Canada has quit the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), saying the appointment of Robert Mugabe as “a special tourism ambassador” is just not kosher.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird, is quoted as saying that “Mugabe’s appointment as international tourism ambassador symbolised what was wrong with the UN.
Calling the move outrageous, Baird announced that Canada would be withdrawing from the tourism office next month.
Mugabe and Zambia’s President Michael Sata signed an agreement to co-host the UNWTO General Assembly in August 2013 in Victoria Falls and Livingstone and, on Tuesday, the UN body endorsed the two men as tourism ambassadors.
“The continued rewards the UN bestows upon the world’s dictators has reached the point of absurdity,” said United States House Foreign Affairs chairwoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. “An organisation devoted to world peace and stability is propping up and aiding the very regimes that oppose such ideals.”
What makes this whole thing all the more ridiculous is that Mugabe is currently under US and European Union travel bans for human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and cannot travel.
Ah, this world!
Meanwhile, SADC is once again meeting over endless issues bedevilling the region, issues that SADC has always failed to deal with.
Once again, Zimbabwe will grudgingly be the centre of attention.
Zimbabwe has presented SADC with its biggest failure since the grouping was born and here is another opportunity for SADC to justify its existence.
It is time to get tough with Robert Mugabe; it is time to get control of the situation and, as a regional block, make it clear to Mugabe to stop the nonsense and toe the line as prescribed by its neighbours.
For a long time now the world and SADC have been very patient with Mugabe.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change, along with the people of Zimbabwe, have shown a great deal of patience and restraint.
We commend them.
But patience can only be taken so far. Time of turning the other cheek is gone.
SADC must take a stand and never retreat.
Mugabe continues to frustrate the writing of a new constitution and tried to get the nod from some fellow SADC leaders to hold elections this year, with or without a new constitution.
On Friday a SADC meeting in Luanda, Angola, blocked Mugabe’s push for elections without reforms.
Mugabe has been calling for elections before implementing SADC reforms as agreed to in the so-called Global Political Agreement.
Only last week did Mugabe dispatch high-powered delegations to several SADC capitals to drum up support for elections in Zimbabwe this year.
But, thankfully, the regional leaders meeting in Luanda on Friday ruled out the holding of elections this year, especially before reforms are made.
The leaders also took the opportunity to discuss heightening tensions in Zimbabwe and focused on the next steps Zimbabwe should take before elections can be held.
It is my hope that for once, SADC will be emphatic and resilient and push for the necessary changes and safeguards before any elections can be held.
It is important for SADC to close all loopholes and make its position clear.
Elections under prevailing conditions will perpetuate the problem in Zimbabwe and give Mugabe and his people another free reign to abuse the people.
The world cannot continue babysitting an unthankful tyrant who has lost all sense of responsibility and who is pushing the entire region to the brink.
Violence must, of necessity, end and the writing of a new constitution must be completed.
Indeed, as Mugabe was packing his bags for the Luanda SADC meeting, a ward official of Tsvangirai’s party was murdered and scores were attacked after Mugabe’s followers tried to stop an MDC rally. And legislators are challenging Mugabe to arrest the murderers.
The man seems to do as he pleases with people’s lives and SADC must back up their rhetoric with a bit of muscle and make Mugabe toe the line.
SADC must now show that it has come of age and solve this problem for the region, once and for all.
SADC can no longer afford to let Mugabe retard the progress of democracy in southern Africa.
SADC’s goal “is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states”.
Is it succeeding on any of these goals?
SADC is faced with a plethora of ills yet I still have to come across one SADC country that can stand up and thank SADC for anything at all.
This is the time for SADC to rescue its tattered image.
I am not the only one who does not put much hope on anything that SADC says but I have no choice but hope for the best.
They have talked tough before only to fizzle out and leave Mugabe to do as he pleases.
My fear is that SADC never enforces its own resolutions.
At the infamous SADC Troika meeting in Zambia, the Summit “noted with grave concern the polarisation of the political environment as characterized by, inter alia, resurgence of violence, arrest and intimidation in Zimbabwe”.
“There must be an immediate end of violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of the unity accord,” the SADC Troika statement said.
Unfortunately, not only that nothing has changed but, in fact, the situation has gotten worse.
SADC must come out of hibernation and start imposing the implementation of its own resolutions.
SADC cannot continue failing to enforce its own regulations and just continue to issue communiqu├® after communiqu├®.
The organisation does not have punitive measures to apply on member states who do not implement SADC resolutions or directives.
That must be corrected.
The Luanda Summit must be a road marker where things changed and where SADC reinvented itself and spoke with one voice.
They have made a decision and they must police it together to make sure that the decisions by the regional leaders are upheld.
We look at SADC as the common denominator among the countries of our region; an organisation that promotes peace and security in our region.
We are all waiting to see SADC meeting its mandates and SADC must thank Zimbabwe for giving it the opportunity to show muscle and seriousness.
We, in Zimbabwe and, indeed in Africa, have suffered enough and we look to such organisations to help us emerge from the devastating treatment meted out on us by our governments who are members of SADC.
SADC must act on its own declarations, implement its own resolutions and rein in its errant member states.
We are tired of expecting things that don’t happen; we are tired of having our hopes quashed; we are tired of burying our dead while SADC watches.
Hopefully, SADC came of age in Luanda this week.
