Sadc should take advantage of Zimbabwe elections

Zimbabwean Professor Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, says the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) should take advantage of the controversial Zimbabwe situation with regard to its recent disputed elections and the subsequent regional fallout to "assert itself and rise from paralysis of sisterhood and brotherhood that undermine the ethos of liberation and demean the hard fought for right to vote".

Ndlovu-Gatsheni said: "Shift from 'Frontline States' to 'SADC' was expected to entail a shift from 'solidarities' to  trusted 'peer reviewers' on good governance as part of continuation of implementation of liberation project. It was expected that we become harder than any other force on those who deviate and undermine the ethos of liberation through rigging elections.

"The recent elections in Zimbabwe give SADC an opportunity to assert itself and rise from paralysis of sisterhood and brotherhood that undermine the ethos of liberation and demean the hard fought for right to vote. This is how I see it for now. The 'development" cannot be achieved under unrepresentative governments."