FOREIGN Affairs secretary Joey Bimha told Parliament yesterday that the African Union and Sadc had been tasked to demand that First Lady Grace Mugabe be granted a visa to accompany President Robert Mugabe to the European Union/Africa Summit in Brussels, Belgium, next week.
BY VENERANDA LANGA SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Bimha told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs that the fate of the First Lady’s visa would be decided in Brussels this week before the summit opens next week.
Bimha said: “President Mugabe did submit his delegation and we discovered that the First Lady had not been issued with a visa and we brought the issue before Sadc and the AU.
“A committee has been mandated to raise the issue in Brussels to say if the EU does not issue her with a visa, then they will recommend that the summit be postponed.
“Sadc and African leaders have taken a decision that the EU cannot cherrypick on who will be invited and the EU had not invited President Mugabe, but had invited the government,” he said.
It has emerged that the EU has also left out other AU member states such as Eritrea, Sudan, and Saharawi Arab Republic.
Bimha said the EU’s snub of other AU members would also be discussed in Brussels.
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Bimha was originally invited by the committee to give an update on the Sadc Uni-Visa pilot project that will enable citizens of members of the bloc to travel freely within the region.
He said if the Uni-Visa system proved successful, it would then be implemented as a trade promotion and regional integration mechanism.
He dispelled fears among the parliamentarians that Botswana was about to leave Sadc and join the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
“Botswana hates Comesa and prefers Sadc programmes. I do not see Botswana leaving Sadc. We may have political problems, but economically we are working together,” Bimha said.
He added that the regional bloc was facing trade challenges since the World Trade Organisation stipulated that a country could only be a member of one customs union.
Sadc member states, however, currently belong to different customs unions like Comesa and the Southern Africa Customs Union.
