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Morgan Tsvangirai

Lloyd Gumbo in VICTORIA FALLS
Sadc has shut the door on MDC-T’s attempts to bulldoze into the forthcoming 34th sadc Summit here, with the secretariat saying the party was not on the agenda despite having indicated it was sending its delegation.
Director of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Tanki Mothae said Zimbabwe was not on the agenda since it successfully held the July 31 2013 harmonised elections.

He made the remarks during a media briefing yesterday, where he said no political developments in Zimbabwe warranted the host country to be put on the agenda of the summit

Rtd Lt-Col Mothae said if there were any challenges in Zimbabwe, they were internal and could only be resolved domestically.
MDC-T recently indicated that it was sending a delegation to the summit led by deputy party president Ms Thokozani Khupe to lobby the summit to force the Zanu-PF Government to implement some of the provisions of the Constitution.

But Rtd Lt-Col Mothae said the regional bloc was more interested in Zimbabwe chairing sadc and expressed hope that it would excel.
“First of all, I am not aware of the delegation (MDC-T) . . . (and)  if it was an issue pertaining to politics, I would have been advised,” he said.

“This is a Sadc summit, a summit of Heads of State and Government, an international governmental organisation. So, any body outside this summit does not have a place on the agenda unless it does so through other member states. As far as we are concerned, we do not have any issues to do with the opposition party.”

Rtd Lt-Col Mothae said during its tenure of chairmanship, Zimbabwe would take the sadc region to greater heights and should be supported by all and sundry to achieve the goal.

“In Zimbabwe, there were elections last year which everybody accepted and anything that remained after the Global Political Agreement, I think if you remember the provisions of the GPA, was that after the elections then the Government put in place will put internal systems and mechanisms to follow up on what was outstanding,” he said.

Rtd Lt-Col Mothae said the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs was not there to police member states, but to promote regional integration by keeping a watch on threats to peace and security in the region.

“As of now, Zimbabwe is focusing on chairing sadc and we are focusing on supporting the chair of sadc in delivering their mandate as per the Treaty of sadc,” he said. “All issues pertaining to politics, diplomacy, defence and security are being put under a satellite check through the normal structures.

“So far so good for Zimbabwe, we are very happy that things are going on very well and we are here to celebrate their taking over chairing of the region. Some of the things are more internal and constitutional which a country can deal with and I am sure all sadc member states have the capability and capacity to address some of the internal issues,” Rtd Lt-Col Mothae said.