Zimbabwe tops agenda of Southern Africa summit

Southern African leaders meeting this week were likely to be preoccupied with the economic and political crises in Zimbabwe that are sending thousands of refugees into neighbouring South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa once likened the situation in Zimbabwe to a “sinking Titanic”. To many observers, the comment signalled a willingness to put aside the deference that many regional leaders have shown Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

But as Mwanawasa prepares to host Mugabe and other regional leaders today and tomorrow in Lusaka for a Southern African Development Community summit, the Zambian government appears to be toeing a more cautious line.

Zambia is taking over the rotating leadership of the Southern African Development Community at the summit, where leaders also will discuss the creation of a free trade zone and a regional military standby force of peacekeepers. The 14 SADC members are: Angola, Botswana, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is “a very dicey situation, Mike Mulongoti, Zambia’s minister of information and broadcasting, told the Associated Press. ”Zambia cannot impose its will on Zimbabwe, just as Zimbabwe cannot impose its will on Zambia. But we can quietly whisper to each other our concerns.“

Mugabe’s neighbours have long been reluctant to openly criticise one of their own. South African President Thabo Mbeki, a powerful voice on the continent who has long-argued quiet diplomacy would be more effective than public criticism of Mugabe, was due to report at the summit in Zambia on his efforts to mediate between Mugabe and Zimbabwean opposition leaders.

Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has capitalised on his anti-colonialists credentials to rally support among ordinary Africans with rhetoric accusing the West of looking for an excuse to take over Africa again. Among the southern African leaders who oversaw the liberation of their countries from colonial rule, Mugabe is the only one still in power.

Many in the region are concerned about the destabilising effects of Mugabe’s policies, including often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms he ordered beginning in 2000, leading some white farmers to move to Zambia.

But there’s also sympathy for Mugabe’s argument that he has been unfairly demonised and strangled by Western sanctions. The US and EU have slapped asset freezes and a travel ban on Mugabe and his top associates, but Mugabe often portrays the sanctions as being much broader and targeting his whole economy.