Southern African leaders will gather in Tanzania this week for an extraordinary two-day meeting to discuss the political situation in the region, including Zimbabwe, a top Tanzanian official said on Monday.
”SADC [Southern African Development Community] leaders will be meeting in Dar es Salaam for an extraordinary meeting on March 28 and 29 to deliberate on the political situation in the region, including problems in Zimbabwe,” said a top Foreign Ministry official, asking not to be named.
The summit will replace a meeting of foreign ministers from the three SADC countries charged with dealing with Zimbabwe — Tanzania, Namibia and Lesotho — which was due to take place in Dar es Salaam on March 26 and 27.
”There have been so many events and comments [on Zimbabwe] since last week, so the situation has changed,” the Foreign Ministry official said.
Pressure has mounted on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe after police on March 11 crushed an opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Harare and arrested its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and other opposition activists for defying a police ban.
Police bludgeoned Tsvangirai and several of his supporters while in custody. They have also prevented opposition activists from leaving the country.
There has been stiff international condemnation of the police action, which critics said was a dramatic escalation of Mugabe’s crackdown on the opposition.
The 14-nation SADC is a regional bloc promoting development and democracy in the region.
The Tanzanian Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting in a statement and said it would be chaired by the country’s President, Jakaya Kikwete.
It did not mention Zimbabwe, but said the summit was expected to come out with a joint statement on the way forward on the political and security situation in the SADC region. — Sapa-AFP