SADC Seals Zimbabwe Election Results, Sets Sights on Other Nations, Urges Nelson Chamisa to Respect Outcome

THE Southern African Development Community has accepted the results of last month’s harmonised elections in Zimbabwe and has now moved on to other countries where elections are due.

This emerged yesterday following a virtual meeting of the SADC Troika comprising Namibia, the outgoing chair, Zambia, current chair and Tanzania the incoming chair.

In its record of the Extraordinary meeting of the Troika which was held virtually and chaired by Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, SADC said the Election Observer Mission (SEOM) report had been finalised for submission to the bloc’s Chairperson and thereafter President Mnangagwa.

“The EO-MCO Troika also noted that the Zimbabwe SEOM (issued its Preliminary Statement on 25th August 2023 and, as stipulated by Section 11.8.1 of the Principles and Guidelines, the SEOM should produce its Final Report within 30 days and submit to the Member State that held the relevant election.

“The EO-MCO Troika further noted that since the 30 days have lapsed, the Zimbabwe SEOM report has been finalised for submission to the Chairperson of the Organ for onward transmission to the Head of State and the Electoral Management Body of the Republic of Zimbabwe.”

Weighing in on the SADC record, former Cabinet minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said the regional bloc had evidently “moved on”.

“While the final report of the Sadc Election Observation Mission (SEOM) is yet to be tabled for noting at the next Ordinary Sadc Summit scheduled for August 2024, it is safe to say that SADC has moved on regarding Zimbabwe’s 2023 harmonised general election.

“There will be no Extraordinary Ordinary Sadc Summit on SEOM’s report on Zimbabwe’s 2023 harmonised general election.

“Sadc observed the election, and prepared a report which has recommendations that Zimbabwe, as a member state, will be at liberty to review and act on or not act on in terms of its Constitution and laws, as it may be deem fit as a sovereign state!” he wrote on his official X handle.

WAR Veterans Liberation Struggle Affairs minister Chris Mutsvangwa has blasted the West for trying to unseat the government using a “puppet” leader, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.

Hichilema, the Southern Africa Development Committee (SADC) Troika chairman has come under attack by the Zimbabwean government after the bloc’s election observer mission’s chairman Nevers Mumba produced a damning report on the ‘flawed’ August polls.

Addressing the media in Harare Thursday, Mutsvangwa said the EU, United States, Britain and Belgium were using Hichilema to try and steal SADC from the region’s countries.

According to Mutsvangwa “the winner takes all” is the rule of an election, hence President Mnangagwa deserved to be the Zimbabwean leader.

“We want to remind Washington, London, and Brussels that SADC is a creation of the Southern African national liberation movements. lt is a product of the frontline states who were at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid, against minority, against settler rule and against racist imperial control from the Berlin Conference of 1884 in Europe.

“These are the people and organisations who created SADC and it is ours. They must keep their dirty hands away from our SADC. They cannot try to steal our organization and try to turn it against us. It is our organisation.

“They cannot use individual puppets to try to become leaders of the sovereign elected presidents of the constitutional republics which are SADC,” Mutsvangwa said.

He added that the “leaders Cyril Ramaphosa (SA), Filipe Nyusi (Mozambique), João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço (Angola), Samia Siluhu (Tanzania) and not some individual leaders (Hichilema) from Zambia who want to tell the Heads of State how to handle SADC issues. We do not accept that as war veterans of Zimbabwe.”

Mutsvangwa who is also the chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Vets Association said his organisation was reaching out to counterparts in the region to make sure SADC is not destroyed.

He hailed South Africa for sending its own observer mission led by ANC’s Fikile Mbalula to Zimbabwe “to come and see for themselves how elections were conducted.”

“Who can now say that SA’s delegation is secondary to what an individual from Zambia is saying under the mantra of SADC which does not belong to them?

“Mumba, SADC belongs to the national liberation movements, not to traitors of the liberation struggle. Keep your dirty hands from our SADC,” Mutsvangwa fumed.

Meanwhile, Hichilema convened a virtual meeting Wednesday which discussed Zimbabwe’s disputed harmonized elections that were condemned by regional and international observers.

The virtual summit, attended by Namibian President Hage Geingob, the leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo Felix Tshisikedi and Tanzanian President Suluhu, also discussed the security situation in DRC.

In a statement issued by Zambia’s Foreign Affairs ministry, the leaders tabled the SADC Electoral Observation Mission report on Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections as well as other impending elections in the SADC region.

Zambia’s Foreign Affairs ministry said, “the values and principles that underpin the promotion of democracy and good governance are also the foundation of Zambia’s foreign policy.”

SADC Seals Zimbabwe Election Results, Sets Sights on Other Nations, Urges Nelson Chamisa to Respect Outcome