The Southern African Development Community (SADC) held a closed meeting of heads of State and foreign ministers over the economic troubles in member state Zimbabwe, South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Thursday.
He was addressing a media briefing at Parliament — beamed to Pretoria — and said simply: “The fact that they met is important.”
But the deputy minister divulged no further details of the meeting other than that it concerned “how [the] SADC could help resolve the economic situation.”
Pahad noted that the former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa had been appointed the special envoy to assist Zimbabwe and to deal with a situation “that we all find ourselves in”.
He said the SADC process in trying to resolve the Zimbabwe economic plight will be driven by the current chair, Lesotho.
At the conclusion of a two-day summit last Friday, all but four SADC heads of state signed a finance and investment protocol, which aims to transform the region into one that is able to do business with itself and the rest of the world through the harmonisation of tax and banking laws.
The Sunday Times reported that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was one of four not to sign the agreement. The president was apparently angered by the mention of his country as a stumbling block to investment.
Lesotho’s Pakalitha Mosisili was reported as saying that Mugabe was “not a young man” and suggested he could be “slowing down” — referring to the fact that nothing should be read into his early departure last week from the conference.
SADC countries include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The SADC is headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. — I-Net Bridge