Harare -
President Jacob Zuma is expected to tell his fellow regional leaders at a summit in Malawi this weekend that he has accomplished his mission in Zimbabwe, and that they should relieve him of his job as facilitator. They are likely to agree with him, official sources say.
Zuma is to lead a delegation of four of his cabinet ministers to the ordinary annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital.
Officials said South Africa had achieved the three main aims of its facilitation of the negotiations among the Zimbabwean parties on behalf of the SADC. These were the formation of the inclusive government, comprising Zanu-PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions; the adoption of a new constitution; and the holding of the July 31 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
They said the only thing that might prevent Zuma ending his facilitation would be if Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court ruled before the summit that the presidential and parliamentary elections should be annulled and held afresh.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the larger MDC-T, applied to the court last Friday for an order annulling the elections on the grounds of alleged vote-rigging. The court has 14 days to respond.
But South African officials and most observers believe the court will reject Tsvangirai’s application, probably before the end of the week, so that Robert Mugabe may be sworn in as president in time to attend the summit.
On Monday and Tuesday are public holidays in Zimbabwe, but the court may work overtime to reach a swift decision.
It is not clear if Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete will give the SADC summit the final report of the election observer mission on the Zimbabwean elections.
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe headed the mission and announced, in an interim statement two days after the elections, that they had been free and peaceful, but the SADC would determine in its final report if they had been fair. - Cape Times