KING WON’T ACT ON ROBERT MUGABE

MBABANE – Hardly a month after he was elevated to the position of chairmanship of SADC, the Heads of State summit led by His Majesty the King is being urged to remove Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from office.

In a petition dated October 7, 2016, the People’s Democratic Party, under the leadership of former Minister of Finance Tendai Biti, wants Mugabe out of office as a matter of urgency.
The petition, which the newspaper  has in its possession, is addressed to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit of Heads of State, which is chaired by the King.

It has also been copied to other structures of SADC and institutions in Africa in a bid to find an African solution to Mugabe’s long rule.
He has been in power since 1980.

The headquarters of SADC is in Botswana, the land of Mugabe’s well known critic, President Ian Khama who is also of the opinion that the Zimbabwean president must step down.
The Summit, to which the petition has been addressed, is made up of all Heads of States or Government and is managed on a Troika system that comprises of the current SADC Summit chairperson, the incoming Chairperson (the Deputy Chairperson at the time) and the immediate previous Chairperson.

The incoming Chairperson is Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa and the immediate previous Chairperson is Ian Khama, the President of Botswana.
According to SADC regulations, the Troika System vests authority in this group (chairperson, deputy chairperson and immediate previous chairperson) to take quick decisions on behalf of SADC that are ordinarily taken at policy meetings scheduled at regular intervals. His Majesty and the two presidents also provide policy direction to SADC Institutions in between regular SADC Summits.
This system has been effective since it was established by the Summit at its annual meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, in August 1999.
It has not been established if the SADC Secretariat in Botswana has forwarded the petition to the King in his capacity as the Chairman.
The chairman controls the agenda of the SADC Summit of Heads of State.  Items to be discussed by the Summit or extraordinary Summit of Heads of State are supposed to be included on the agenda with the consent of the chairman. The petition was signed by Tendai Biti, the president of the People’s Democratic Party in Zimbabwe.
Biti served as Minister of Finance in the Zimbabwe Government of National Unity in 2009 to 2013. In 2009, His Majesty the King was the chairperson of the SADC Organ of Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. The King and Thabo Mbeki, the former President of South Africa, were credited for bringing change in Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
However, the government of national unity collapsed and ZANU-PF, which is led by Mugabe, won parliamentary seats from then till today. But allegations of election rigging in that country are rife. The petition, addressed to the SADC Summit of Heads of State was copied to SADC Summit Troika of the Organ on politics, defence and security, African Union (AU) executive council, AU Peace and Security Council and AU Judicial and Human Rights institutions. 
the petition is titled ‘A national transitional authority (NTA) is the only way to save the Zimbabwe that Robert Mugabe and his cronies have ruined.”
Partly reads the petition: “Concerned citizens of Zimbabwe hereby implore the African community to support the call for the stepping aside of Robert Mugabe and his coterie of looters, and allow a National Transitional Authority to run the country in their stead.”

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