28th AU Summit: SADC sabotages Venson-Moitoi
Staff Writer | Tuesday January 31, 2017 18:00
Last July, Venson-Moitoi emerged with the highest number of votes after the second round, but failed to secure the chair as she fell short of the required number.
In August in Swaziland all 15 states pledged to vote for Venson-Moitoi but an analysis of yesterday’s results shows that only ten SADC states supported Venson-Moitoi in the first round, before two more pulled out in the second round.
While analysts pointed out that five of the 15 SADC member states - Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tanzania - belong to other regions of the AU, these all supported Venson-Moitoi in July 2016.
Sources in Addis Ababa said suspicions were swirling around South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia as being among possible saboteurs.
Tanzania reportedly made no secret of its plans to vote for the Kenyan candidate, as part of the East African Community.
“(SA president Jacob) Zuma was actually leading Venson-Moitoi’s team, but there’s talk that SA didn’t vote for her. The region clearly abandoned her and the issue they have is Botswana’s unpopular stance on continental affairs,” a mid-level official told Mmegi from Addis Ababa.
Chad’s candidate, Moussa Faki Mahamat was eventually elected chairperson, after seven rounds of votes in a battle against the Kenyan candidate.
Yesterday evening, Venson-Moitoi took to Twitter to thank Batswana for their support and to congratulate Mahamat.