If Sadc can go the senseless megaphone way, which former President Thabo Mbeki providentially rejected to come up with the GPA, and be influenced by what it hears from noisy western-funded media and civic oorganisations, its rashness could prove fatal.
By Tichaona Zindoga
Looking at the aftermath of two Sadc extraordinary summits on Zimbabwe and Madagascar held over the last three months, it would seem that something really extraordinary is coming out of the routine regional meetings on the so-called hotspots of Southern Africa.
This has little to do with the content of the discussions per se, but the crescendo of interest that these summits have attracted.
Zimbabwe, in particular, has drawn immense interest, much of it unhealthy, as to cloud whatever relates to its Indian Ocean counterpart where a legitimate government was overthrown in a coup in 2009.
For the record, Zimbabwe has been an item on regional discussions since 2007 when regional leaders set out to mediate between Zimbabwe’s main political parties, Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations.
This led to the Constitutional Amendment Number 18; the March 2008 harmonised elections and the September 15, 2008 the Global Political Agreement that bore the current inclusive Government in February 2009.
That the inclusive Government is an uneasy arrangement is a matter of public record and the two protagonists, President Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC-T have stated this.
Yet they have committed themselves to working together for the betterment of the people of Zimbabwe, if not waiting for another chance to go at each other again.
This arrangement has wobbled on, sometimes feared to teeter on the brink of collapse, but gone on to see another day.
The region, through mediator South Africa, has been seized with the Zimbabwe issue through meetings occasioned by the bigger mandate of facilitation and other matters incidental to the uneasy subsistence of the inclusive Government.
But an uneasy air hangs over the region since March 31 when in Livingstone, Zambia, the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security torched a storm by producing a one-sided report based on the submissions of MDC-T.
The Livingstone meeting has gained notoriety and controversy through its procedural treatment of the Zimbabwe situation and its tackling of niggling areas such as political violence and electoral roadmap.
Then there was the resolution to send an oversight team to ostensibly help oversee implementation of the GPA.
While Livingstone outraged quarters that would have wanted sobriety, procedural, political and historical correctness, it became an instant hit with Western capitals and their local allies.
Britain for example only days later pledged to bankroll its election roadmap aspect, raising questions on its keenness to do so in a GPA process that it was not happy with in the first instance.
Even then, its interest could only mean Britain had seen a window of opportunity to have a go at its old enemy Zanu-PF which has continued to have the better of the Western-funded MDCs.
This could be heard in the loud cheers of the MDC formations and their mutual beneficiaries of western patronage and funding in the civil society.
An extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe in Windhoek failed to take place owing to President Jacob Zuma’s absence due to his commitments at home.
But it did not go without heavy jockeying for the entrenchment of Livingstone as civic groups made a beehive to the Namibian capital, amid similar pressures from Western-driven media.
Sandton gave a heightened pitch to what has become a very worrying trajectory.
In essence, witness the semantic wars over the wording of the outcome of the summit, which has been the talking point of the meeting, Sadc has lacked clarity on Zimbabwe.
Or if it indeed has been clear, it has not plugged any loopholes that can be exploited to cause confusion.
(Upon return from Sandton, President mentioned that the facilitator’s report in Livingstone had been ‘innocent’)
Lack of clarity has allowed pitched battles in Zimbabwe’s polarised environment as to what Sadc true position on the country is.
Megaphone diplomacy has become the order of the day.
President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF say Livingstone is dead.
Opponents of Zanu-PF and President Mugabe are screaming at the top of their voices that Livingstone has been adopted.
It does not matter that Sadc chair, Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, has said that the errors that typified Livingstone should not be repeated.
Lindiwe Zulu, President Jacob Zuma’s international relations advisor, says: “Whether you use ‘noted’ or ‘endorsed’, it means the same.
“As far as the summit is concerned, the Troika report presented in Zambia by Zuma has now been fully endorsed by Sadc.”
For her part, Lindiwe Zulu is controversial enough, having been seen to appear partial to the MDC formations.
She has even described Zanu-PF demands for an election as daydreaming.
The situation is untenable.
Not only is truth being a casualty here.
The uncertainty that has been brought about by lack thereof is unhealthy and polarising.
It therefore requires that Zimbabwe’s issue be brought back to the ground.
While the jockeying by MDCs and their allies could be forgiven as these seek to influence the affairs of the region, Sadc leaders cannot afford to play to the gallery or sleep on duty.
The impetuousness that has been shown by Lindiwe Zulu does not inspire confidence that Zimbabwe’s case is being held with the sobriety it deserves.
Considering the fact that she was once South African envoy to Brussels, the seat of a European Union that has declared that it wishes to use South Africa in its wars against Zimbabwe, Zulu could better be more diplomatic in her handling of Zimbabwe.
Observers have pointed out that the fact that Zimbabwe is increasingly overshadowing Madagascar lies in the mediation style in the two countries.
The Sadc of Frontline States pedigree should know that something is going wrong when it starts to receive all manner of plaudits from quarters that are opposed to revolutionary ideals.
In the same vein, President Jacob Zuma, as extending from his main (wo)man Zulu, should not lose way from revolutionary sensibility in the swelter of jockeying by the West and its allies.
For it is known that the west is waiting on the wings for a “North African window”.
If Sadc can go the senseless megaphone way, which former President Thabo Mbeki providentially rejected to come up with the GPA, and be influenced by what it hears from noisy western-funded media and civic oorganisations, its rashness could prove fatal.
The blunder-and-regret-later approach like what African leaders have seen in Libya cannot be tolerated.
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