Opinion / Columnist
'Zimbabwe is a sovereign country' SADC tell MDC - many became failed states too
03 Dec 2018 at 06:55hrs | Views
"SADC Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax has advised the opposition MDC Alliance that President Emmerson Mnangagwa's legitimacy is indisputable, underscoring that the regional bloc is preparing for Zimbabwe's Head of State and Government to take over as Chair of its influential Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation," reported Zimpaper.
"In terms of the petition, I have not received the petition. What should be recognised is that Zimbabwe is a sovereign country, Zimbabwe has a Constitution and Zimbabwe is guided by a number of legislations. Our advice is that let those be observed, elections took place, elections were contested, the Constitutional Court also judged. So all those were processes and instruments to ensure that there is democracy," said Dr Tax.
No one should be surprised with the dismissal of the MDC Alliance's petition for one very good reasons: SADC gave MDC leaders the chance to implement the same democratic reforms Chamisa is now saying he wants to implement. MDC had five years to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not even one!
Still, not even one SADC leader out there will deny that Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections and, more urgently, none of them can deny that the rigged elections has brought Zimbabwe ever closer to the dreaded failed state and political and economic chaos.
An upheaval in Zimbabwe will spill over into other countries in the region and beyond. This is a political reality every SADC leader has been warned of and must now accept.
Other than accepting MDC's petition, is there anything else SADC can do?
There is no doubt that SADC's decision to accept the election results was born out of the regional leaders' disappointment with MDC leaders' past performance. This was a big mistake on the part of SADC leaders because they boxed themselves into accepting Mnangagwa as legitimate when we all know he rigged the elections.
What SADC leaders should have done is judge the elections purely on the basis of the evidence and ignore MDC's antics. This is what the EU, the Americans and all the other nations and organisation who observed the recent elections did.
What SADC leaders can do now is use the report of the other nation condemning the elections as having failed to meet international standards and the worsen economic situation in Zimbabwe to put pressure on President Mnangagwa to accept the need for meaningful political change in Zimbabwe. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is so bad doing nothing is a luxury SADC leaders do not have.
With unemployment now a nauseating 90%, all the basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapsed, the economy in turmoil because of shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel, medicine, etc.; there is no doubt that Zimbabwe is on the edge of the precipice.
"Zimbabwe is a sovereign country!" Sure, but so too is Libya, Somalia, Sudan, DRC, etc. but clearly that was not enough to stop these country sliding into political and economic chaos and dragging other nation along with them!
"In terms of the petition, I have not received the petition. What should be recognised is that Zimbabwe is a sovereign country, Zimbabwe has a Constitution and Zimbabwe is guided by a number of legislations. Our advice is that let those be observed, elections took place, elections were contested, the Constitutional Court also judged. So all those were processes and instruments to ensure that there is democracy," said Dr Tax.
No one should be surprised with the dismissal of the MDC Alliance's petition for one very good reasons: SADC gave MDC leaders the chance to implement the same democratic reforms Chamisa is now saying he wants to implement. MDC had five years to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not even one!
Still, not even one SADC leader out there will deny that Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections and, more urgently, none of them can deny that the rigged elections has brought Zimbabwe ever closer to the dreaded failed state and political and economic chaos.
An upheaval in Zimbabwe will spill over into other countries in the region and beyond. This is a political reality every SADC leader has been warned of and must now accept.
Other than accepting MDC's petition, is there anything else SADC can do?
There is no doubt that SADC's decision to accept the election results was born out of the regional leaders' disappointment with MDC leaders' past performance. This was a big mistake on the part of SADC leaders because they boxed themselves into accepting Mnangagwa as legitimate when we all know he rigged the elections.
What SADC leaders should have done is judge the elections purely on the basis of the evidence and ignore MDC's antics. This is what the EU, the Americans and all the other nations and organisation who observed the recent elections did.
What SADC leaders can do now is use the report of the other nation condemning the elections as having failed to meet international standards and the worsen economic situation in Zimbabwe to put pressure on President Mnangagwa to accept the need for meaningful political change in Zimbabwe. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is so bad doing nothing is a luxury SADC leaders do not have.
With unemployment now a nauseating 90%, all the basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapsed, the economy in turmoil because of shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel, medicine, etc.; there is no doubt that Zimbabwe is on the edge of the precipice.
"Zimbabwe is a sovereign country!" Sure, but so too is Libya, Somalia, Sudan, DRC, etc. but clearly that was not enough to stop these country sliding into political and economic chaos and dragging other nation along with them!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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