South Africa Rejects Calls For SADC Summit To Be Moved From Zimbabwe
South Africa says it has no authority to demand that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) move the 44th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit from Harare, Zimbabwe, to another member state, despite reports of multiple arrests and human rights violations in the lead-up to the regional event scheduled for August 17, 2024.
Clayson Monyela, the head of public diplomacy at South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said his country does not have the authority to insist that the event be relocated.
This is because Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is the incoming chairperson of SADC. Said Monyela (via Business Day):
Zimbabwe is the incoming chair of SADC. SA will have no authority to tell SADC that the summit can’t take place in Harare.
SA maintains that political challenges can be resolved by peaceful dialogue. All the issues that are being raised by activists and political organisations can be resolved by sitting around the table with the government of the day. SA will have no problem playing a facilitating role.
Though the 44th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit is scheduled for August 17, 2024, SADC meetings have already begun taking place in Harare.
A SADC Industrial Week is currently underway in Harare, and a Council of Ministers meeting, as well as a meeting of the SADC Troika, will occur in the lead-up to the main Summit.
Ahead of the SADC Summit, the government of Zimbabwe has launched a crackdown on activists, likely in an attempt to prevent potential demonstrations during the regional event.
Opposition figure Jameson Timba and 77 other activists have been detained since June 16, with several other activists arrested in the subsequent weeks.
The streets of Harare now resemble a country in a state of heightened security, with military vehicles patrolling potential flashpoints in the capital city’s central business district and high-density residential areas.
In response to the reported human rights violations, the Democratic Alliance (DA) – a coalition partner of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) – has recently called for the venue of the SADC Summit to be changed from Harare.
The DA’s spokesperson on international relations, Emma Powell, said:
Allowing the summit to proceed under the current circumstances will not only endorse ZANU PF’s flagrant abuse of international law but further undermine the principles upon which SADC was established.
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