ZANU PF claimed victory last night after Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders appeared to put the resolutions of a March summit of the regional body’s organ on politics and defence on the backburner.
A communiqué issued at the end of a full summit of the regional trade bloc in Johannesburg late Sunday said leaders had “noted” the Organ Troika on Politics, Defence and Security communiqué issued in Livingstone, Zambia, on March 31, but it did not endorse it.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, a senior member of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, said: “The summit went on very, very well. It only noted the outcome of Livingstone, they did not endorse, summit noted.
“And as you know in diplomatic parlance, you know what ‘noting' means? It was noted, it was not endorsed.”
But the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) led by Prime Minister Morgan insisted the picture of what transpired in Sandton was not as rosy as painted by Zanu PF.
“It was a re-endorsement of the Livingstone Summit,” said the party’s secretary general Tendai Biti. “Three members of the Troika will work with the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee to ensure implementation of the resolutions.”
Mugabe, who reacted angrily at the tone of the communiqué issued by the presidents of Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia – apparently taking their cue from South Africa’s Jacob Zuma who is the region’s point man on Zimbabwe – also appeared pleased with the outcome over the weekend summit.
In April, he charged that Zuma’s report presented to the troika was based on “inaccuracies” which he had been fed by his main political rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
But having met Zuma on Friday, Mugabe appeared pleased to return from South Africa seemingly unscathed.
“It came out very well. There was a very good report by the facilitator (President Jacob Zuma) where he acknowledged the efforts that the parties in the unity government are making, in other words what our negotiators and the principals put together are making,” Mugabe told state media as he returned home.
Mugabe said SADC leaders had urged the parties to come up with timelines of achieving targets set down in a so-called election roadmap.
And he appeared to absolve Zuma of being the driver behind the Livingstone summit communiqué widely reported as critical of him, particularly over alleged violence by his supporters.
“It turns out that Zuma’s actual report is very innocent,” Mugabe said. “It is more what was discussed (during the summit) based on the document supplied by Tsvangirai, apparently, that emerged as the report of the facilitator, otherwise the facilitator made a very innocent report.”
Welshman Ncube, who leads another faction of the MDC which is in a coalition with Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Tsvangirai’s MDC-T, said media expectations of “fireworks” at the summit were misplaced.
“We always knew it would not be the fireworks anticipated by some because for most issues, we knew the parties had already agreed,” Ncube said.
“The task at hand has been for us about implementation of what has been already agreed not reinventing the wheel. Our hope is that there will be a clear focus on the implementation on what has been agreed. Overall we are satisfied with the results of the summit.”
In a communiqué issued at the end of the summit, regional leaders endorsed a report by Zuma; a review conducted by the three parties on the two-year-old power sharing government as well as the election roadmap.
SADC leaders want the Zimbabwean parties to draw up timelines for implementing the roadmap before the next summit in August – which could be the first time a concrete date is revealed for the next elections which many expect to be held next year.