President Robert Mugabe says he will not respect the decisions made by the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security calling for a roadmap to bring an immediate end to violence and persecution of political rivals in Zimbabwe.
In a thinly veiled attack, President Mugabe Friday accused the Sadc facilitator, South African President Jacob Zuma, of over-stretching his mandate in the facilitation process.
He said the facilitator should stick to facilitation and not dictate what Zimbabweans should do.
“There is a line of thinking in Sadc that a body should be created to point certain things to us, but Zimbabwe will not tolerate any group to prescribe to us what to do,” President Mugabe said while addressing a Zanu PF central committee meeting in Harare Friday.
“Facilitator should facilitate, he cannot prescribe to us to do A, B, C, and D. We give ourselves the A, B, C, D, in accordance with our agreement.”
His remarks come amid reports that Sadc was planning to set up a special group to draw a roadmap for elections in Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe said this was tantamount to interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe, insisting Zimbabweans should themselves prescribe their own movement towards the elections.
“We will not brook interference from any source. We will resist interference from any source, even from our neighbours,” President Mugabe said.
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The Sadc Troika met on Thursday in the Zambian resort town of Livingstone and urged the government to immediately stop violence, intimidation, hate speech and harassment in Zimbabwe.
The Troika, which departed from its usual soft stance on President Mugabe, also agreed to set up a special group that would lay down the roadmap to the holding of elections in Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai requested the Troika to have elections postponed to next year because there was violence in the country.
The former guerilla leader said Zanu PF should be prepared for elections before the end of the year, irrespective of the result of the constitution-making process.
In a communiqué released after the summit, the regional bloc’s Troika urged stakeholders in the Global Political Agreement to implement all the provisions of the accord and create an environment conducive for peace, security, and free political activity.
The Troika said the inclusive government should complete all the steps necessary for the holding of general elections.
The organ said Sadc should assist Zimbabwe to formulate guidelines that will assist in holding peaceful, free and fair elections, in accordance with Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
It said a team of officials to join Zuma’s facilitation team would soon be appointed to assist the Joint Monitoring, Evaluation and Implementation team of the GPA.
The Troika also committed itself to develop terms of reference, timeframes and regular progress reports, the first of which would be presented at the next Sadc extraordinary summit.
The Troika warned Zimbabwe could easily plunge into civil strife similar to uprisings in North Africa if the population remained subjected to repressive rule.
Troika chairperson and Zambian President Rupiah Banda reportedly read the riot act to the feuding Zimbabwean coalition leaders and urged them to urgently resolve their political differences before the situation exploded.
Contrary to claims in the state media, MDC leader Welshman Ncube and his party’s secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga also attended the Troika meeting.
