SADC official on Zimbabwe mission

SADC official on Zimbabwe mission

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By Staff Reporter

A SENIOR official from southern Africa’s key economic bloc arrived in Zimbabwe Wednesday to identify what will be needed for an economic rescue package for Harare, state radio reported.

Tomaz Augosto Salamao, the executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was tasked with coming to Zimbabwe to undertake a study on the country’s deteriorating economic situation by an extraordinary SADC summit held two weeks ago in Dar es Salaam.

That summit was also convened to hear President Robert Mugabe’s version of the politically-charged events in his country, which last month saw dozens of opposition officials and civic rights activists detained and beaten by police.

At the summit President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa was chosen to mediate between Mugabe’s ruling party and the two main opposition factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The southern African leaders also called on Western countries, including Britain, the United States and the European Union to lift their targeted sanctions against Mugabe and dozens of government and ruling party officials.

Mugabe’s government blames the country’s economic crisis, marked by the world’s highest inflation rate of more than 1,700 per cent and shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency, on the targeted sanctions.

The SADC economic rescue package is aimed at cushioning the country from the negative effects of the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the US, Britain and their allies as punishment for the land reform programme, Wednesday’s radio report said.

Western countries dismiss Harare’s charges that their punitive measures are behind Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, blaming it solely on disastrous policies pursued by the government.

These include a programme of white land seizures launched seven years ago that has drastically reduced agricultural production, once the country’s economic mainstay. –Sapa-dpa

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