SADC Action Group on Zim mired in controversy

CONTROVERSY surrounds a SADC Ministerial Action Group (MAG) reportedly appointed by the regional body’s chair, Lesotho, to compile a report on the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’, with sources saying Harare would not accommodate the body as it was commissioned outside the organisation’s Summit.

The South African media have in the past weeks reported that SADC chair, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho, after consultations with South African President Thabo Mbeki, commissioned a three-country group to report on the situation in Zimbabwe.

However, the sources said it increasingly looked as if the MAG might never visit Zimbabwe, as there was no consensus among various SADC member States over how to proceed, adding that there was a "media blackout on what was now taking place behind the scenes".

According to Foreign Affairs and diplomatic sources, a rift was emerging in SADC over how to engage Zimbabwe, with some members like "Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania emphasising non-interference while others were pushing for a tougher line" including the commissioning of an MAG.

"SADC is not agreed on the mandate of the MAG and whether or not to accept any of its findings. At the same time the Zimbabwe government has told the SADC secretariat it will not allow the MAG into Harare as it does not have legal standing within the regional body. At present, no one seems to want to own up to being behind the setting up of the group. It has been difficult getting confirmation from Lesotho and South Africa on what is taking place. It is not even clear who is in this MAG but the general belief is that the three countries are Lesotho, South Africa and Botswana," The Sunday Mirror was informed.

Fuelling the controversy and confusion, officials at the SADC secretariat in Botswana are apparently unaware of the composition of the group, its mandate and to whom it will report its determinations, though suggestions in the South African media are that the MAG will present a report to an emergency Summit. There has also been speculation that the MAG’s report will result in a referral of Zimbabwe to the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, which is currently chaired by Tanzania, a close ally of Harare.

Contacted for comment, Leefa Martin, the SADC head of communications said she had no information on the MAG adding "it seems no one has concrete information" on the status of the group. She said she had been unable to get any details on the matter from her colleagues in the secretariat and referred further inquiries to a ZK Masanja who is the SADC national contact point in Tanzania’s ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the time of going to press, Masanja had not responded to questions sent to him by The Sunday Mirror some three weeks ago. Deputy Information and Publicity minister Bright Matonga said: "We have not had any official communication on the matter and so as far as we are concerned there is no issue." Efforts to get a comment from Lesotho’s principal secretary for Foreign Affairs Motlatsi Ramafole through the department’s contact person Mamoliehi Moetetsi were fruitless, as he too did not respond to questions sent to his office some three weeks ago. South Africa’s Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also did not respond to questions forwarded to her on the issue.

Our Foreign Affairs insiders said it was highly unlikely that the MAG would in actual fact visit the country as such commissions and their agendas were decided on at Summit. "There appears to be nothing official vis-à-vis the MAG’s mandate and its proposed visit to Zimbabwe. It is not that we are against anyone coming into the country and seeing things for themselves but it is just that these things have to be done procedurally so that they can be respected," said an insider. The Foreign Affairs insider said it was consequently surprising that Lesotho had then decided to go ahead and create an MAG "against the wishes of the Summit". Two weeks ago in his address to the Zanu PF People’s Conference held in Goromonzi, President Mugabe said: "Even our neighbours have no power to change the government in Zimbabwe. In the same way that we will never go to Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique telling them who should rule there, no one can tell us who should rule here."

At the most recent Summit in Maseru, Lesotho, SADC Heads of State said they did not feel compelled to interfere in Zimbabwe, preferring to give the Benjamin Mkapa mediation between Harare and London a chance to work, something that did not go down well with opposition forces in this country. Since the onset of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme six years ago, there have been a number of calls for SADC and the African Union to take a leading role in criticising Zimbabwe with American President George W. Bush once calling President Mbeki his "point man" on Zimbabwe. However, this pressure has largely been resisted with the two bodies often pointing out they would not meddle in the internal affairs of a fellow Member State. At the African-Caribbean-Pacific and EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Barbados in November, SADC delegates once more rebuffed calls for the regional grouping to attack Zimbabwe.

Sunday Mirror