Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai received shock news on Thursday afternoon when a (SADC)Southern African Development Community official announced through a Chinese news agency the cancellation of an emergency SADC the premier had together with other major opposition parties called for a challenge of the Supreme Court ruling compelling the government to hold elections before the 31st July.
According to the Chinese Xinhua news agency, SADC confirmed Thursday that the special summit on Zimbabwe’s upcoming elections scheduled on June 9 in Maputo, Mozambique, has been cancelled.
An official from SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao’s office who identified herself as Dorcas reportedly told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the summit would not go ahead as scheduled.
“It won’t take place on the 9th. I cannot give you reasons but it won’t take place on the 9th. That’s all I can tell you,” she said.
SADC has not yet released an official statement.
The planned summit was supposed to discuss Zimbabwe’s elections, in particular the recent supreme court ruling on the holding of elections, as well as possible funding.
While a statement from Tsvangirai’s office was not ready at the time of writing, Professor Welshman Ncube’s deputy spokesman Kurauone Chiwayi said they had been officially informed of the cancellation.
Said Chihwayi:
“We are very much aware of the cancelled because we have been officially advised. The MDC intends to take the issue of the roadmap,reforms and electoral act amendments to SADC, Zimbabweans should not read much into the constitutional court ruling; elections will take place in Zimbabwe this year but there is need to agree on reforms such as security sector, media and electoral reforms. The MDC will press SADC on the need to fully implement the agreed roadmap first before we go to elections. Zimbabweans should except a bruising battle in Maputo. Professor Welshman Ncube will take the interests of the majority to SADC before we go to elections,” he said.
President Robert Mugabe last week said that he would comply with a Constitutional Court ruling that elections should be held by July 31.
The cash-strapped government is also expected to get aid from the regional bloc to fund the electoral process. The government says it needs at least 100 million U.S. dollars to go to the polls.
11 Replies to “SADC Cancels Zimbabwe Summit”
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Zimdofo is full of dungbeetles and dung green flies. They lie, they are illerate, they is stupid, they are an idiots with poor reporting and third rate journalist.
They must go hang, who needs a summit about elections in Zimbabwe,we have always held elections whenever they fell due.
Dear editor Your head line changed from the one which stated that Tsvangirayi being devastated by the cancelation of Sadcc meeting. I spent the the good part of this morning trying to post my comment but the page had moved. This was very disappointing stop behaving like the Herald which publishes falsehoods. Lets strive for excellance.
This kind of zimeye journalism is mentally crippling nxa!
Geopolitics at play. The Chinese have strong armed other SADC countries to fall in line with their agenda of stripping Africa of its resources.A loota Continua.
It will help also to source for other news info to have a balanced view .as a matter of fact the meeting was postponed for a day and i dont see any panicking from anyone.poor journalism indeed
Hapana pandaona panic attack from the MDC-T camp neither any word from their spokeperson,let alone Tsvangison. Gutter journalism. Regai bob akati imwe reporting inoratidza kusafunda.
SW Radio inonyorwa naChitate uyo. Lets wait and see kuti chokwadi ndechipi. Ve SWRadio vanombowedzera manyepo munyaya dzavo. Handiva truste ini
Chitate u hv presented a well-balanced copious information worthier reading than the reporter.Wonder why he has spent unnecessary space and time telling us all that nonsense.
I think chitate doesn’t know zanupf and SADC they are friends stop interpreting what you don’t know
SW Radio Africa is reliably informed that the summit was postponed by a day
to give all parties to the GPA enough time to consult on a date for
elections.
President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team spent hours on Thursday in meetings
with GPA negotiators in Harare. They were insisting that by the time all
parties attend the summit, there should be an agreed date for an election.
This prompted the ZANU PF negotiators to ask for a postponement to allow its
negotiators time to consult President Robert Mugabe, who is currently
outside the country.