News / National
EU ambassador admits diplomatic gaffe
10 Sep 2013 at 08:38hrs | Views
HEAD of the European Union Delegation to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Aldo Dell'Ariccia yesterday said he will apologise to government for seeking to meet Constitutional Court and Electoral Court judges to discuss the MDC-T's election petitions.
This follows reports that on August 29 this year, Dell'Ariccia wrote to the Supreme Court's chief registrar Walter Chikwana requesting a meeting with "members of the Constitutional and Electoral Courts in order to exchange views on electoral petitions".
The envoy told NewsDay yesterday he had decided to apologise for the diplomatic gaffe.
"First of all, the idea of the meeting was not to talk about the pending cases at the court because that would be most inappropriate," he said.
"What happened was an administrative oversight. I am writing now to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify the matter and apologise."
Dell'Ariccia could not be drawn into commenting further on the matter.
Earlier, Secretary for Foreign Affairs Joey Bimha had told NewsDay that government was already considering launching investigations into the diplomat's conduct.
"We have read about this in the papers. We want to find out exactly what transpired," Bimha said.
"Obviously diplomats like him have set ways of communicating and usually it's through the Foreign Affairs ministry. If someone, however, goes directly to the State institutions, then this would be a breach of diplomatic protocol. Even then, we will investigate and then summon him to find out why he did it if he did and that does not necessarily mean that he will be asked to leave."
This follows reports that on August 29 this year, Dell'Ariccia wrote to the Supreme Court's chief registrar Walter Chikwana requesting a meeting with "members of the Constitutional and Electoral Courts in order to exchange views on electoral petitions".
The envoy told NewsDay yesterday he had decided to apologise for the diplomatic gaffe.
"First of all, the idea of the meeting was not to talk about the pending cases at the court because that would be most inappropriate," he said.
Dell'Ariccia could not be drawn into commenting further on the matter.
Earlier, Secretary for Foreign Affairs Joey Bimha had told NewsDay that government was already considering launching investigations into the diplomat's conduct.
"We have read about this in the papers. We want to find out exactly what transpired," Bimha said.
"Obviously diplomats like him have set ways of communicating and usually it's through the Foreign Affairs ministry. If someone, however, goes directly to the State institutions, then this would be a breach of diplomatic protocol. Even then, we will investigate and then summon him to find out why he did it if he did and that does not necessarily mean that he will be asked to leave."
Source - newsday
