The comprehensive draft spelling out SADC’s wishes regarding the situation in Zimbabwe was still being worked on according to Mr. Tomaz Salomao, the Executive Secretary of SADC, and it is hoped that the final draft will be ready by the next SADC summit to be held in August in Luanda.
The SADC summit has exhorted President Mugabe and his main opponent to work diligently to create an environment conducive to the holding of free and fair elections in an atmosphere of political stability as agreed upon in the global protocol signed in 2008. The summit urged the two camps “to move faster towards the implementation of the Global Policy Agreement” of 2009 which mainly provides for the drafting of a new constitution that guarantees greater freedom and leads to new elections.
There has been tension and continued disagreement within the government of national unity, with President Mugabe calling for dissolution of the coalition government by end this year and elections to take place soon thereafter. On his part, PM Morgan Tsvangirai, wants elections to be held next year and electoral and constitutional reforms to be implemented first. He accuses Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of intimidation and of the arrest of the opposition supporters. He argues that election cannot be organized before next year, since the new constitution needs to be adopted first and the election register updated.
Morgan Tsvangirai is accusing President Mugabe of blocking reforms that are crucial to the implementation of the Global Policy Agreement and of taking unilateral measures that go against the very spirit of the agreement.
On the other hand, President Mugabe is accusing the European Union and the United States, who he holds responsible for the current crisis in the country following the sanctions that they imposed on Zimbabwe.
President José Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola has stated that he is ready to do what it takes to persuade his counterpart President Robert Mugabe to keep his commitment to hold free and fair elections.