Zimbabwe: Zim ignoring SADC tribunal remains hot
10th August 2010

By  The Namibian (Brigitte Weidlich)

A COMMITTEE of justice ministers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will report to heads of state during the regional summit in Windhoek this weekend about Zimbabwe continually ignoring rulings made by the SADC Tribunal.  

The Tribunal, which is based in Windhoek, has made various rulings in the past 18 months to protect the rights of commercial farmers in Zimbabwe, ordering the government in Harare to let over 60 farmers and their farmworkers live and work peacefully on those farms until the matter of compensation was resolved.   

Nevertheless, many of the owners and workers have been harassed, assaulted and chased off the farms.  

Consequently some of the affected farmers requested the SADC Tribunal to report this non-compliance by Zimbabwe, a SADC member state.

 Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary of the SADC Secretariat, told reporters yesterday that the justice ministers had met in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in April and would submit a report with recommendations to the heads of state attending the summit. 

“Yes, Zimbabwe will be on the SADC agenda,” Salomao said.  

“The SADC summit will make a pronouncement on that member state.”  

Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who stood in for Trade Minister Hage Geingob for the Council of SADC Ministers meetings this week, said: “SADC did a wonderful job to move Zimbabwe to a solution [of power sharing]. SADC was condemned for having from the start taken a positive approach to the Zimbabwe situation, but Zimbabwe achieved such a lot in the past two years although they still have a long way to go.   

They did not take up arms and start a civil war,” the Minister said.  

Asked if Zimbabwe was ready for national elections set for next year, the Finance Minister said the people of Zimbabwe should rather be asked.   

“I am sure they want those elections and will hold them once all systems are in place.   

Let us not push them; there is nothing to suggest they don’t want elections. Let us wait for the report to the SADC summit,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.   

The organisation Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on Friday called on the SADC summit to “draw up concrete plans to prevent state-sponsored violence” during the planned elections next year. 

The Coalition also wants the summit to urge the Harare government to allow citizens living outside that country to vote. SADC should also give “technical support to the newly appointed Zimbabwe electoral commission,” the civil society organisation urged.  

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