Arcadia Foundation

Amnesty International and a conglomeration of human rights activists have stated that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union have betrayed the people of Zimbabwe by ignoring human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe’s supporters while paying lip service to implementation of political reforms.

Amnesty International Africa director Erwin van der Borght said the current violence and human rights violations in Zimbabwe are a direct result of the weak oversight mechanism put in place by SADC and the AU, the guarantors to the agreement that led to the setting up of the unity government.

“Despite numerous trips to Harare by members of the mediation team headed by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa no meaningful progress has been made in implementing key reforms meant to guarantee peace and security in the country,” van der Borght said in a statement to mark the second anniversary of Zimbabwe’s shaky coalition regime last Friday.

Zuma is SADC’s official mediator in the Zimbabwe inter-party dialogue but, like his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, the South African leader has largely failed to rein in Mugabe who has flagrantly violated terms of a 2008 power-sharing agreement with Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.

Zuma’s mediation team comprising his international relations adviser Lindiwe Zulu and former cabinet ministers Charles Nqakula and Mac Maharaj has made countless visits to Harare to try and break a power-sharing deadlock between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
Van der Borght said SADC and the AU have failed to flex their muscle against the human rights excesses by Mugabe and ZANU PF.

“SADC and the AU have missed every opportunity to end human rights violations in Zimbabwe. The oversight mechanism has proved inadequate as it has allowed political bickering to continue at the expense of reforms that would have resulted in increased enjoyment of human rights and ensuring that the next election in Zimbabwe would be free from violence” he said.

Critics say Mugabe has failed to end human rights abuses and to reform the security services, whose top brass has vowed that it will only recognise the ageing leader as president.

Tsvangirai’s MDC-T accuses the police of complicit in a recent spate of violence that has gripped the capital but the law enforcement agents have hit back, saying the former opposition party is responsible for the violence but rushes to play victim.

Van der Borght reiterated that the reform of the security sector was a crucial step towards improving Zimbabwe’s human rights situation.

“Security sector reform is needed in Zimbabwe to end a legacy of partisan policing and abuse of the law to achieve political goals,” said van der Borght.

Members of the police, army and secret service have been fingered in various acts of violence during the past few years.

Zimbabwe’s two-year-old unity government has also hobbled along, with tensions between Mugabe and Tsvangirai and MDC political infighting over how to equally share executive power.

Mugabe has rejected MDC-T demands to swear-in its treasurer general Roy Bennett and five of its members as provincial governors and has refused to fire central bank chief and financial adviser Gideon Gono and attorney general Johannes Tomana, who has publicly said he is a ZANU PF card carrying member.

Mugabe, on his part accuses the MDC-T of not doing enough to convince Western countries to remove a Western travel ban and financial freeze on his close allies and that he would not yield to the MDC demands until the bans are removed. Its a tragic cycle as foreign investors and governments show more than trepidation about re-engaging in a nation with such ramped-up political instability.

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