The Sadc report, which has similarities with the European
Union Elections Observer Mission Report, has threatened to cause a diplomatic
row between Zimbabwe and its neighbour Zambia, which seconded its former vice
president Dr Nevers Mumba to head the mission, despite his questionable
background and a documented history of clinical mental illness.
Before the elections that were held on August 23, spilling
into the 24th in some areas, Dr Mumba held several meetings with the country’s
opposition CCC and EU representatives, with the submissions from the opposition
finding their way into his scandalous preliminary report.
Apart from pursuing diplomatic engagements, Deputy Chief
Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (Communications), Mr
George Charamba, said Harare is compiling a document for presentation to its
sister republics in the region.
“We are at the beginning stage of a very long process of
adoption which is why Zimbabweans must not be overly excited, and in any event
Zimbabwe as a country under observation has its right of response and I happen
to know that work is already underway to consolidate a national response to
what is in fact a very faulty report by the Sadc Observer Mission.
“The second point that I want to make is that Sadc is a
creature of the Frontline States which is essentially an anti-imperial
formation. This has been its history and I daresay this is its trajectory now
and into the future”.
Mr Charamba, who is also President Mnangagwa’s
spokesperson, said Zimbabwe is worried that foreigners would want to brew a
conflict situation in the region where there is none.
“If you check back in history, there were a number of
instances where the Zimbabwean Question triggered very open provocations led by
some Heads of State of Sadc countries. Zimbabwe resisted being goaded into a
conflict situation by outsiders through neighbours to create an African
conflict.
“We have no business in being instrumentalised by outsiders
to be at loggerheads with each other so really this has been the stance of
Zimbabwe and I don’t think it is any different now. In any event, it will be
wrong for us to conflate a draft of an observer mission with the national
position of a country and a neighbouring country for that matter with whom we
have enjoyed excellent relations. So I see Zimbabwe maybe consolidating its own
national position and participating in Sadc processes to make sure that this
pertinently very bad report is not given Sadc official status”.
Mr Charamba added that at worst, the Dr Mumba preliminary
report is just an irritant which in its draft form is not binding as it has to
be taken to the Sadc Troika first.
He said the Troika Plus 1 will then have to adopt the
document and even after its adoption, it has to be adopted by a Sadc Summit,
which will be taking place next year in June in Harare, when Zimbabwe assumes
chairmanship of the regional body.
By nature, Mr Charamba said, politics are emotive and can
make or break nations, hence the need to approach people with the right
temperament and capacity to preside over them.
“By definition electoral processes are inherently emotive,
they can make or break a nation because the political temperature is at a fever
pitch, that’s the first point. Secondly, again by definition electoral
processes make governments, they define a leader of a nation, they also pave
the way to a government.
“To that end that’s a very critical process in the life and
activity of a nation’s state. What that means is the constitution of an
observer mission is such a sensitive decision and a decision which must ensure
that one, the person heading that process is of sound experience and sound
temperament,” said Mr Charamba.
Commenting on Dr Mumba’s conduct, highly respected African
statesman and former Mozambican President Cde Joachim Chissano, who is 84 and
was President of Mozambique from 1986 to 2005, said in his life in politics, he
has never heard of observers straying from their mandate as did the Sadc Head
of the Observer Mission.
“This did not happen in my country,” said President
Chissano. “I was not present in all elections in southern Africa . . . maybe it
happened somewhere else (but), I never heard of it”.
However, diplomatic sources said there is a method to Dr
Mumba’s conduct, drawing this publication to a time when the then former
vice-president of Zambia, who allegedly has a mental illness, almost ignited a
war between his country and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2004, the then President of Zambia, the late Mr Levy
Mwanawasa, had to drop Dr Mumba as his deputy after the latter said a fugitive
Zambian spy chief was holed up in the DRC, an allegation that almost
precipitated a war between the two neighbours.
The diplomatic sources questioned how such a character,
with his connections to the country’s opposition figures, could have been
accepted by Zimbabwe to play the role of chief observer.
“Nevers Mumba has a well-known history of clinical mental
problems. What surprised most of us in the region was when the Zambian
President picked him for chairmanship of such a sensitive mission and on a trip
to a country like Zimbabwe whose election history is fraught.
“Even the most cursory background check would have shown
that this man almost precipitated an interstate conflict between Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004 because of his unstable temperament. To
de-escalate matters that were coming to a head, President Mwanawasa had to fire
him as the country’s Vice-President,” the diplomat said.
In his home country, Dr Mumba has been described as a
typical Pentecostal preacher-turned-politician, after he used his clout as a
televangelist in Zambia to launch himself politically in 2001.
Ironically, Dr Mumba’s party was called National Citizens
Coalition, a name that was to be adopted albeit with slight variations in
Zimbabwe as the opposition formed its Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).
Unsurprisingly, Dr Mumba has long standing ties with the country’s
opposition leaders including Mr Chamisa’s predecessor, the late Mr Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The two, along with South African opposition leader Mr
Mmusi Maimane, were at the core of the so-called Southern Africa Opposition
Political Parties, whose mission was to fight and dislodge former liberation
movements like Zanu-PF and the ANC from power. Herald
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