Zimbabwe: SADC´s sad failure

At the time of writing these few words, there are still conflicting reports on whether a SADC Summit held in Pretoria has finally managed to broker a deal on power-sharing in Zimbabwe. I have just landed from South Africa myself, even though I was not involved in this meeting or issue at all.

South Africa´s President Motlanthe has announced that the leader of the Opposition Morgan Tsvangirai, will be sworn in as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on February 11th.

Tsvangirai himself has, however, denied the agreement and criticized the outcome of the Summit.

In any case, why would someone who has won the elections, ( Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the fairest of the polls held in that country last March) and who has the majority in Parliament, be still called the leader of the Opposition? 

This just shows what countries in Southern Africa really think of democracy and “ one man, one vote”.

African leaders should once and for all abandon the idea that in order to lead a country you have to have had direct involvement in the “ liberation struggle”. If the people choose another way, it seems they believe it is easier to simply ignore the results of the vote, and go on with business as usual.

The problem in Zimbabwe is that this means death to some people, be it through political violence and repression or disease. This attitude is costing human lives and suffering.  Not that SADC leaders seem to care that much. And what makes things worse is that these same leaders have several millions of their own Nationals living in Zimbabwe and therefore suffering along the Zimbabweans who still remain in their country.