News

SADC tackling mission impossible

September 06, 2009 Edition 1

Thomas Hubert

Kinshasa: Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments seem to be attempting the impossible here. They appear to be trying to legitimise the SADC Tribunal - and also legitimise the Zimbabwe government's rejection of its jurisdiction.

The tribunal has ruled against the Zimbabwe government's seizure of white farms.

The French-language version of the agenda at the ministerial meeting yesterday in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, read "the council is invited to note that article 9 (1) of the SADC Treaty has established the tribunal as one of the organisation's main institutions". The document also states that "the tribunal continues to receive cases".

However, the agenda also reads: "The council is invited to note that Zimbabwe has indicated that the SADC Tribunal is not properly constituted." But a Zimbabwean delegate denied that the tribunal issue was even on the agenda.

Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe did not recognise the jurisdiction of the SADC Tribunal because its creation was not ratified by two thirds of SADC's member states.

However, a document circulated to delegates in Kinshasa yesterday and listing SADC legal instruments awaiting a sufficient number of ratifications to be implemented does not mention the tribunal.

Legal experts say that is because the tribunal is not a protocol but is an intrinsic part of the SADC Treaty and must be adhered to by all SADC members.

A report by the tribunal on Zimbabwe's failure to adhere to its ruling will be discussed by the SADC Council of Ministers this weekend and by the heads of state and governments when they meet in Kinshasa tomorrow and on Tuesday.

Indications are that SADC seems be trying to reconcile the apparently incompatible positions of Zimbabwe and other member states on the legitimacy of the SADC Tribunal.

There was heated debate and a "bit of a scuffle" on the tribunal issue at the officials' meeting on Friday, a Congolese diplomat said.

"At the end, there was a certain convergence of views. Zimbabwe was reassured as to what must be done with regards to its understanding of the situation."

This seemed to suggest that SADC is preparing to allow Zimbabwe to continue flouting the rulings of the tribunal.

The other big Zimbabwe issue on the SADC agenda is the lack of implementation of the global political agreement between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

It seems this has been referred directly to the summit-level part of the conference to try to resolve.

The Council of Ministers' meeting opened yesterday morning with the handover of the presidency from South African Minister for International Relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to the DRC's Foreign Affairs Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba.

Nkoana-Mashabane listed progress in the Zimbabwe negotiations as among the South African presidency's "achievements".

Regarding the regional organisation's governance, she said: "SADC's commitment to strengthen the secretariat is very clear. It rests with member states to transform this commitment with tangible support." - Foreign Service