As people were still voting, SADC gave the elections the thumbs up, saying the elections were free and peaceful.
Not long after, South African President Jacob Zuma immediately sent a congratulatory message to Robert Mugabe on his “re-election” before the whole process had been completed.
With these hurried pronouncements and against acceptable protocol, South Africa and SADC practically and literally declared the Zimbabwe elections over before all was done; they were in a hurry to rid themselves of the Zimbabwean issue.
Zuma extended his “profound congratulations” to Mugabe on his re-election “following the successful harmonised elections”.
But the most disgusting statement came from Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete who surpassed himself and oozed verbal effluent in praise of Mugabe.
Kikwete, who is the SADC Chairperson of the so-called Defence, Politics and Security, proved beyond doubt that some African leaders are a joke of tragic and dreadful proportions.
“Under your able leadership, Zimbabwe has recorded tremendous socio-economic developments, despite some challenges,” said Kikwete. “Thus, we look forward for greater progress and prosperity for the people of Zimbabwe as well as your continued invaluable contribution to our region and the continent through the Southern African Development Community and the African Union.”
Is Kikwete sure that under Mugabe’s “able leadership” Zimbabwe recorded “tremendous socio-economic developments”?
Despite the fact that SADC leaders are privately weary and fed up with Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s issue, Kikwete is looking forward to Mugabe’s “continued invaluable contribution to our region and the continent”.
I wish I knew what these invaluable contributions to the region and Africa were because Zimbabwe, sure as mud is mud, does not have such evidence except for a myriad of graves scattered around the country – all being blamed on this man of “able leadership” and his party.
In August 2004, in Mauritius, all SADC states became signatories to HYPERLINK “http://www.idea.int/africa/southern/upload/The-SADC-Principles-and-Guidelines-Governing-Democratic-Elections.pdf” \t “_blank” the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
To date, SADC has never found anything wrong with any of the elections held in the region since then.
By jumping the gun and making reckless statements before the official conclusion of the election process, Zuma and SADC denied the courts of Zimbabwe a chance to make a decision on the matter.
Be that as it may, looking at Zimbabwe, the first principle in Section 2.1.1 of the Guidelines requires “Full participation of the citizens in the political process”.
As we know, there was no full participation of Zimbabweans in the whole process because of intimidation, violence and denial of information.
The second principle in Section 2.1.2 calls for “Freedom of association” and, again, we all know that Zimbabweans had no such luxury as rallies were denied, people dispersed and permits to congregate turned down. How many times were opposition parties denied rallies?
Principle Number Three talks about “Political tolerance” and there are fewer countries in Africa that can beat Mugabe and ZANU-PF’s political intolerance.
I think, though, Zimbabwe passes the fourth principle, Section 2.1.4, which calls for “Regular intervals for elections”. The only problem is that ours are not elections at all as the one recently held indicates. Even then, there are times when we have to approach the courts to have elections held.
“Equal opportunity for all political parties to access the state media” is SADC’s fifth principle and I shall not bother to comment on that.
With the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission itself announcing that more than 300┬á000 people were turned away from polling stations and many denied the chance to run for office, Zimbabwe does not come close to meeting the requirements of SADC’s sixth principle which calls for “Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for”.
The seventh principle (2.1.7) requires the Independence of the Judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions.
Our judiciary has been a joke for years since ZANU-PF zealot and chief farm invader Joseph Chinotimba, a Harare City Council driver and now MP elect, started intimidating judges by peeping through court windows while wearing his grass hat.
Additionally, the behaviour of both the ZEC and Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar general, condemn us into failure on this principle.
Section 2.1.8, the eighth principle, seeks to promote Voter education.
The Zimbabwe National Army ensured that such never took place, with Mugabe using illiterate traditional chiefs to impart voter education.
We have failed again on principle Number 9 (2.1.9), which urges for the “Acceptance and respect of the election results by political parties proclaimed to have been free and fair by the competent National Electoral Authorities in accordance with the law of the land”.
It did not happen and because of this non-acceptance of results, the last SADC principle allows us to “Challenge the election results as provided for in the law of the land” (2.1.10), which, again, we are failing at because ZEC will not release the documents that those aggrieved need to use in their court challenge, while the judges use delaying tactics to frustrate the process.
The heart of the matter is that SADC has failed to be an honest peace broker in the region.
SADC has failed to exist for the benefit of SADC citizens; the organisation has failed to protect its own mission or to be a sincere arbitrator when a member state is at loggerheads with another or when citizens of a member state are at loggerheads with their government.
I have never been able to establish the true worth of SADC or how member countries benefit from its expensive existence.
I still seek a single member SADC country that can stand up and itemise for us why it thanks SADC for having done 1, 2 or 3 for it.
Why are SADC’s successes such heavily guarded secrets? Oh, WikiLeaks, where are you?
Why are we spending so much money on an organisation that cannot itself justify its own existence?
Kikwete said that Mugabe has done so much for the region and for the continent. Why can’t Kikwete itemise for us what any African leader, including himself, has done for Africa?
I wish, then, that this Mugabe dude would carry out his threat and take Zimbabwe out of SADC because SADC is pulling not only Zimbabwe but the region backwards; and so is this AU.
If we are to judge Zimbabwe’s last election using SADC’s own guidelines, Zimbabwe, meets 1 out of ┬áthe 10 principles that all these leaders are signatory to.
But SADC expressed satisfaction with the elections, saying that the elections were peaceful, credible and efficient. SADC side-stepped its own requirements which, instead, simply called for free and fair elections…to hell with efficiency!
Zimbabwe’s recent elections even failed to meet the requirements of what to do when elections are in dispute because SADC, the arbitrator, itself took sides long before the process was even complete.
SADC, the AU and election observers possess no punitive measures to deal with errant states.
People around the world are at the mercy of their governments; we are all at the mercy of those who are not part of us.
Over this past week, war-weary residents of Goma in the DR Congo staged demonstrations in protest, demanding that the United Nations Peace Keeping Force leaves because, they said, the UN has been there for almost 20 years but nothing has changed.
Disband SADC and kill the African Union; they are retarding Africa’s progress.
Africa needs to move forward.
