Ditshwanelo

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE BOTSWANA CIVIL SOCIETY SOLIDARITY COALITION FOR ZIMBABWE (BOCISCOZ)

OBSERVATIONS OF SADC EXTRAORDINARY SUMMIT ON ZIMBABWE 12 – 13 APRIL 2008

The Botswana Civil Society Solidarity Coalition for Zimbabwe (BOCISCOZ) acknowledges the effort made by the SADC member states to mediate an end to the election crisis in Zimbabwe in order to promote good governance and democracy in the southern african region.

According to H.E. President Mwanawasa of Zambia, the current Chairperson of SADC, the SADC Extraordinary Summit was called to deal specifically with the ‘failure … by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to announce the results of the Presidential Elections’. Such action was taken because ‘SADC cannot continue to stand by and do nothing when one of its members is experiencing political and economic difficulties’. It subsequently addressed the following issues which had also been identified by BOCISCOZ and other civil society organisations in Southern Africa, as being crucial to the process of resolving the post-electoral impasse:

the delay by The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release the Presidential election results – SADC urged the authorities to verify and release the results as soon as possible, ‘in accordance with the due process of law’. They recommended that ‘verification and counting must be done in the presence of candidates and/or their agents’. SADC has offered to send an Election Observer Mission to be present during the verification and counting of votes

the process of the run-off elections in the event of their being no clear winner - this should be conducted in a secure environment. SADC has also offered to send an election observer mission for the run-off elections

Member States of SADC held ‘informal consultations with Presidential candidates Mr Morgan Tsvangirai (Movement for Democratic Change) and Dr Simba Mokoni (independent candidate). They ‘expressed concerns on the delay in announcing the results as well as lack of their participation in the verification process of the Presidential results currently being conducted by the ZEC’. In its communiqué at the end of the Summit, SADC appealed to ZEC ‘to ensure strict compliance with the rule of law and SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic elections’ in both the validation exercise and the process of the run-off elections.

The SADC Summit did not make pronouncements on the reported farm invasion by ‘war veterans’, Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives and the National Youth Service.

The SADC Summit requested President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa ‘to continue in his role as Facilitator on Zimbabwe on the outstanding issues’.

BOCISCOZ urges the SADC and its member states to provide all necessary support to Zimbabwe to enable it to peacefully transform the electoral and political crisis in that country into an opportunity for the development of a sustainable democracy.