Zimbabweans Place Little Hope on Emergency SADC Summit

Most Zimbabweans believe that the 14-member states of the Southern African Development Community have little power to take tougher action against President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who is facing mounting international pressure to postpone the violence-marred presidential election run-off on Friday, APA learned on Wednesday.

As leaders of the SADC troika on Politics, Defence and Security met in Mbabane, Swaziland, on Wednesday, most Zimbabweans remained skeptical of the regional body’s ability to take decisive action against Mugabe.

Most observers here felt few options were available to SADC as it sought to force Mugabe to embrace the opposition and accept change in a country that has experienced an eight-year economic meltdown blamed on his policies.

“The option of an economic embargo is totally out of the question, given Zimbabwe’s central geographic position in the region,” one observer told APA.

Most SADC countries rely on Zimbabwe for the transit of goods imported from regional powerhouse South Africa.

“Any form of action against Harare would, therefore, solicit a retaliatory move from Mugabe, which would ultimately hurt other inland SADC countries that depend on imports from South Africa,” the observer said.

Other attempts to isolate Harare would also likely meet with resistance from South African President Mbeki and other Mugabe allies in the form of Mozambique and Namibia, he said.

Mbeki, who is the SADC mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis, boycotted Wednesday’s emergency summit, a move seen by Zimbabwean observers as giving ammunition to an isolated Mugabe.

Source African Press Agency

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