The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) has lodged an urgent application to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal to prevent President Robert Mugabe from attending the regional body’s summit this weekend.
ZEF spokesperson Gabriel Shumba said the application was faxed to the tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia, on Friday.
”We expect by now it has already been sent,” he said at about 1pm.
”Mugabe was not lawfully elected and so he cannot take his seat at the [SADC] table. It shouldn’t require legal action for SADC to recognise this.”
Shumba said it is hoped the tribunal will withdraw SADC’s invitation to Mugabe to attend the weekend summit of heads of state and government in Johannesburg, and also declare his rule as illegitimate.
The application has only been brought on the eve of the summit as the forum did not anticipate that Mugabe would be invited because he is not lawfully the head of state, he said.
”We want relief … Mugabe must not be recognised as the lawful head of state.”
The SADC chair (South Africa) is in violation of its principles, which are clear that a state party should act in accordance with its laws and respect the rule of democracy, Shumba said.
He said SADC has declared the run-off elections on June 27 not free, fair or reflective of the democratic will of the people.
”Zimbabwe law says that if [run-off] elections are not held within 21 days, then the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission must declare the legal winner, in this case Morgan Tsvangirai, as president.”
He said the forum, through its legal action to the tribunal, wants to ”force” SADC’s hand to not recognise Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe and to recognise that the elections were unconstitutional.
The application was brought on behalf of the ZEF by the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC).
The SALC said it is required under African Union law that the state party be suspended immediately once there has been an unconstitutional change in government. ”It makes clear that ‘any refusal by an incumbent government to relinquish power’ belongs in the same category of coups d’etat.”
SALC director Nicole Fritz said legal action could be brought against SADC itself in terms of the SADC tribunal’s protocol.
”SADC has repeatedly said it will not recognise unconstitutional changes in government and we intend holding them to this commitment,” she said.
The tribunal’s clerk of the court could not be immediately reached to confirm if the application had been received.
Boycott
Meanwhile, Botswana’s president will boycott the SADC summit because the country does not recognise Mugabe’s re-election, its Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
President Seretse Khama Ian Khama’s decision not to attend the summit in South Africa underlines growing pressure from regional leaders on Mugabe and the opposition to agree on sharing power to end post-election turmoil.
Power-sharing negotiations began last month after Mugabe’s unopposed re-election in June, which was condemned around the world and boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai because of attacks on his supporters.
Three days of marathon meetings in Harare this week failed to reach an overall deal.
Botswana’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Zimbabwe’s current government should not be represented at a political level of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC).
”Botswana does not accept the result of the June 27 run-off election in Zimbabwe as it violated the core principles of SADC, the AU and the United Nations,” the statement said. — Sapa, Reuters