which Khama had called on him to step down citing his old age and protracted rule of the crumbling Zimbabwean economy.
The Zimbabwean government spokesperson, George Charamba and his boss, Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi could not be of any assistance to enquiries on Mugabe’s non- attendance.
Khama has been a critical and lone ranger in the region, defying the adopted ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ diplomacy adopted by his peers on each other.
Another hot potato has been Khama’s non-attendance of regional and international summits, which Khama has always dismissed mere talk shops.