South Africa's ANC Rejects Call To Move SADC Summit From Zimbabwe
South Africa’s largest political party, the African National Congress (ANC), has rejected a call by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to move the 44th SADC Summit from Zimbabwe to another country.
Last week, the DA urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to relocate the summit from Harare, following the Zimbabwean government’s intensified crackdown on democracy activists.
However, addressing reporters over the weekend, acting ANC spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said South Africa does not “run away from conflict areas” and would instead address the alleged political violence in Zimbabwe as part of the SADC Summit discussions. Said Godlimpi:
On the issue of the Zimbabwe situation, we have noted reports that some political parties in South Africa suggest that that should lead to a rescheduling of the SADC Summit that is going to be held in Harare.
The ANC does not agree with that stance. If there are issues arising in Zimbabwe that require the intervention of the SADC community, it would have to happen including as part of the summit itself.
South Africa has never been in a position where we ought to run away from areas of conflict and say our best way of engaging in solving conflict is to pull away.
If South Africa has to go there to help in any situation or if there are concerns about political violence, we will do it in Zimbabwe and now away.
In a statement issued on Friday, 02 August, the DA’s spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation, Emma Louise Powell MP, called on SADC to move its 44th Summit scheduled to be held on 17 August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe, to a different location. She said:
The Democratic Alliance calls on the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, to exercise South Africa’s right as a member of SADC and urgently demand that the 44th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government – scheduled to be held on 17 August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe, be moved to a different location.
The DA makes this call following multiple reports of yet another state-sponsored clampdown on pro-democracy activists by a paranoid ZANU-PF regime, fearing public protests in the lead-up to the summit.
The SADC’s founding treaty mandates member states to act in accordance with the principles of “human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”
ZANU-PF illegitimate regime in Harare has yet again violated these principles with impunity in the lead-up to the summit.
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