Tsvangirai's MDC Clarifies Its Position On SADC summit

The MDC said instead the (SADC) extra-ordinary must put a clear election road map, reform the security sector and stop the political violence across the country.
 
The MDC rubbished the statements by President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba who said the government of Zimbabwe will have one position on the SADC summit.

The MDC said:“The MDC would like to set the record straight. Charamba does not and can never speak on behalf of the three principals to the GPA. He also does not and can never speak on behalf of the negotiators. What Charamba purports to outline in his statement as the government position is simply a position of his party, Zanu (PF) and its president Robert Mugabe. Unfortunately, the agenda set by Charamba on behalf of Zanu (PF) amounts to an attempt to rescind clear SADC Troika resolution made in Livingstone, Zambia. The resolutions made by the SADC leaders in Zambia are very clear and unambiguous. At that last summit, Zanu (PF) was correctly exposed as a grave violator of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).”
 
“As far as the MDC is concerned, what must be discussed at the Extra-ordinary summit is the progress that has been made by the negotiators in resolving the outstanding GPA issues. At the very least we want to see a clear roadmap to the holding of free and fair elections in the country.  New security sector reforms must also be put in place before the holding of free and fair elections,” the MDC said in a statement on the SADC summit.

“It is the MDC’s position that the Windhoek summit must put in place measures to curb politically motivated violence that is being perpetrated against MDC and civil society members by Zanu (PF) thugs across the country. We demand an end to the selective application of the law by the police and other law enforcement agents. This also includes the immediate removal of soldiers and militia in the countryside and arrest of all known political violence perpetrators.”
 
Zimbabwe is back again on the SADC agenda after over two years as the regional body has been trying to ease tensions amongst the three main political parties in the unity government formed two years ago.
 
Zanu (PF) has been saying that elections will go ahead this year without any reforms and that they will not allow SADC to resolve the security sector reforms. The MDC has said the security sector must be reformed as a matter of urgency and that the party will only participate in an election roadmap approved by SADC and an election that is free and fair.
 
The SADC summit has seen Zanu (PF) and the MDC sending emissaries across the region to drum up support for their positions that they want the full SADC summit to take head on come Friday.
 
South African President Jacob Zuma will present a report on Zimbabwe that was adopted by the SADC troika on Politics, Defence and Security at the Livingstone summit in Zambia almost a month ago.

Charamba was quoted by the state media saying the government would set the record straight at the summit specifically on the political situation in Zimbabwe. He said dossiers on the complicity of the MDC-T in political motivated violence would be presented to the SADC leadership allegedly to prove Tsvangirai’s party lied in his report he presented at the last Troika meeting held in Livingstone, Zambia.

The premier’s party said contrary to Charamba there was no threat to SADC unity at all, adding that what Zanu (PF) was doing was to try to use the threats of regional disunity in order to coerce the SADC leadership into accepting its already discredited position.

“Just like it foolishly moved out of the Commonwealth after being called upon to account for its actions almost a decade ago, Zane (PF) wants to use the same weapon against SADC. An impression is created by Charamba that President Mugabe dispatched government envoys to the various capitals in SADC. A simple glance at the list of the so-called envoys shows that these were Zanu (PF) ministers and officials. They were dispatched simply to ratchet support for the Zanu (PF) partisan,” it said.