News / Africa
Call for Sadc to financially assist Zimbabwe
16 Aug 2014 at 15:28hrs | Views
The Sadc People's Summit kicked off at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Grounds in Bulawayo yesterday amid calls for the regional bloc to assist Zimbabwe with funds to weather the economic challenges it is facing.
In an interview on the sidelines of the summit, which is meant to discuss contentious issues facing people in the Southern region and present them to the official Sadc Heads of State Summit, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, Joy Mabenge, said there were many challenges facing people in the region that should be tackled by Sadc.
"The legitimacy (of last year's harmonised elections) issue has been partially resolved but the governance question remains, this is why the economy is not ticking, not functioning. These are issues we know Zimbabweans have to resolve. But Zimbabwe remains a country in a dire situation which also needs continued Sadc accompaniment and Sadc attention," said Mabenge.
Zimbabwe has crafted an economic blueprint, ZimAsset, meant to tackle the economic difficulties the country is facing, but its implementation has largely been plagued by lack of funding.
"You must also recall that Sadc's role and responsibility must not have ended wit the July 31 elections in Zimbabwe," he said.
"They (Sadc) must have accompanied this country into a post crisis re-construction phase. Who doesn't know that there is need for Sadc to come in and assist Zimbabwe with financial resources to get the country out of the financial doldrums that we are in."
He said Zimbabweans should also set a platform for political parties, civic society and churches to discuss problems facing the nation.
Mabenge said their proposals would be forwarded to the Heads of State attending the summit in Victoria Falls this weekend.
About 2 000 delegates from the Southern Region are attending the people's summit which ends today with a march in Bulawayo, highlighting the issues tackled by the meeting.
The first people's summit was in Namibia in 2000.
Source - Zim Mail
