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In the latest episode in the Zimbabwe election drama, Zambian president Mr Levy Mwanawasa the current SADC chairmen called for any emergency meeting of the heads of SADC member countries to be held in Zambia on Saturday. The emergency summit is meant to discuss the current political crisis in Zimbabwe. 12 days after the elections the results of the presidential elections have not been announced. The opposition MDC have declared Morgan Tsvangirai the winner of the elections and are calling for president Mugabe to gracefully step aside and let those mandated by the people on 29 March to lead the country.
It has been reported that president Mugabe will not be attending the summit, but will send some ministers instead. However Morgan Tsvangirai the MDC president will be attending the heads of government meeting.

We can only speculate as to why president Mugabe is not attending the SADC emergency meeting to discuss the current election circus in Zimbabwe. However we also note that sometime last year Zambian president Mr Levy Mwanawasa was quoted saying Zimbabwe is a ’sinking titanic’. Of course Zimbabwe is a country where public services are collapsing, the economy of the country is on free fall. Everything seems to be going wrong in Zimbabwe. So I think Mr Mwanawasa was right to say Zimbabwe is a sinking titanic. But is president Mugabe’s failure to attend the SADC emergency meeting related to the statements made by Mr Mwanawasa on the Zimbabwe situation?

Zimbabweans have a constitutional right to decide their future, their destiny and who they want to lead the country. Which is what they did on 29 March 2008 through their votes. Now their future maybe decided somewhere in the boardroom in Lusaka, Zambia. Or is it going to be another summit where nothing comes out of it?
What hope do we have of these Southern Africa leaders resolving the political crisis in Zimbabwe?
According to a Zanu PF spokesman, by calling for this summit the Zambian president is interfering in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. But he is the current SADC chairperson? So what’s the purpose of SADC if it can not work on maintain stability in the region. What will be the purpose of SADC if it can not work to ensure the current political crisis in Zimbabwe does not threaten the economic survival of the whole Southern Africa region? So given that president Mugabe decided not to attend this summit, will anything decisive come out of this meeting? I doubt it since it seems their is no will in Zanu PF to resolve this current political crisis.

Already there are reports of violence in Zimbabwe against the opposition supporters. It is also reported that this is in preparation of the presidential election re-run and is meant to make people vote the ‘right way’. But why is it that the Zimbabwean government does not want to release the results?
If president Mugabe lost the elections as most people seem to believe, so why is he so determined to remain in power?
Zimbabwe is a country were everything seems to be going wrong, their is a near total collapse of public services. The majority of the people are starving, supermarket shelves are empty, inflation is said to be over 100 000 percent, there is a very high rate of unepmloyment and even the employed are suffering with their poor wages.
So given the current state of the economy and the government’s record in managing the economy, why are they still insisting that they are the best to lead the country.

Previous election results were always announced on time in Zimbabwe, so what has changed now? What is so special about this election that even the high court is delaying passing it’s judgement on releasing the election results? What so special about this election that there has to be a SADC heads of government meeting to discuss the election results? What’s so special about these results that even 13 days after the elections Zimbabweans still wait to hear the outcome and to know their next president?
Is anything going to be achieved at the Lusaka summit? We just hope and pray.

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