Zimbabwe crisis: Kicking the can down the road :: Mmegi Online

With his one-year tenure as SADC chair a few weeks away from ending, President Ian Khama leaves as fresh unrest stirs in Zimbabwe. Before Khama, Robert Mugabe was chair and after Khama, King Mswati III comes in. As Staff Writer, BAME PIET observes, there have been few windows of opportunities to tackle the Zimbabwe crisis

The last time the long-running Zimbabwe crisis came up as an agenda item before SADC was in 2013 when the troubled nation held a highly disputed election, which Mugabe “coasted” to victory in.

Voters’ roll irregularities, intimidation by state agents and claims of outright electoral fraud against Mugabe were made, but SADC and Africa in general declared the elections free, peaceful and fair. Only Botswana expressed its reservations, again swimming against the tide as it has frequently done in its relations with Zimbabwe.

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