Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe: African Union's Juvenile Delinquent
21 Jan 2013 at 11:01hrs | Views
Outgoing AU chairman, Benin President Dr. Thomas Boni Yayi, debriefing President Mugabe in Harare at the end of his chairmanship - officially this is the full extent of his office's dealing with the Zimbabwean crisis.
Ever since Botswana's Vice President Mompati Merafhe called for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 2008, African leaders seem to have chosen to pretend that there is no longer a problem in Africa's one time Jewel of a country.
President Robert Mugabe had lost Presidential elections to Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai, and was forced by his military to use militia and uniformed soldiers to beat the electorate into voting for him in the subsequent run-off in which 200 to 500 people were murdered.
"Botswana's position is that the outcome of these elections does not confer legitimacy on the government of President Mugabe... It therefore follows that the representatives of the current 'government' in Zimbabwe should be excluded from attending SADC and AU meetings," declared Merafhe to Heads of States and a flabbergasted Zanu (PF) delegation.
And all indications were that such a motion would have been carried if it had been debated because memories were still fresh in international and African minds of a battered opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai coming from his military treatment - footage thanks to the sacrifice of a brave Zimbabwean journalist named Edward Chikomba.
Zimbabwe would be a very different country today if the motion had been carried. Instead Mugabe "agreed" to go and negotiate with his foes, whom he had hitherto refused to recognise; that they would form a government of national unity on the basis of those negotiations and that they would hold free and fair elections based on the subsequent outcome.
Zimbabweans have been patient while these negotiations have gone on since 2008, and up to now no new constitution, which was a prerequisite to the election, has been agreed, nor have basic reforms required for a level playing field been undertaken.
While these negotiations have been going on, with clear intransigence by the Zanu (PF) side of the government, the SADC Facilitators - whether it was President Thabo Mbeki or President Zuma - have distinguished themselves by the extent to which they were willing to bend backwards to accommodate Zanu (PF)'s unreasonable expectations.
Since that summit at Sharme-el-Sheike in 2008 no report has been given to the African Union (AU) by the SADC chairman about the progress or lack of it in putting Zimbabwe on the democratic path as demanded by the Summit .
The Zimbabwean crisis does not feature anywhere on the agenda of the AU, despite that it remains a crisis, with no viable development going on, the standards of living of the majority of the people continuing to go down, corruption consolidating its stranglehold on the country, and physical, legal, political and other violence is continuing to be visited on Zanu (PF)'s opponents and anyone with the audacity to expose the violations.
The cries of Zimbabwe's human rights activist, however, now seem to have reached the ears of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, having jumped the SADC Facilitator, the SADC Human Rights organs, and the AUs Human Rights mechanisms, which all seem to crumble when it comes to Robert Mugabe.
The only available Press report last year about the AU and Zimbabwe was stating that this was the second year running that Zimbabwe had not featured in AU discussions, with officials saying Zimbabwe was no longer considered a "critical issue" because of the Ivory Coast and the Tunisian crises which had only just flared up - yet Zimbabwe had been on the AU's hot spots for three years already. Leaders from Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) would meet on the sidelines of the AU summit and discuss it.
This year again the SADC executive secretary, Tomaz Salamao, is quoted saying, and without flinching, that leaders meeting for the AU summit in Addis Ababa, starting tomorrow, would only set a date for a Zimbabwe Summit.
Other reports are talking about a proposal to dispatch an AU Council of Elders, possibly including retired presidents, Kenneth Kaunda and Jerry Rawlings. Kaunda is 89 and was Zambia's the first President, from 1964 to 1991. Rawlings is a former coup leader who was later elected President. What force they have to bring to bear on Mugabe, if he decides to continue with his intransigence, is questionable.
The chairmanship of outgoing AU chairman, Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi has been a waste of time on the Zimbabwean issue, and the fact that he stopped over in Harare to debrief President Mugabe at the end of his chairmanship, suggests that President Mugabe is well aware of what will be going on at Addis Ababa next week, unlike his rivals. So much for Merafhe's urging of the African Union to treat both parties to the conflict equally.
The AU's own report about Dr Yayi's meeting with President Mugabe is quite telling: President Robert Mugabe reportedly assured him of peaceful and friendly elections in Zimbabwe this year, yet Mugabe has not fulfilled the SADC conditions for peaceful elections, and SADC has not reported to the AU on the Zimbabwean process.
An interesting aside was the two leaders' differences on Western intervention in Africa, which exposed Mugabe's fears. Dr Yayi explained the AU's decision to seek NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)'s intervention in Mali, which President Mugabe was not only unhappy about, but, which his party portrayed as an uninvited French invasion.
Dr. Yayi said, if the rebels had occupied Bamako it would not only be catastrophic for Mali and the sub-region, but the whole world. "It is a matter of terrorism, it is difficult for us and I think the right way is to request for the assistance, military assistance, from NATO."
Mugabe would rather the terrorists have overrun the Bamako government while waiting for and African force that was not expected to be ready until September. Dr Yayi said, African countries were now ready to assist Mali after the French intervention, although military intervention was the last resort for Africa.
"The right way was to ask for assistance from NATO. We are ready to go to Mali to help our brothers," he said.
The 20th Assembly of Heads of State has the theme "Pan- Africanism and African Renaissance"expects reports administrative matters; programmes and conferences; structures; multilateral cooperation; economic and trade matters; Strategic Plan 2014-2017 for the African Union Commission; New Economic Partnership Aid and Development; Drought and Famine Fund, and on the headquarters host agreements.
The 22nd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU will deliberate on ministerial meetings organised by the AU Commission during the last six months and consider the activity report of the Commission; the "recommendations on the implementation of previous Decisions of the Executive Council and the Assembly," and the report of the ministerial committee on candidatures, and, among others, a report on the transformation of the African Union Commission's transformation into the African Union Authority.
A Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology and another for Economic Affairs, will be elected along with five members of the Peace and Security Council (PSC); one judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (AfCHPR); eleven members of the Advisory Board on Corruption and five Members of the African Union Commission on International Law.
Former Chairperson of the AU Commission, Dr. Jean Ping, whose record on Zimbabwe is one fat zero, will be honored and there will be an unveiling of the plaque to commemorate the opening of the new African Union Conference and office Complex, donated by the Chinese at the AU Headquarters.
Heads of States will consider the report of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC); that of Mr. Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Chairperson of the Committee of Ten on the UN Reforms; as well as the report of the Coordinator of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) on the Climate Change Negotiations at the 18th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (COP 18).
The Presidents and Heads of Delegations will also listen to briefings from Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia and Co-Chair of the United Nations High-Level Panel (HLP) on the Post 2015 Development Agenda on the ongoing consultative process regarding the work of the Panel and another briefing from Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, on the hosting by South Africa of the 5th BRICS Summit in March 2013.
They will also exchange views on the progress report of the Commission on the Transformation of the African Union Commission into the African Union Authority as well as the report of the High Level African Trade Committee (HATC) on "Boosting Intra- African Trade and the Establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area".
President Robert Mugabe had lost Presidential elections to Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai, and was forced by his military to use militia and uniformed soldiers to beat the electorate into voting for him in the subsequent run-off in which 200 to 500 people were murdered.
"Botswana's position is that the outcome of these elections does not confer legitimacy on the government of President Mugabe... It therefore follows that the representatives of the current 'government' in Zimbabwe should be excluded from attending SADC and AU meetings," declared Merafhe to Heads of States and a flabbergasted Zanu (PF) delegation.
And all indications were that such a motion would have been carried if it had been debated because memories were still fresh in international and African minds of a battered opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai coming from his military treatment - footage thanks to the sacrifice of a brave Zimbabwean journalist named Edward Chikomba.
Zimbabwe would be a very different country today if the motion had been carried. Instead Mugabe "agreed" to go and negotiate with his foes, whom he had hitherto refused to recognise; that they would form a government of national unity on the basis of those negotiations and that they would hold free and fair elections based on the subsequent outcome.
Zimbabweans have been patient while these negotiations have gone on since 2008, and up to now no new constitution, which was a prerequisite to the election, has been agreed, nor have basic reforms required for a level playing field been undertaken.
While these negotiations have been going on, with clear intransigence by the Zanu (PF) side of the government, the SADC Facilitators - whether it was President Thabo Mbeki or President Zuma - have distinguished themselves by the extent to which they were willing to bend backwards to accommodate Zanu (PF)'s unreasonable expectations.
Since that summit at Sharme-el-Sheike in 2008 no report has been given to the African Union (AU) by the SADC chairman about the progress or lack of it in putting Zimbabwe on the democratic path as demanded by the Summit .
The Zimbabwean crisis does not feature anywhere on the agenda of the AU, despite that it remains a crisis, with no viable development going on, the standards of living of the majority of the people continuing to go down, corruption consolidating its stranglehold on the country, and physical, legal, political and other violence is continuing to be visited on Zanu (PF)'s opponents and anyone with the audacity to expose the violations.
The cries of Zimbabwe's human rights activist, however, now seem to have reached the ears of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, having jumped the SADC Facilitator, the SADC Human Rights organs, and the AUs Human Rights mechanisms, which all seem to crumble when it comes to Robert Mugabe.
The only available Press report last year about the AU and Zimbabwe was stating that this was the second year running that Zimbabwe had not featured in AU discussions, with officials saying Zimbabwe was no longer considered a "critical issue" because of the Ivory Coast and the Tunisian crises which had only just flared up - yet Zimbabwe had been on the AU's hot spots for three years already. Leaders from Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) would meet on the sidelines of the AU summit and discuss it.
This year again the SADC executive secretary, Tomaz Salamao, is quoted saying, and without flinching, that leaders meeting for the AU summit in Addis Ababa, starting tomorrow, would only set a date for a Zimbabwe Summit.
Other reports are talking about a proposal to dispatch an AU Council of Elders, possibly including retired presidents, Kenneth Kaunda and Jerry Rawlings. Kaunda is 89 and was Zambia's the first President, from 1964 to 1991. Rawlings is a former coup leader who was later elected President. What force they have to bring to bear on Mugabe, if he decides to continue with his intransigence, is questionable.
The chairmanship of outgoing AU chairman, Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi has been a waste of time on the Zimbabwean issue, and the fact that he stopped over in Harare to debrief President Mugabe at the end of his chairmanship, suggests that President Mugabe is well aware of what will be going on at Addis Ababa next week, unlike his rivals. So much for Merafhe's urging of the African Union to treat both parties to the conflict equally.
The AU's own report about Dr Yayi's meeting with President Mugabe is quite telling: President Robert Mugabe reportedly assured him of peaceful and friendly elections in Zimbabwe this year, yet Mugabe has not fulfilled the SADC conditions for peaceful elections, and SADC has not reported to the AU on the Zimbabwean process.
An interesting aside was the two leaders' differences on Western intervention in Africa, which exposed Mugabe's fears. Dr Yayi explained the AU's decision to seek NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)'s intervention in Mali, which President Mugabe was not only unhappy about, but, which his party portrayed as an uninvited French invasion.
Dr. Yayi said, if the rebels had occupied Bamako it would not only be catastrophic for Mali and the sub-region, but the whole world. "It is a matter of terrorism, it is difficult for us and I think the right way is to request for the assistance, military assistance, from NATO."
Mugabe would rather the terrorists have overrun the Bamako government while waiting for and African force that was not expected to be ready until September. Dr Yayi said, African countries were now ready to assist Mali after the French intervention, although military intervention was the last resort for Africa.
"The right way was to ask for assistance from NATO. We are ready to go to Mali to help our brothers," he said.
The 20th Assembly of Heads of State has the theme "Pan- Africanism and African Renaissance"expects reports administrative matters; programmes and conferences; structures; multilateral cooperation; economic and trade matters; Strategic Plan 2014-2017 for the African Union Commission; New Economic Partnership Aid and Development; Drought and Famine Fund, and on the headquarters host agreements.
The 22nd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU will deliberate on ministerial meetings organised by the AU Commission during the last six months and consider the activity report of the Commission; the "recommendations on the implementation of previous Decisions of the Executive Council and the Assembly," and the report of the ministerial committee on candidatures, and, among others, a report on the transformation of the African Union Commission's transformation into the African Union Authority.
A Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology and another for Economic Affairs, will be elected along with five members of the Peace and Security Council (PSC); one judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (AfCHPR); eleven members of the Advisory Board on Corruption and five Members of the African Union Commission on International Law.
Former Chairperson of the AU Commission, Dr. Jean Ping, whose record on Zimbabwe is one fat zero, will be honored and there will be an unveiling of the plaque to commemorate the opening of the new African Union Conference and office Complex, donated by the Chinese at the AU Headquarters.
Heads of States will consider the report of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC); that of Mr. Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Chairperson of the Committee of Ten on the UN Reforms; as well as the report of the Coordinator of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) on the Climate Change Negotiations at the 18th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (COP 18).
The Presidents and Heads of Delegations will also listen to briefings from Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia and Co-Chair of the United Nations High-Level Panel (HLP) on the Post 2015 Development Agenda on the ongoing consultative process regarding the work of the Panel and another briefing from Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, on the hosting by South Africa of the 5th BRICS Summit in March 2013.
They will also exchange views on the progress report of the Commission on the Transformation of the African Union Commission into the African Union Authority as well as the report of the High Level African Trade Committee (HATC) on "Boosting Intra- African Trade and the Establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area".
Source - www.changezimbabwe.com
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