Southern African Region to Bolster Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Monitoring
Debate continued meanwhile over the significance of the SADC statement that it 'noted' the hard-hitting Livingstone troika communiqué
The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee has been ineffective as a means of measuring party compliance with the GPA, the basis of the unity government, but the addition of SADC officials could lend it credibility The Southern African Development Community is expected this week to appoint three members of its troika on politics, defense and security to strengthen the mechanism for overseeing Zimbabwean political party compliance with the 2008 Global Political Agreement for power sharing in the Harare national unity government. The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee has been ineffective as a means of measuring party compliance with the GPA, the basis of the unity government, but the addition of SADC officials could give it more credibility with Harare unity players. However, sources in President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF say hardliners intend to resist the move by SADC which they say is an interference in national sovereignty. The three SADC troika delegates will come from South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique and will work with JOMIC to ensure monitoring, evaluation and full implementation of the global political agreement according to SADC's recent summit resolutions. Meanwhile, there continued to be some confusion following the summit over the weekend in Johannesburg as to precisely what the SADC heads of state agreed on. Regional leaders “noted” the reports issued in late March in Livingstone, Zambia, by the SADC troika on politics, security and defense on Zimbabwe, seen as tough on President Mugabe and ZANU-PF. But they did not specifically adopt or endorse them. The choice of language led to various interpretations of the SADC communiqué. SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao added new spin saying the heads of state did not need to endorse the Livingstone troika findings at all. Welshman Ncube, head of the smaller wing of the Movement for Democratic Change, gave VOA Studio 7 reporter Ntungamili Nkomo a similar interpretation. But Lindiwe Zulu, a foreign policy adviser to South African President Jacob Zuma, SADC mediator in Zimbabwe and author of key reports to the troika and the summit, said the heads of state did in fact adopt the Livingstone troika communiqué. But ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo and others dismissed reports SADC adopted the Livingstone text, saying the word "noted" was a diplomatic way of acknowledging the earlier communiqué though without giving it a formal stamp of approval. Political analyst Trevor Maisiri said that while there might be differences in interpretation of the communiqué language, there were no winners or losers in Johannesburg.