To our recollection it has not occurred anywhere in the world that a whole nation would go out to the polls to vote and then have to spend close to two weeks without being told who the winner of the elections is.
Yet that is exactly what is playing out in Zimbabwe.
Exactly what is expected of the Zimbabwean people is no longer clear.
When everything is said and done, leaders of SADC (Southern African Development Community) will be as guilty as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for having this once prosperous country into ruins.
Just as Robert Mugabe has failed his own people by nullifying the fruits of the liberation struggle that he once led in his country so has the SADC leaders failed the Zimbabweans by steadfastly refusing to prevail on Mugabe to bring back democracy to that country.
It is difficult to see how SADC leaders could be absolved from being accomplices to the destruction and ruin that Zimbabwe has been subjected to.
For many years now, ordinary Zimbabweans have suffered humiliation as they had to leave their country to look for food, employment and even shelter outside their country.
But all that humiliation is nothing compared to what they have been treated to in the last two weeks.
Our biggest fear now is that while the people of Zimbabwe have exercised restrain, there will come a time when they will no longer be able to absorb the kind of abuse they are subjected to by the government and the Electoral Commission.
SADC leaders have a duty to ensure that what happened recently in Kenya, when an Electoral Commission failed to conduct the polls and ultimately led to untold bloodbaths, does not happen in Zimbabwe.
The situation in Zimbabwe has become tense and increasingly volatile. Chances of Zimbabwe further slipping into a civil war or a military coup are everyday becoming a reality. Yet many of the SADC leaders, especially those who have a muscle strong enough to influence events in that country like South Africa, choose not to intervene.
If things are left to slip down an abyss as it seems to be the intention of our leaders, then the whole reason better prepare for an unprecedented human catastrophe.
Having said that, we take some solace from the fact that at least there is a new crop of leaders in the SADC region, like President Ian Khama, who think its time the Zimbabwean issue is approached differently.
While in the past, circumstances made quiet diplomacy the best option as there was need to engage Robert Mugabe rather than shout at him, we think that circumstances have since moved on, especially when the Zimbabwean President could be as uncouth as to willfully deny the people of Zimbabwe the right to have a government they have chosen as theirs.
It remains our hope that the emergency Summit called by the SADC Chairman in Lusaka to discuss Zimbabwean will bear fruits for the people of Zimbabwe.
The people of Zimbabwe cannot be expected to endure more pain and humiliation than they have already done.
If SADC continues to say the Zimbabwean problem is for the Zimbabweans to solve, we urge our President Ian Khama to break ranks with other leaders and at least for the record to take sides with the Zimbabwean people who have had their will so crudely and ruthlessly thwarted.
Only a change of strategy and tactics by SADC leaders will bring back sanity to Zimbabwe and more importantly avert what by all intents and purposes is a march into darkness.
