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From Tichaona Zindoga in GABORONE, Botswana
President Mugabe has brought Zimbabwe to a full circle in regional affairs and there is scant doubt that Zimbabwe will backslide ever again to being an agenda item. President Mugabe today hands over the Sadc regional chairmanship to Botswana President Ian Khama in Gaborone at the 35th Sadc Summit of Heads of State and Government, marking an end of a successful journey that he began two years ago when he was appointed vice chairman.
As the President hands over the symbolic chairman’s badge to President Khama, it is a remarkable tale that he has managed to steer Zimbabwe from being an agenda item to an agenda-setter.
When President Mugabe assumed the vice chairmanship in 2013, he was fresh from emphatically winning the July 2013 harmonised elections.
The harmonised elections spelt the end of the Inclusive Government that had administered the country since 2009.
Yet, a couple of years before, the region, Africa and the world at large were fretting over Zimbabwe.
The country, facing unprecedented crisis following the economic collapse precipitated by illegal sanctions imposed by Western countries, was considered a regional hotspot along the likes of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar.
It was an anxious time.
Inflation was galloping at supersonic speed setting new records for the world, while shortages of basic commodities as well as cash and fuel worsened by the day.
Political tensions ran high.
The opposition MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai was looking for an opportunity, the so-called tipping point.
The general suffering of the populace was a rich fertile ground for regime change — in two ways.
The ruling Zanu-PF party had to accommodate the opposition in power sharing.
A “screaming economy”, a humanitarian disaster and implosion that would render the country ungovernable was a prospect that those seeking regime change in the country eagerly anticipated.
But it would also have grave consequences for Sadc, arguably the most peaceful region in Africa.
Then on March 11, 2007 an incendiary situation took place.
Morgan Tsvangirai and a number of opposition aligned churches organised a political rally disguised as a prayer meeting at the Zimbabwe Grounds in Harare’s Highfield suburb which ended nastily with the arrest of the opposition leaders.
Fortuitously, Tsvangirai was bashed by some unidentified overzealous policemen, which led to an international outrage but which, as Tsvangirai was later to brag, shot him to stardom and gave opponents of President Mugabe ammunition.
The incident and the general tense situation worried regional leaders and an extraordinary summit was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at the end of that month, March 31 2007.
Then President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa was mandated to facilitate dialogue among the country’s biggest political actors and diplomacy was shuttled between Harare and Pretoria which essentially pointed towards an inclusive dispensation.
In March 2008 harmonised elections were held which produced a hung parliament in which the Zanu-PF had 99 seats and the MDC-T 100 while the MDC had 10 seats. More critically, the presidential poll did not produce a clear winner as President Mugabe polled 43.2 percent while Tsvangirai polled 47.9 percent and independent candidate Simba Makoni got 8.3 percent of the total vote.
This necessitated a run-off as none of the candidates polled the 50+1 percent majority to be declared an outright winner.
President Mugabe won the subsequent run-off election on June 27.
However, the hung Parliament and the uneasy situation following Tsvangirai’s postured and illegal withdrawal from the presidential race at the 11th hour made the political situation in the country rather untenable.
Negotiations were inevitable.
Negotiators from the three principal parties met and agreed to start comprehensive dialogue, resulting in a Memorandum of Understanding on July 21, 2008.
Amid a lot of bickering among the parties, a deal dubbed the Global Political Agreement, was finally reached on September 11 2008.
The Presidency, which President Mugabe had captured in the runoff, was never in question.
What was up for negotiation was the Prime Minister’s post and ministerial portfolios.
Morgan Tsvangirai was roped in as the Prime Minister and Prof Arthur Mutambara as Deputy Prime Minister.
More negotiations, and disagreements, as well as the removal of President Mbeki from power in South Africa would follow but by the end of January, parties agreed to form a “unity” government.
On February 11 2009, Tsvangirai and deputy prime ministers Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe were sworn in, marking a new era in the politics of Zimbabwe.
The inclusive Government was meant to be a temporary, perhaps transitional, affair to give the country some breathing space before fresh elections.
The elections were to be held under a new constitution.
Writing a new constitution took the next four years and was approved in a referendum of March 16, 2013.
Elections held under the auspices of the new constitution followed on July 31.
President Mugabe delivered a crushing victory polling 61.09 percent in the presidential election against Tsvangirai’s 34.94 percent.
President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF clinched 160 seats of the 210 up for grabs while Tsvangirai’s MDC got a paltry 49.
The elections were deemed free and fair by Sadc, the regional body; African Union, and other international bodies and individual countries including Russia and China.
Tsvangirai mounted a weak court challenge but later withdrew.
President Mugabe’s legitimacy was reaffirmed.
The 33rd Summit of Sadc Heads of State and Government held in Lilongwe, Malawi from August 17-18 2013 expressed satisfaction at the holding of free and peaceful harmonised elections
Congratulated the Zanu (PF) party and President Mugabe for winning the harmonised elections.
The communique at the end of the summit also read: “Summit commended H.E. President Gedleyihlekisa Zuma and his team for their sterling job in facilitating the successful completion of the Global Political Agreement.”
It was time to wash the nets for South Africa, the region’s point country and facilitator.
President Jacob Zuma, who had succeeded President Kgalema Monthlante to become the focal person in the Zimbabwe process said the region had done its bit and Zimbabwe was off the agenda.
He said in an interview:
“We were given a task . . . immediately after the troublesome elections of 2008 . . . It was not an easy one. We took the whole term to deal with matters in Zimbabwe. I think we succeeded . . . Sadc delivered peaceful, free elections. There was no violence this time around.
“The former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai made a (court) challenge because he felt things did not go very well, but he withdrew it . . . I think the people are preparing for the inauguration and other things . . . The matter has been closed. We have done our bit.”
Zimbabwe was not only patted on the back, it was given a leadership role, which saw President Mugabe being elected deputy chairman of the bloc and subsequent chairmanship a year later.
He latched onto the opportunity to pronounce an agenda for the region.
For the past year, Sadc has been running under the theme, “Sadc Strategy for Economic Transformation: Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development through Value Addition and Beneficiation”, which resonates with his vision back home.
Botswana, which takes over, has proposed, “Accelerating Industrialisation of Sadc Economies, through transforming of Natural Endowment and Improved Human Capital” as the theme for this year.
It does not take much ingenuity to know where that is borrowed from.
President Mugabe has brought Zimbabwe to a full circle in regional affairs and there is scant doubt that Zimbabwe will backslide ever again to being an agenda item.
Online Reporter