SADC Summit – Venue must be changed

Dear Editor

The Democratic Alliance calls on the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, to exercise South Africa’s right as a member of SADC and urgently demand that the 44th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads State and Government – scheduled to be held on 17 August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe, be moved to a different location.

The DA makes this call following multiple reports of yet another state-sponsored clampdown on pro-democracy activists by a paranoid ZANU-PF regime, fearing public protests in the lead-up to the summit.

The SADC’s founding treaty mandates member states to act in accordance with the principles of “human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”ZANU-PF illegitimate regime in Harare has yet again violated these principles with impunity in the lead-up to the summit:

• Jameson Timba (an opposition politician), together with 77 opposition activists, have been detained, held in horrific conditions, and repeatedly denied bail after they were arrested for allegedly holding an ‘unauthorised political meeting’.
• Recently, 4 democracy activists were taken off a plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport and charged with disorderly conduct for being part of a protest that demanded the release of the 77 opposition party members who have been in pre-trial detention for over six weeks.

By abusing state machinery to violate the rights of Zimbabweans, the unrepentant ZANU-PF regime has demonstrated that it is prepared to go to any lengths to violate the law in order to entrench its authoritarian rule. South Africa, and by extension the SADC, have an obligation to hold the Zimbabwean government to account.

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.President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s upcoming SADC Chairmanship is testament to the continued failure of regional leaders to hold these political thugs to account.

South Africa, as a leading member of SADC, must now take a firm stand to uphold international law and advocate for the summit to be moved to a location that upholds and respects democratic values.

This action would send a clear message that South Africa, as a member of the SADC, will no longer tolerate the suppression of democratic freedoms on our doorstep.

Regards

Emma Louise Powell MP
DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation