by Vitalio Angula

The Republic of Zimbabwe will assume the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairmanship on 17^th August 2024, taking over from Angola.

Rising reports of repression, assaults and crackdowns on members of the opposition and civil society organizations in the country notwithstanding, Zimbabwe is set to host the 44^th Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government under the theme, “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustained Economic Growth and Development towards an Industrialized SADC”.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will assume the chairmanship of the 16-member regional bloc during the Summit.

According to a ZimLive news report of 17 June 2024, “Citizens for Coalition for Change faction leader Jameson Timba, his 19-year-old—son and close to seventy other party activists were arrested on Sunday while gathered at his residence”.

Ironically, the event at Timba’s home that led to their assault and arrest was a commemoration of the Day of the African Child!

The Day of the African Child is observed annually to mark an event where hundreds of school going children were killed by South Africa’s Apartheid government when they set out to protest governments plans to impose Afrikaans as a medium of instruction for black students.

It is unthinkable that less than 50 years since the Soweto Uprisings, the commemoration of that day would become a crime in Zimbabwe for those who oppose the leadership on Mnanganwa and his ruling Zanu-PF Party.

Other crackdowns and assaults

On Wednesday 24 July 2024, 10 members of the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) were injured and 44 others were arrested after anti-riot police raided a private meeting at the ZESA Training Centre in the capital, Harare.

Injuries sustained included cracked bones and deep lacerations.

Just a week later on the 31 July, ‘four human rights activists, Namatai Kwekweza, Robson Chere, Samuel Gwenzi and Vusumuzi Moyo were forced off a departing plane at the Harare Airport by security agents as they left to attend the 5^th African Philanthropic Conference (an annual gathering of civil society policy influencers at Victoria Falls)’, a Voice of America report stated.

According to the Voice of America report, ‘the activists were detained and Chere sustained severe injuries after being tortured by the agents who used planks and iron rods to beat him’.

All these are examples of human rights violations perpetrated against Zimbabweans which goes against the third SADC Principle of ‘Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law’.

Zimbabwe constantly violates SADC Principles and Laws

Not only did Emmerson Mnangagwa come to power through a coup d’état when he overthrew  Former Leader of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe in 2017 but his bid for re-election in 2023 was described by the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) as “falling short of the minimum standards set forth in the SADC Principles and Guidelines for Democratic Elections”.

Amongst other irregularities the SADC Electoral Observer Mission to the 2023 Zimbabwe General Elections noted:

• Restrictions in the freedom of assembly and expression emanating from draconian legislation like the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (MOPA) and the Patriot Act, which criminalize anyone who criticizes “Zimbabwe’s Sovereignty”.
• Restrictive nomination fees that limit participation, like the unprecedented U$D 20 000 fee for presidential nominees.
• Evidence of lack of judicial independence.
• Evidence of the deployment of the Forever Associates Zimbabwe believed to be from the Zimbabwe State Intelligence throughout the country, thus compromising the vote.
• Problems of party/state conflation.
• Biased coverage by the state media.

The SADC Tribunal

The SADC Tribunal was first envisioned in terms of Article 9 of the Treaty of SADC in 1992 when SADC was transformed from the SADCC. The tribunal was mandated to hear disputes between states, and between natural or legal persons and states.

SADC member states agreed to the protocol for its establishment in the year 2000 but it only became operational five years later in 2005 after the first judges were sworn in.

The tribunal was headquartered in Windhoek, Namibia.

Following Zimbabwe’s disastrous land reform programme where Zanu-PF operatives invaded white-owned farms, one of the affected farmers, Mike Campbell, brought his case and that of others before the Tribunal which ruled in his favour.

However, the government of Zimbabwe rejected the judgment.

A series of events and court cases eventually led to the suspension of the Tribunal which was meant to be a regional court to safeguard the human rights of individuals within the regional body when their own countries failed to do so.

The SADC Tribunal was meant to mirror the European Court of Justice (ECtHR) in its mandate of protecting individuals against states, however its revised protocol (at Zimbabwe’s insistence) dictated it could only hear disputes between states.

Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe not fit to lead SADC

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), is established by a treaty that sates, “SADC and its member states shall act in accordance with the following principles:

1. Sovereign equality of all member states.
2. Solidarity, peace and security
3. Human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
4. Equity, balance and mutual benefit
5. Peaceful settlement of disputes

When the SADC Tribunal and the SADC Electoral Observer Mission made judgments against Zimbabwe in separate cases the government of Zimbabwe pointed the middle-finger to the regional bloc.

Zimbabwean citizens who are opposed to the ruling party are viciously attacked and sometimes killed by state actors.

Human rights in Zimbabwe are often denied and are only accorded to those who are in agreement with Mnangagwa and his ZANU-PF Party.

For Heads of State of the sixteen-member regional bloc to agree to be led by a tyrant who kills his own people to maintain power is an affront to the principles that SADC leaders swore to abide by when they signed the treaty that created the regional bloc.

And having Mnangagwa as their chair is an affront to the values of human rights and democracy that SADC nations believe in.

• Vitalio Angula is a Social Political Commentator and Independent Columnist