SADC and the spectre of more Zim refugees

EDITORIAL | Wednesday July 10, 2013 00:00

The appeal was issued when SADC met in a summit at the Mozambican capital, Maputo, a few days after Mugabe and his ZANU-PF unilaterally announced the election date, much to the chagrin of Mugabe's partner in the star-crossed Government of National Unity (GNU) and political nemesis, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), that immediately rejected the date.

The SADC appeal was premised on the aging dictator Mugabe's argument that selection of the date was based on an order of Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court that elections be held by end of July and Tsvangirai's cogent rebuttal that the date was too soon to allow for media and security reforms necessary for a free and fair poll.

Hence the wording of the SADC communique in this fashion: 'What the summit recommended was, in recognising that there was a need for more time, that the Government of Zimbabwe engage the Constitutional Court to ask for more time beyond the deadline of July 31.'

The regional bloc was prompted by fears that with much at stake in southern Africa's last pariah state, 'hurrying' the poll could result in a disputed result and violence. In 2008, hundreds of Zimbabweans, almost all exclusively MDC Tsvangirai supporters, were beaten and killed, creating an exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries.

Eighty-nine-year-old Mugabe and 61-year-old Tsvangirai were forced into a shaky power-sharing government four years ago after a bloody presidential run-off poll that Tsvangirai had boycotted on the grounds of violence against his supporters. New elections were to be held 18 months after the formation of the GNU in 2009, but were delayed by frequent disagreements among the parties over reforms to pave way for free and fair polls.

Reforms, especially those aimed at creating a new media and security climate favourable for free and fair elections, are as absent today as then. Understandably, the region is in the grips of fears that Mugabe will launch a brutal campaign against his opponents and their followers because the erstwhile liberation stalwart has long degenerated into an incorrigible dictator and an accomplished human rights violator.

In the absence of reforms, there is no reason to believe that he will surrender power in the highly likely event of defeat. Once again, the SADC region is faced with the prospect of a repeat of the 2008 election bloodbath in Zimbabwe whose neighbours must brace themselves for another tidal wave of refugees. Yet Botswana and SADC countries will have only themselves to blame for pussyfooting with - even mollycoddling - Mugabe for reasons that fly in the face of logic.

                                                             Today's thought'We are not happy with the way the electoral playing field has been organised...  This is not going to be a free and fair election.'

                                                         - Morgan Tsvangirai